Note the language you choose to discuss the issue, and ask yourself why that feels natural to you…

“Deviancy”.

You didn’t say “variety”, which would be a more neutral way of saying the same thing, and it indicates that at some level, you’re disturbed by some of the behavior you’re typifying as “deviant”. Why is that? You could have said “mal-adaptive”, for example, and not come across as disapproving, but here we are.

Follow-on from that is the question of why that term, “deviant”, resonates so well for so many of us when discussing this stuff. No matter how “tolerant” you think you are, most of us would still be choosing to frame this as “deviant”. Why?

I’m not saying you’re wrong, either. Just pointing out how most of us frame this stuff.

I think there’s a reason for this, and it’s rooted in the fact that most humans instinctually shy away from other people who are displaying behavior patterns we identify as being out-of-the-norm, and thus, dangerous. We all like to watch the dancing bears, as they do their tricks out on the stage, but when the night ends, who do we go home with, turn our backs on, and go to sleep next to? It ain’t that “dancing bear” who was up on stage, displaying the entertaining and aberrant behavior, now is it? That individual, outside of the controlled realm of our night-time carouse, is often someone we would not willingly associate, or trust in any deep sense. And, why is that? Because we identify that behavior as being “off”, and something to avoid outside of carefully controlled and limited doses.

A lot of the problem we have today is that the aberrant are trying to force their way into the inner circles of trust in society, and that’s only going to be allowed to go so far, before a reaction sets in. You wonder why the old theme of gay-bashing got going, and was so well-established? Witness the insistent-on-normalization of the new transsexuals. They’re not satisfied with being tolerated, they now insist on being normalized, and that just isn’t that likely to happen. What is more likely is that the experiment with tolerance is going to be ended, and we’re all going to recognize why there are so few societies around the world where this sort of thing is a norm and freely accepted.

What’s so damn sad about it is that when it all comes crashing down, a lot of these folks are only going to have themselves to blame for what happens, because they will have provoked their own pogrom through their demanding behavior. If they can’t be lived with, they won’t be.