Definitely true here. I could put on a Burkha and walk the boulevard unmolested. If I put on a MAGA hat I might as well have put on a klansman robe. You are SUPPOSED TO HATE TRUMP in my neighborhood. Suburb of the entertainment industry.
I was referring to a little boy, say, who in his preschool classroom has no interest in the blocks and trucks but just wants to play with the glittery ponies and dress up stuff. He will get the impression that he is like a girl inside, even though he knows that outwardly he looks like a boy. And he is dressed like a boy. And people think he is a boy. But it doesn’t match. He feels he has much more in common with the other children who love the ponies and nail polish and glitter. And they are 95% female.
If you haven’t seen it, you might not understand. But there are both boys and girls who learn this sad fact about themselves at this young preschool age. And they learned to hide it, once their parents and teachers shamed them for it. It is not an easy way to live.
I wore a (skirt and blouse) school uniform in Catholic school 1-12, and had a dress for going to Mass.
Straight out of HS I dressed kind of butch. I did not own a dress for approx. 15 years.
I have never owned cosmetics. I have worn make-up twice in my life: once when I was a bridesmaid (for one of Cesar Chavez' daughters, as it happens) and once when I was the bride: when I married. That's the *one* occasion I had my hair professionally "done". (Now my husband cuts my hair.)
Now I wear a dress/skirt every day. I wear a veil at Mass. Nobody has to, not even a woman who serves as, say, Reader.
My son has always been more interested in fashions than I am. That makes him... what? That makes me... what? Whom should I ask?
(I'm not saying this to challenge anyone. I'm just relaxed and musing.)
And it took several decades of marriage to kind of understand how my husband "feels". I'm a little obtuse on that score, but we love each other so dearly that we've both been willing to learn.
My older sister was a tomboy. She ran and played with the guys, well back in the day everyone played like a guy, or they were not really kids. My sister would dress me up like a girl, make me play dolls, but only in the house. Outdoors, we played hard and never gave it a thought.
In 2018, someone would have planted an idea from that play, and you never know what you could end up being. The same goes for homosexuality. Guys did a lot of things that would make them think “maybe I am a homo”? It was common for boys to compare genitals, with boys and girls. Just because you can sport an erection by the touch of another human, does not mean that you are attracted to that human. I can remember getting excited at comic books. At the age of puberty, an erect penis was the norm for all reasons. It just happened, and it didn’t mean anything but your body wants to do something with it.
Today, people want to shove you into a box, label you even. How easy it must be to “come out”, it is better than being straight in the eyes of many.
I think Pence believes, just as I do, that a little bit of push back by religion, society and family, can turn millions into the right direction. To make them morally straight, if we can even say that anymore.