Like, do you think liking flowers and rainbows is inherently feminine, committing the same error as the author did as a literal child?
Not inherently, though there are connections culturally between the concepts.
And yet, you entered into this conversation with the position that members of the LBGTQ+ community were "perverted" and "corrupt" which is inherently hostile in its nature. By the very nature of the position you have taken, you are claiming that people who are LBGTQ+ are inherently evil and then claim that anyone who pushes back against that position are "hostile."
And yet no, I've never said any of that. None of that is my position. Frankly, I think it is relatively rare that it's actually the members of a group causing public problems like this. Most of the controversial books were written explicitly for adult audience and were never meant for children, it's probably not actually gay people putting them in schools, but rather the ultra politicized people (independent of identity) who treat their political persuasion as gospel.
You are being hostile. Making up words to put in my mouth is hostile. I didn't call anyone corrupt or perverted.
You, and the specific community you have been supporting, create an external/societal pressure on people for simply being who they are. A pressure that is detrimental to their mental health and one of the prime reasons why the suicide rate is so high in that community.
People are committing suicide because they are living joyless lives. The greatest joys in life all come in service to others in some way shape or form, and while being exiled from a community certainly doesn't help, people are choosing exile now. People are abandoning everyone around them. Like, I'm a Catholic, I know lots of Catholics, I know a fair number of gay Catholics who don't have any particular problems because they're not making a fuss about it. They've got loving relationships rather than many partners, they're not flying the pride flag everywhere they go, you don't even know anything about their sexuality unless they introduce you to their partners. Not cause they're hiding anything, just because if you go about your life not worried about it, you don't spontaneously combust into rainbows. We can argue about whether people are born gay, or trans, or if trans is even real, but you can't tell me people are born to dress a specific way, that's not a thing.
And now we see young people increasingly doing the opposite of living a normal, happy life while gay, they're not gay and choosing all the extraneous stuff entirely on purpose. There are situations like young women, who are content with femininity, who are attracted to men, and then say "I'm not a cis-woman, I'm trans-femme queer". And then they lecture their parents and fly the rainbow flags and yell about cis people on the internet. But that's just a straight woman who decided to be "persecuted". Because we've made a culture that idolizes marginalized groups, people are marginalizing themselves. Including and respecting people does not require putting them on a podium. Judging or avoiding people based on their hostile behavior is not hating them for any inherent qualities.
There's an irony in the testimonial about HIV in This Book Is Gay. While it is horrible in downplaying the seriousness of STDs, particularly that one, and while "HIV made me a better person and gave me purpose" is a terrible perspective, it is understandable how the man's life played out. The person writing was irresponsible and promiscuous and hedonistic, and as a result was predictably depressed. After contracting HIV, he was careful and conscientious and found a long-term partner, he got involved in a community combatting the spread of HIV, and was unsurprisingly in a much better place. Once his life was about other people and not just himself, he got happier. Unfortunately, that's not spelled out by the testimonial or the rest of the book, which actually addresses gay promiscuity with basically "gay people do have more partners, that's just who they are, use condoms" as though AIDs is the only downside of hedonism. Joy comes in service to others. Self-loathing comes from self-obsession. There are plenty of happy gay people who have figured this out.
Unlike Legal Eagle, this guy is not an idiot. He's just a pure grifter, performing for an audience.
