(Early Access) Uncle Iroh and the Prodigal Son

last message i promise. but your response is kind of theproblem. You get people like me who are just saying "can you accept us for who we are? There is no benefit to being trans in this society so all we want is out friends and religious community to support and love us through our transition and learn and listen when we speak." The response we get is always "well have you tried not being trans? It'd just a fad. It'd a struggle you need to overcome. I love you but will do nothing to help or support you. You're an abomination against god. You're a monstrous pedophile and deserve death." I'm not making any of this up, all of that was said to me by people I'd known for years.

Valerie Baker

Also being trans isn't a cultural fad. I can point to people who lived centuries ago eho were most likely trans. The reason there are more people who are openly trans now is because in the past they were just killed if they told anyone or didn't have the language to actually describe themselves

Valerie Baker

Philosophising really isn't useful in thhs situation. Being a man made me want to kill myself and I attempted suicide 3 times because my body didn't look how I knew it was supposed to. I then started being what I was and I'm living a much better life.

Valerie Baker

I hope I don't misunderstand your perspective or misrepresent what you said, but so far it seems like the two motivating factors you listed are moving away from awful emotions and finding mere acceptance. Not to get too philosophical but you may need to recognize that there is truth or there isn't. Either being trans is real or it's a cultural fad. Either it is an acceptance of truth (that you are how you feel/know yourself to be inside) or it is a rejection of truth (that there are only men and women). If you do not accept that there is any truth, by the way, then why affirm that it matters to accept your choice of truth. You would be appealing to a rule outside of humanity that we must accept one another. Where does that rule come from? If it's mere societal agreement then the rule has no real weight, just the power of majority at best, and that's a recipe for disaster [if the nazis had won and convinced the world they were right, then their morals would be correct by majority, etc.]. So how do you test/find truth? And if your highest measure is feeling good emotions and gaining acceptance, then you can be lost in myriad ways. Every group offers acceptance, which grants at least some pleasant emotions, if you follow their ways. It is also important to find your niche in society, but you still have to have a a set of ordered values to direct your choices in life. If there are just dictated by a group, you might end up making foolish choices based on gaining acceptance. Some choices are bad and some good. So how do you pick which choices are best before focusing on acceptance? All that to say, I think you'll find that truth is more potent and real than your emotions which will come and go with your phases of life, and that you must orient yourself toward doing good way before you orient yourself to group acceptance. Group acceptance and being authentic are both great values but there are far better ones that take precedence.

Posted this comment on the YouTube video, but then realised I was a patreon, so copied and paste it here. Hey Holdon, I really appreciate this video but thought I'd leave a comment as I'd like to respond to a couple of things. So, you talk a little bit about liking and appreciating the simple things in life being a very spiritual and not very secular thing. I can kind of talk on this. I actually used to be a christian, but I also realised I was a transwoman some years ago. When I told people I was essentially abandoned by my religious family and congregation. I went looking for another one, but every time I opened up about who I was, I was either ostracised or met with pity, hatred, misunderstanding, spite even harassment. I heard many, many times that being trans was a "struggle I needed to overcome". The simple thing I wanted was to be accepted for something I can't change, but here I was being shunned for it. How can I follow a god that inspires such awful emotions? In the end, I found what I was looking for, mere acceptance, with the irreligious, not the religious. Either way I really enjoyed this video. I don't know if Holden or anyone else will read this, but I hope you got something out of it

Valerie Baker

Welcome to the zutara ship!

Madison Watkins

Hmm, thought provoking. I grew up in a Christian home, but I guess lived a more secular life. My original reasons don’t quite pack the punch they used to. Don’t know if this was from a rough year I had or what, but I’ve been thinking about things, and we’ll this is thought provoking.

Anthony Daramola

😂😂

Holden Hardman

"His girlfriend... I mean, his 'friend' Katara" Louder for the people in the back! 👏🏻👏🏻

Madison Watkins

please watch legend of Korra!

Violet