I had to look up "LGBTQ" and found out that it means "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer," because I really wasn't sure of all that it meant.
From a study of human health science in college, I knew that some people are born with both male and female organs and as such indicate that nature has her way of expressing that some of us human beings can be born different from everybody else.
I found out two more new terms here, one being "ambiguous genetalia" and the other, those who have this feature are referred to as "intersex."
The statistics for people born in identifiably different degrees of this phenomenon show 150 known differentiations of the condition, and here are some of the statistics that seem to surround people so born:
Statistics on Ambiguous Genitalia - 15 Notable Ambiguous Genitalia Statistics - HRF
1. If all forms of differentiation are included, then the number of intersex births globally comes out to about 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 births.
2. If just ambiguous genitalia is considered, the estimated birth rate is 1 in 4,500.
3. With few exceptions, babies with ambiguous genitalia are physically healthy.
4. The percentage of the population that is affected in some way by ambiguous genitalia: 1.7%.
5. As much as 4% of the human population may be intersex in some way.
6. Over 90% of intersex children are assigned to the female gender.
7. About half of all intersex children that have surgery to assign a specific gender wind up with sexually sensitive tissue that has withered or died.
8. Many adults who have ambiguous genitalia suffer from depression or intense anger because of a lack of genital sensations. They are three times more likely to experience depression and related disorders than people with a clear gender assignment.
9. Ambiguous genitalia can signal a medical emergency if the condition is the result of a rare form of a genetic disorder called congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
10. There are over 150 different defects that can cause ambiguous genitalia.
11. The risk of becoming a victim of a personal attack because of their gender is doubled in people who are classified as intersex.
12. Almost 90% of those who are intersex have experienced at least one form of stigma or discrimination in the past year.
13. About 70% of intersex males and 85% of intersex females have seen a counselor or psychiatrist during the previous 5 years.
14. The number of young people who are dealing with depression at some point during the course of the year: 160,000.
15. 1 out of 4 people who are intersex will suffer from at least one anxiety-related disorder over the course of their life.
Some people are born with a hand with six fingers, too. They have a better chance of being accepted into the comfortable conformity than those born with the extra sex organ, I'm pretty sure. Why is that?
An anomaly, after all, is an anomaly.
The person who is born this way has done nobody wrong.
Some people "choose" lifestyles that are not consistent with the majority of Americans, what do we know about genetic mapping that might give us a clue that they, too, are born this way? Since we have not fully understood nor explored all the factors of DNA, those facts went unfurnished in the early 1980s when I was studying human health in college. As of searching the net every 5 or 10 years, I'm overdue to look up whether gene mapping has come up with any answers.
In the meantime, I do not know how to vote on this subject with the alternatives given, so in spite of my knowledge of scriptures that discourage what used to be called sexual deviancies, yet also showed favor to "armies of eunuchs" I'm wondering if a whole lot of overlooking lethal punishments for sexual activities that do not produce babies went on back in the times of the Kings and the Chronicles thereof. Are the armies of "eunuchs" really gay men sent to do battle and earning hero status in early societies when they won battles? I'm suspicious that they were likely gay, and that society figured out a way to use them productively rather than to stone men to death for getting caught doing something that was considered then an abomination, and still is in some circles today.
The theme of "judge not least ye be judged," seems the best panacea to follow, considering that science, applied equally, reveals some people are born in a unique way, and without a mistake, they are born as innocent as the majority of kids, who have only one sex of genetalia expressed at birth.
And DNA gives me cause to realize that we haven't looked very hard at getting over it about what appear to be choices, but with DNA in mind, are there actually differences in a person's sexual makeup influenced in this way, or does one single encounter received innocently, alter the course of choices a person makes when he or she is mature? We've been in the dark ages about this emotion-charged issue. We don't know the answers yet, or have there been answers all along in the ringing praises about the armies of eunuchs in the Old Testament that we just glossed over, didn't look it as merciful removal of a death sentence that really didn't seem fair to people who knew them.
I can't answer the question above, because I think someday a complete study of DNA, of the certainty of something known as gene-crossing, which can give a person a unique spot on their dna that did not come from heredity, but came as an unknown anomaly that gave the person this trait that no one has or ever has had, and may be why every person is a unique creation, born with a myriad of genes that make that person who they are.
And that's what I think, with gratitude to God for the diversity he ordained throughout the universe. We need to help those who are different, not judge them. A person doesn't intentionally thrash around if they have epilepsy, but it makes them get a lot of grief from other immature children who think they are acting up to get attention, when nothing could be further than the truth.
Another source of interest on this topic is here:
Demographics of sexual orientation - Wikipedia
And specifically for the US:
LGBT demographics of the United States - Wikipedia
