#stoptranphobia

What started out as a usual day turned absolutely bonkers thanks to a Transphobic Troll. I’ll not name names... let’s just call him... In fact, let’s not call him anything... you’ll see why by the time you get to the end of this article. So I got a tweet saying that God loved me. I’m not religious but didn’t find this offensive. Then this chap was doing the old ‘Trying To Convert Me’ routine and there was NO mention of anything Trans... I run an account on Twitter @churchoffilth - this has adult themes including erotica, artwork and music and is often on the ‘darker’ side because that’s me... I enjoy heavy metal, the macabre etc. etc. so as you can imagine I’m prone to the odd attack from pseudo-religious bigots from time to time. At first, this chap was pretty reasonable, and I explained that I did not share his beliefs but he was entitled to his opinion, and to please respect me by not posting. At this, he got rather defensive and, with an unnecessary habit of adding ‘lol’ to the majority of his tweets, said that he wouldn't stop, and if it was a problem, block me. And so, I retaliated - I KNOW you shouldn't ‘feed trolls’ but I thought “What the heck, I can block later” And that’s when he got particularly nasty and started to be horribly Transphobic. First it was talking about how being Trans was against the will of God (yep, I know - that’s a new one eh?) but then I asked him to explain what he felt about Trans People... his description? The reply - one word: ”Abomination”. Now there are certain words that really get to me... one being ‘stupid’ if ever used to describe a child which I find TOTALLY offensive and disempowering, as a child might see that, believe it to be fact and then sadly fit into that role because of it... But ABOMINATION? I never considered that would get me so angry - but it did. To describe a human being in that way just based on one’s idea of Gender Identity, or because you feel someone doesn’t fit in with your religious ideal is TOTALLY abhorrent, so I let him have it with both barrels as did many other people. The sad thing about doing this, is that you’re helping an attention seeker achieve what he wants, also especially for a religious bigot - elevate him to the status of martyr - but that aside I can NOT see remarks like this and ignore - especially when he started to abuse one friend in particular describing HER as an ‘abomination’ and an ‘it’. And so, the arguments continued and this fool then posted that he was ‘trending’ and made light of what he was doing - so I ceased communicating with him directly, but thanks to ‘retweeting’ let others see what an obnoxious bigoted individual he truly is. I won’t state his name here, he’s had some publicity from it... although it hasn't gained him any new followers - me on the other hand - quite a good number of decent, honest people have followed and supported... although I didn't do it for this reason, it’s good to know there are decent people out there. So, I'm off to carry on with life, enjoying... exploring... and living. But I'm totally aware that there are many rocks along the path and many ‘abominations’ like this fool that may crawl from under... I also watch out when crossing bridges and if I see ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’ going over, I’ll give it a miss thank you. :) Ian Faith, 29th June, 2015