Two queer history recs: Pretty much anything by Rictor Norton, though it's sometimes very scholastic. His website is a treasure: rictornorton.co.uk Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century, by Graham Robb, is also great.

And, unfortunately, its lack or its conditionality can bring some of the harshest hurts.

Which is one of the reasons to love harder and more proudly whenever we can.

It is a simple concept. And you should.

But loving people is hard, and people excuse their inability to do so, or their inability to overcome the hatreds they carry, by pretending that there are exceptions.

It is much, much harder to keep loving. And, honestly? Far more noble, and good for people.

I realize this isn't exactly a counter-talking-point, for that sort of thing you might want Dan McClellan on Youtube (Bible Scholar who explains how people trying to use the bible to justify bigotry are theologically, scholastically, and ethically wrong), but.

I hope the thought brings comfort.

-- unthinkable. Some people are trans, whether by the unrepeatably unique and individual choices they have made, or by something innate and God-given.

To not fully love all people, and to love every aspect of them, thus strikes me as putting personal prejudice ahead of belief in God's splendour.

FWIW as an athiest, and paraphrasing this book ( www.amazon.com/Catholicity-... ) slightly...

God created all things, from blades of grass to people, as unrepeatably unique and individual entities. God is omnipotent. That He would fail to bring forth His infinite love in creating a person is --

-- finished an autobiography of their naval service only to be told to burn it, immediately, they've been selected for MI6, which carries through all the standard hits only to go missing somewhere, and then the series after that starts with Bond returning from the wilderness (a classic Bond move)?

-- life in hopes of making it a biography. Eventually, maybe, it turns out Bond's actually achieved a peaceful retirement somewhere, all the loose ends dealt with. Helps the kid rewrite the 'biography' as 'fiction', spy novel series style? Leads into the next series where a young Bond has just --

-- a variety of loose ends from a career spanning about 30 years of active service, all the little letters 'to release upon my demise' triggering off one after the other, in such a fashion as to really lean into 'faked death', only to swing the other way, as the kid begins researching Bond's --

-- straight into the ways in which Bond being dead has protected this kid, outside of having some of Bond's things stolen - which kicks off the flashbacks to when Bond was alive, with huge ambiguities that develop into 'is Bond dead, or did he fake his death?', only to point at Bond tying off --

Yeah I'd 100% open on Bond's funeral, with huge questions about what happened. Immediately show that this isn't in continuity with the last films as someone who thinks they were Bond's kid, but is a young adult, shows up looking for answers - but this isn't about 'oh the kid becomes a spy' - it's --

-- series in flashback to when he's alive running with a 'present day' continuity where people are trying to work out how he died, where, when, what he was doing, who killed him? Wildly fascinating start.

There are almost too many fascinating possibilities, frankly.