Fabreeze

@Natasha Tori Maru I can only share my experience as a male. I’m pretty confident in thinking that if someone told me I could be a woman in the 5th grade I wouldn’t be interested at all. I’ve never felt the need to express myself as a woman. i knew drag queens were a thing and i didn’t feel the need to try that out as a kid either.

@Leo Gura I can assure you Leo that 95%(not 99% just to be generous to your argument) of gay and trans people don’t expect or are offended by the fact straight people don’t want to date/have sex with them. Any adult with a sound mind can understand that. to take some video of someone making unreasonable and irrational claims like that and touting it as “trans ideology” is very misguided in my opinion and you’re playing into transphobic narratives that the right loves to peddle to stoke fear into the public. I also really doubt that the role of a lgbtq activist is to take random children and convince them to swap genders Leo. That seems like a really distorted and dishonest claim about the work they do. In fact that claim is something I’d hear on some right wing slop social media page or Fox News. doesn’t it make more sense that the role of an activist is to advocate for those people who already define themselves in that lgbtq category? How many activists do you genuinely believe spend time convincing random kids to swap genders?

@Leo Gura Leo I can concede that there are valid concerns like I said and I respect your opinion. All I am is just very wary of the way these issues are being presented to the public and general population of this country by the right. I understand that you're non partisan but we have seen trump himself come out and say that schools are literally doing sexual operations at schools and kids are coming home transitioned. Now people with a functioning brain can sniff out the bs in that but for everyone else it taints their view of the lgbtq community and trans people in particular. This is the crux of my concern I guess. That we are letting the right push their own framing on this topic. Now when you say kids are being told they can be whatever gender they want do you think the most likely scenario is the teacher is literally telling school kids they can change genders Willy nilly or that most of them are creating an environment where a child who struggles with their own gender identity at an early age feels safe, seen and accepted? Because to a right winger or someone “center” Joe Rogan for example (I bring him up because he’s a perfect example) the simple mentioning of transgender people in a elementary school is enough of a transgression and deemed “inappropriate”. maybe this is just my bias speaking again but I grew up in California the most liberal state arguably and no elementary teacher of mine ever spoke of gay people or even brought up the idea of any of us being gay. Not that I remember. So part of me really doubts that school teachers are literally telling kids that they can be male one day then female the next I’d hope that there is more nuance to that convo especially coming from a so called educated adult. I do not think it’s “utopian” or “liberal decadence” to advocate for public schools to create an environment where the kids are educated about the existence of trans people and to foster an environment of understanding and tolerance. that is just one of the issues you listed and I could go into each one but I hope you guys can see what I’m trying to get at. thank you for the thoughtful response Leo.

@Leo Gura I understand that no group of people are above criticism, and that’s not what I’m trying to say by pushing back on your views. I just see this framing a lot by right wingers on tv/ social media, and I find that it’s a subtle smear. “The trans ideology” ”the trans agenda” I mean would you say it’s an ideology or agenda to be gay ? Lesbian ? Bisexual ? Straight ? you have the right to not accept the identity of someone trans I guess if that’s what you’re referring to when you mean that you are “under no obligation to accept their weird beliefs about reality.” I’ve met trans and gay people personally and none have tried to convert me or change my mind about my own gender I just don’t understand what agenda is being pushed here. just regular people trying to live their lives normally. It seems to me like you’ve been influenced by right wing or “center” media as of late since I watched your trans video and I felt like you really dissected the subject and the existential aspects of it fairly and with more compassion and understanding towards transgender people. I wasn’t alive in the 80s or 90s but I can imagine conservatives of the time had similar talking points about gay and lesbian people as they do with trans people of today. It’s sort of like poisoning the well about a whole group of people by referring to their identities and journeys to it as some kind of nefarious or delusional agenda or ideology being pushed. at least my intuition is pointing me to that conclusion. I don’t think you are transphobic Leo. I’m simply sharing my views and concerns with you guys. Thank you.

@enchanted I mean sure he’s in his right to “criticizing trans” he’s a grown man entitled to his opinions. I just don’t see why he feels the need to refer to them as mentally unstable. Or that they should think about how dogs have no self image as if that helps people who struggle with this in their everyday life lmao it just seems really “Joe Rogany” and out of touch of Leo to do that. Especially in a time when this minority is under constant hyper scrutiny and ridiculed mercilessly by the right. I understand there’s generational gaps and he won’t view this like younger generations will and do. also sure it’s easy for Leo and others to dismiss this just as simply “feeling sad because you’re not wearing the right clothes” but I’d ask Leo if he’d be comfortable being told he’s not mentally stable if he can’t bear to dress and act like a woman even if he feels like a cis man ? would Leo say he doesn’t love himself enough to simply dress and act like a woman even if that doesn’t align with what he feels inside ? Is he corrupt for that ? Id like to think he’d answer this honestly and not just say that he’s above caring about wearing women’s clothing even if he doesn’t feel like one. thank you for the reply I hope you can understand where I’m coming from.

@LordFall yes it is strange to see Leo have these sorts of takes as of late.

I am aware the trans debate does have nuance especially when it comes to sports. I see and understand the arguments the right puts up and I can concede they have valid concerns in the domain of sports. I would just ask Leo if he genuinely believes the best thing to tell a trans person is that they don’t love themselves enough to be the gender they were assigned at birth? Or that their mind is corrupt and unstable? That seems pretty cold and harsh to me. what advice would Leo give someone who struggles with their identity and body image issues ? I understand he can probably just tell them to drop the whole thing in some spiritual detachment sense and be ok with their body and assigned gender and sure you can do that but that kind of sounds like telling someone who’s gay in the 1940s to just stop being gay and like women. IMO. I also think it’s a red flag to buy into the right wing framing that trans people are looking to be trans just to have a leg up in a sport. I’m willing to bet the amount of trans athletes in this country is incredibly small. i think it’s wrong of Leo to claim that LGBTQ activists “can’t be trusted to be fair” when for the most part they’re battling the straight up hatred and venom the right spews at them disguised as genuine concern for women’s sports. I believe the right is attempting to have this convo on their terms and with their own unfair framings of this topic. Just look at someone like Joe Rogan and the way he goes about discussing trans issues. P.S I am a Gen Z male who’s had relationships with trans women in the past so I do have a bias in being hyper defensive of lgbtq people. Thank you for any replies and thank you Leo for your work.

Hello Leo I love your video on Islam it’s one of my favorite of yours. You are very captivating as a speaker and articulate your ideas beautifully. I think making a video about Christianity in the same vein would be useful in this day and age where it’s been bastardized by the right wing here in America and used to perpetuate all sorts of nonsense. Thank you for the years of amazing content Leo