We need to understand something really basic about the #queer community as a whole that pretty much sets us apart from pretty much most other minorities: we are by our very nature fractured, diverse, and spread thin.That is because we do generally not grow up among members of our own community. Gay guys don't often have two dads, the trans kids don't just come from trans parents. Discovering who and what we are is an often painful, generally harrowing look into ourselves that those around us are not confronted with, and commonly, an isolated experiece at first. Our self discovery is part of who we are. At best, there's a family member instead of growing up with a shared culture and tradition among peers.Culture and tradition? We come from all walks of life. Our commonalities are being reduced to "pervy sex stuff", generally at best tragic, often vilified, and mostly grossly misrepresented role models in media, and the struggle for either to not happen anymore, plus getting on par with the cis-het-allo-mononormative majority. Not ahead, no privileges, just on par.In this light, easy access to the internet has been a blessing. The words, the ideas, the communities could grow an equivalent to a locality that by definition, we couldn't have before, apart from the handful of other weirdos wherever we lived, and there was no guarantee that you'd get along with any of them - if they showed themselves, even, because often, who we are is also completely invisible, or at least hidden behind shibboleths that discovering yourself on your own, you simple wouldn't know.Queer identity is one of being born into a secret society that you as a member have to discover as rite of induction. If you fail, misery tends to visit you again and again, without having a good explanation for it, dissatisfaction, and shame from an unknown source.In this light, the push to #AgeVerification for social media and internet access is especially awful. With "queer" being equated to sex stuff exclusively, queerness is effectively banned in the era of life where teens are supposed to discover love, and have first, clumsy experiences. But while the cishets generally experience queerness from porn and get their fingers sticky to what they view as fetish, it is so much more. Especially for trans kids, research on who and what they are is postponed to a time when devastating damage is already taking place, and a lot of it in fact irreversible, or a huge effort and cost to correct.It will deprive queer youth of finding greater community, and put them at the mercy of parents that generally at best often have no clue, and at worst are openly hostile. For the queer community, the "little gay people on the phone" that they often won't be able to meet ever in meatspace can in fact be their closest peers, and a lifeline. Isolating people is a common tactic in indoctrination. Isolating queer youth is an attempt at conversion therapy.
