I live in the United States so the social behavior I am writing about may not be the same for all readers.

I am an atheist. I am allowed to be one. I don’t have to follow any religion or be attacked by people for not following their beliefs. I have no right to go into any place of worship and disrupt their services. There are religious people who go out in public and scream at people for not following that group’s interpretation of their religion but they are mostly seen as pests. If two religious groups want to rumble in the street, eventually the forces of the secular government are going to break them up because that sort of thing gets in the way of other people wanting to go places, buy things and make money.

This mostly works well. Yes, there are politicians trying to vote their religious beliefs on others but we get to fight back. It is perfectly permissible to have different beliefs or have no religion at all. Some religions, for example, forbid eating pork. If somebody from those faiths opens a cafe, I doubt they will serve a BLT with real bacon. I can choose to eat there or not. I can go to my favorite BBQ joint without fear of religious zealots hovering about trying to take away my rib platter.

Balance has been worked out where religion can be freely practiced without infringing on the rights of others. Nothing is perfect and things are always be worked out. That is what the courts are far and our shared goal should be to settle issues as fairly as possible.

Sadly, there is now a group that does not respect the rights of others to not partake in make-believe and dogma. The trans activists are pushing a religion since there is no proof that a man can become a woman and many of these activists will tell you that a man can become a woman merely by saying that he is one. That is religion in a nutshell: this is true because we believe it.

The mainstream churches in the USA have learned to deal with non-believers in a mostly non-hateful way. Their doors are open to new converts but if you don’t want to follow their rules, you can go on your way. Nobody has to participate in the practices of any church. The trans agenda, however, requires obedience from all. They cannot tolerate “disrespect” of their beliefs. That some people have more respect for reality than their beliefs is called hatred. Any woman who states that she will not have this mostly man-driven religion infringe on her rights, privacy and opportunities is a transphobe.

This is not how things have to be. Maybe one day the trans activists will codify their beliefs into a religion that can be recognized. They may learn that other people have the right to observe the world and describe accurately all that they see and experience. The trans activists can stop trying to make thought crimes out of every word or observation that does not please them. They can make peace with the fact that the entire world will never bow to their whims and dogma. The trans activists may then decide to stop trying to take over women’s spaces. Their energies would be spent on making trans spaces and they might become content with who they are rather than try to appropriate women as an “identity” or lifestyle.

Then those of us who don’t believe in make-believe can go on as atheists and have our rights respected.