Lauren Boebert Wants People To Wait Until 21 To Declare A Gender Or Sexual Orientation

That's gonna make prom super awkward.

Lauren Boebert has one heck of an idea.

The Colorado Rep. proposed on Twitter on Friday that, like alcohol and tobacco, one should perhaps have to wait until the age of 21 to declare a gender or sexual orientation.

"We require people to be 21 to purchase alcohol beverages, and 21 to purchase tobacco products," she tweeted. "Why is it so unreasonable to require people to reach a certain level of maturity before making life-altering decisions about their sexuality and identity?"

We require people to be 21 to purchase alcohol beverages, and 21 to purchase tobacco products. Why is it so unreasonable to require people to reach a certain level of maturity before making life-altering decisions about their sexuality and identity?

— Lauren Boebert (@Lauren Boebert) 1648822822 

Now, I personally am opposed to these age limits and find them ridiculous, because if you can be sent to war, you should be able to have a freaking beer. I think the law in Italy is reasonable — you have to be 18 to purchase alcohol yourself, but otherwise it's fine if you have a glass of wine with your parents at dinner — and it frequently leads to developing better drinking habits. 

That being said, while arguments can certainly be made for said age limits on alcohol and tobacco, it sure would be a hell of a thing to have to wait until 21 to select a gender or sexual orientation. How would this even work? Would everyone under the age of 21 be required to wear gender neutral clothing at all times? Would dating be banned entirely or would everyone have to pretend to be bi? And what about names? I mean, I'd have been okay, the Laurens of the world could change the spelling of their names and be fine, but there aren't that many gender neutral names to go around. It's really hard to see how this would work, or why anyone would want that.

It's clear, of course, that this is not actually what Boebert wants. What she wants, for some godforsaken reason, is a law requiring all LGBTQ people to stay closeted until they are 21. Sadly, she has not elaborated on how she would like to see such a "reasonable" thing enforced. Would she like for minors to be sent to prison for dating someone of the same sex or being trans? Would it be a "Don't Ask Don't Tell" kind of situation?

I suspect it's something more like when my mom told me I couldn't join a religion until I was 18 and had to read about all of the religions before settling on one, with the understanding that this would lead me to the conclusion that none of them could possibly be true, which is exactly what happened. Boebert seems to believe that being gay or trans is "just a phase," like when I pretended to like techno, and that if they just pretend to be straight and cis until they are 21, they'll just stay that way forever . Oddly, this was not actually what happened back in the day when people rarely came out until they were adults.

It sure is weird that the people who are always whining about how everyone is so incredibly desperate to "control" them, just because we want them to not actively try to get people sick during a pandemic and get background checks when they get guns (well, also because of the microchips) who want so desperately to control people on such an incredibly personal level.

OPEN THREAD!

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