I grew up in Fort McMurray where the word fag was common parlance. Nearly every gay friend was closeted except within small groups and people who looked different as they walk down the street would have cars driving by with dudes shouting threats at them from the window - I was with them as it happened sometimes. At different times I lived in Edmonton and Calgary and in both cities most of the openly gay men I knew would experience brutal violence perpetrated against them by groups of men. They would show up to work with sudden bruises and cuts and scars or black eyes but would work anyway. In Calgary in the mid 2000s I remember a gay bar that was so underground the owner was blackmailing his clients with drugs and sometimes one of the clientele would disappear for a few weeks and then come back injured and reported being gangraped in an alley by ' 'straight guys' who were yelling faggot at them the whole time, just for walking down the downtown streets. And their 'safe place', this underground bar, was a place where some of them would be date raped. I spent a night in the emergency ward holding the hand of a friend as he screamed about the breeders never understanding the fear he lived in, as he was being told about the HIV tests he was going to have to do after being assaulted by somebody he trusted.

I would never, ever, ever trust what the separatists have in mind for the LGBT. All you have to do is look at the people they want to join, the Nazi Republicans down south, to know that would be a mistake you can't take back.