Or a gay man in the middle east.

No, but I am a gay man in Canada where anti-LGBTQ hate and violence are again on the rise and, as a group, we are having to have exactly the same arguments again. "Groomer" discourse, mass shootings (at least in the USA), and so on. It's the 90's all over again and we are sick to death of having to go through this shit.

But I'm not OK with using it as a crutch or weaponizing it against me. Me, and many others, refuse to play that bull shit game.

No one is weaponizing the existence of queer people against you. We just want to stop being labelled pedophiles and it would be great if the acts of domestic terrorism against us could stop.

If you perceive us advocating for such things to somehow be an attack against you, then we can't possibly have a reasonable discussion about this.

You have no idea what it is like to be in our shoes.