I really didn't know how to answer that.

My name is Mary Ann. But apparently, it's not obvious that I am a woman -- an adult human female.

I looked up pronouns and a chart came up listing he/him ... she/her ... they/them. In addition to zie/zir and xe/xem.

Apparently, there is a growing list of alternative pronouns:
He/She -- Zie, Sie, Xe, Ey, Ve, Tey, E ...
Him/Her -- Zim, Sie, Xem, Em, Ver, Ter, Em ...
His/Her -- Zir, Hir, Xyr, Eir, Vis, Tem, Eir ...
His/Hers -- Zis, Hirs, Xyrs, Eirs, Vers, Ters, Eirs ...
That's all gobbledygook to me.

This sort of thing was not taught in my 1950s grade school or 1960s high school English classes.

I settled for she, her and Miss!

But this is not the first time I encountered having to deal with transgendered wokeism and/or LGBTQ issues in my simple daily life.

Several months ago, I went to the doctor to get a handicapped form signed. You need that sort of thing to get or renew the blue handicap parking placards.

The doctor's questionnaire asked my sex (male or female) and my gender (man, woman or transgendered). Aren't they the same? Isn't the male a boy, and a female a girl? Again, apparently it was not obvious that I am an adult human female. Which means my sex and my gender should be the same -- woman.

The questionnaire also asked my sexual preference -- heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual.

I was floored!

All I needed was a form signed, a simple form, but I needed a licensed doctor's signature for that particular specialized piece of paper.

So, after filling out the paperwork I was weighed and had my blood pressure and temperature taken.

After the doctor came in, she listened to my heart and signed the form I gave her.

For this brief, very brief encounter I was charged $365 (three hundred sixty-four dollars and change). I was flummoxed when the bill came in.

We are now being forced to see the world through rainbow glasses. The LGBTQ agenda permeates the entire culture from doctor's office visits to television shows to movies to the church to shopping to Oreo cookies and even cartoons. This wokeism is being rammed down our throats. We are being force-fed this ideology. And we are told that we cannot say anything to protest that we must accept else -- God forbid -- we are labeled as homophobic, intolerant and hateful.

Businesses such as photographers and commercial bakers and wedding venues are run out of business and their owners are plunged into financial ruin for refusing to cater to activities which go against their deeply held Christian beliefs and principles.

I have been noticing that commercials go out of their way to hit all the diversity-inclusion-equality buttons.

Many times, if there is a couple involved that couple is of mixed race or ethnicity: Black-white, Asian-Indian, white-Hispanic, Black-Chinese, Hawaiian-Eskimo, white-Oriental or any other mixture or combination thereof.

However, if a couple is the same race or ethnicity, chances are it is a gay or lesbian couple, many times two men.

Television shows and movies, too, are percolating on all LGBTQ cylinders.

The latest Downton Abbey movie has just come out and the young butler, Thomas Barrow, is obviously gay. He has had several trysts in the past and now is hooking up with a silent movie star.

Downton Abbey is an historical British drama set one hundred years ago during the reign of King George V. Then homosexual activity would have been unthinkable or at least most certainly hidden.

Yet the modern rendering of the early King George V era is that the young gay butler's lifestyle is tolerated and almost accepted as normal by Lady Mary.

Several months ago, Olivia Benson's 8-year-old son Noah on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit came out as bisexual.

Theoretically, an 8-year-old, boy or girl, is too young to understand their own sexuality. Sure, at 8-years-old they know the difference between what a boy looks like and what a girl looks like, but other than that they should be totally ignorant and innocent of anything else.

Yet the storyline is that this 8-year-old comes out to his mother as bisexual and she accepts it in stride, calling him "brave" for revealing "his truth."

Other shows frequently reference same-sex marriage as normative where Jane Doe has a "wife" and John Smith has a "husband."

Remember when Bishop Vicky Gene Robinson (IX New Hampshire) was so proud of becoming a "June bride," when he entered into a same-sex marriage on June 7, 2008. Then in 2014, it was announced that Bishop Robinson and his "husband" Mark Andrew were divorcing.

References highlighting the same-sex relationships are made casually in every day conversation: "John's husband called and asked about XYZ." Or "Jane is headed to the hospital to see her wife who has COVID."

Every time I hear the sort of reference I blanch. The ear does not recognize such a relationship. It's almost like hearing a female priestess speaking from the altar.

Last year, the children's cartoon Blue's Clues released an LGBTQ-themed sing-along video for Pride month which featured an animated version of RuPaul's Drag Race drag queen Nina West.

And now Disney just came out (pun avoidable) with an androgynous character who is shown in the feminine hygiene products aisle looking for tampons. Good grief!

Then this character is educated to the fact that "Men have periods, too."

This is a children's show! Why is Disney exploring tampons in the first place? Much less teaching the child that "Men have periods, too" and are in need of Tampax.

This is indoctrination. This is brainwashing. This is child abuse.

When I was a kid, Mighty Mouse, Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Heckle & Jeckle, Woody Woodpecker, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Popeye, Mickey Mouse and all his friends were some of the favorite Saturday morning cartoon characters.

No one was gay. No one was transgendered. No one was confused about their identities.

Yogi is a bear, Mickey is a mouse, Bugs is a rabbit, the birds Heckle & Jeckle are magpies, Tom is a cat and Jerry is a mouse, Huckleberry Hound is a blue dog, and Popeye is a sailor.

There was no hanky panky between Mickey and Minnie Mouse. There were no improprieties between Popeye and Olive Oyl. Their relationships were chaste. Sure, they were sweethearts, but their relationships were platonic.

Tom & Jerry were not a "couple" neither were Heckle & Jeckle. Tom & Jerry were natural adversaries and their ongoing rivalry and chases played out weekly. Heckle & Jeckle, cousins to the mischievous crow, were dedicated mischief makers.

Saturday morning TV shows also featured My Friend Flicka, Fury, Roy Rogers "King of the Cowboys," Sky King, Sergeant Preston and Yukon King, The Long Ranger, The Cisco Kid, Wyatt Earp, and Davy Crockett.

These were wholesome shows which featured a lot of horses and the great outdoors usually out West, hence the shows were considered westerns because of their location and their horses.

The exceptions were Davy Crockett "King of the Wild Frontier" who was an early American frontiersman in Tennessee, which is east of the Mississippi River; and Sergeant Preston who was a Royal Canadian Mountie patrolling the wilds of the Yukon by dog sled.

Along with Yukon King, an Alaskan Malamute, other dogs of the early television era included: Lassie a collie, and German shepherds Rin-Tin-Tin and Roy Rogers' dog Bullet "the Wonder dog."

I once got thrown out of a Lutheran Sunday School class for singing Davy Crockett instead of Jesus Loves Me. But Davy was a big deal back in the fifties. His coonskin cap was all the rage. And to this day I love seeing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in their bright scarlet Red Serge tunics.

Early children's daytime programming also included Kukla, Fran & Ollie, Howdy Doody, Captain Kangaroo and Romper Room.

Back in-the-day, children were treated with respect and their innocency was protected. Although the networks did hawk toys and cereals aimed at the younger set.

This is not the case today where children are fair game for the LGBTQ crowd seeking to trick them, sexualize them and destroy their innocence and drag them into years of deviant behavior.

About a thousand years before Jesus Christ was born in time, the Proverbs of King Solomon were written.

Tucked in the 22nd chapter of the Proverbs is this gem: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Prov. 22:6 (KJV)

King Solomon knew something about the training of children. If you teach a child something in their early years, they will be formed by it and it will become a part of their world view and shape how they live out their lives as they grow older.

The problem is that the PRIDE generation has figured this out and the Christians have not.

Because the liberals, including the LGBTQ crowd, have discovered their dominance over society they are "training up the children in the way they want them to go and when they are old, they will not depart from it."

As a result, a whole new generation of drag queens and transgendered people are being created through the indoctrination of children. And the wider culture celebrates it.

Pride month -- 30 days where decadence is celebrated -- has pride of place not only in America but other Western nations.

Pride flags fly from flagpoles on Main Street, from businesses and corporations, from churches, colleges, and from US embassies worldwide, including at the Vatican. Rainbow colors show up on clothing, corporate logos, food boxes, displays, and of course are dominant in the Pride parades.

One of the keys to the downfall of America, and the West, is destruction of the minds of the youngest among us. Other keys on the keychain include the elimination of God from the public square, the non-nuclear family, and the lack of a father within the home.

But now there is starting to be a pushback. This pushback is like a tugboat trying to maneuver a drifting over loaded cargo ship in rough weather during high tide.

~~Parents revolted in Loudoun County, Virginia over wokeism creeping into the school curriculum.

~~Some transgendered persons are transitioning back to their birth sex and are warning others about the dangers of transgenderism.

~~Former British transgendered woman sues the National Health Service for fast tracking his gender-affirming bottom surgery and leaving him castrated and sterile.

~~The governor of Florida has stripped Disney World of its independent self-governance after Disney fully embraced the LGBTQ agenda to use its platform to push gay characters.

~~The Supreme Court has said that a high school coach's post-game prayer on the gridiron is protected private speech not forced religious activity.

~~The International Swimming Federation has nixed transgendered swimming, thus protecting girls' swim competitions from biological males pretending to be females and snagging all the metals.

~~The Catholic bishop in Worcester, Massachusetts has stripped a middle school of its Catholic identity for flying the Pride flag and the Black Lives Matter flag because symbolism of the flags undermine Catholic moral teaching.

~~More than 300 bills are working their way through various state legislatures and local school boards designed to push back against wokeism and the LGBTQ creep in public education.

~~California female prisoners sue to keep transgendered women (biological males) out of women's prisons.

~~Christians proudly kneel for the Cross and stand for the National Anthem.

~~A New York Councilwoman described Drag Story Hour as 'degeneracy.'

~~Some Christian and conservative websites refuse to buckle under imposed transgender pronouns. Rachel Levine is still referred to as he. Caitlyn Jenner is still referred to as he. Chaz Bono is still referred to as she. Elliot Page is still referred to as she.

~~An Anglican school chaplain in England was fired for not caving into LGBT indoctrination at his school.

~~Montana forbids amending biological sex on birth certificates.

~~Schools seek to protect female students' safety in bathroom usage and all-girl sports participation.

~~Police are banned from marching in Pride parades while in uniform.

~~A Florida teacher was fired for displaying a Pride flag in her classroom.

~~Elon Musk is buying Twitter to add more balance and freedom of conservative speech to the social platform.

~~The US Supreme Court has tossed the mother's determination to end her pregnancy issue back to the states thus making abortion a state's rights issue rather than engrained national policy.

True these are small steps, very small steps. But it's a beginning, a necessary beginning to push back against the ideology which is swamping the culture and undermining long-established Judeo-Christian core values.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline