So there I was, in the locker room of a gym, when this guy walks over to his friend and calls him a sissy because he’s not working out hard enough.

Having just read a brochure from the exhibit on Nazi persecution of homosexuals, I was not prepared to encounter that kind of language.

“Some of us are sissies and really don’t appreciate that,” I said, looking him in the face.

“Don’t be so sensitive,” replied the guy, as he continued his insults and then left.

Don’t be so sensitive. All around the globe, men are enslaving women and blowing themselves and everyone around them up in the name of manhood and a male God.

We have a new, old-boy corporate regime coming in the U.S. that is determined to wrest power from women over their own bodies, and roll back rights advances for LGBT people, the poor, you name it.

They also seem determined to forge a U.S.-Russian corporate empire in which insults, put-downs, and blatant violations of law, justice and democratic ideals are the norm while they plunder the planet.

The Legislature in North Carolina just refused to repeal the infamous bathroom bill. But I’m not supposed to be so sensitive, and instead grin and bear it like a man.

I will not bear it. Nor, it is clear to me, will millions of other men and women in this country who understand that macho posturing and bravado have nothing to do with strength or human goodness, and everything to do with feelings of inadequacy and a desperate need to control.

As 2017 approaches, let us all celebrate our sensitivity, and our vulnerability.

From an open heart and a full embrace of our human essence does our power to prevail arise.

JASON VICTOR SERINUS

Port Townsend