It heartens me to see Pride Month activities rolling out
all over the country. There is a lot to celebrate in 2019. Just in the lifespan
of this blog, LGBT people have gone from protesting to demand the right to
marry (and all the privileges that go with it), to seeing that right become the
law of the land.
Granted, that law is under attack. Hell, it’s the same with
Roe V Wade, and that one’s almost 50 years old. It just goes to show that one
can never relax; the religious right is always looking for ways to return us to
the Dark Ages, all in the name of The Lord, of course.
I’ve written a lot about LGBT rights over the years,
because the denial of rights to this segment of the public has always struck me
as barbaric. There was when Maryland took up the issue in 2011,
letters to the local newspaper in March and August of 2011, when Maryland passed same-sex marriage in 2012, California’s
malodorous Prop 8 in 2013, the SCOTUS decision in 2015, and loads of
other times that didn’t command an entire post.
The thing that got me from “supportive but inactive” to
“militant” on the issue was getting to know gays and lesbians as friends and
coworkers. I suppose it’s worked that way all over the country as more and more
people come out.
How anyone can condone creating a “second class” of
citizens out of otherwise ordinary Americans is beyond me. And ascribing it to
the ravings of an ancient book is just insulting.
It is grossly unfair, inhuman and downright un-American
to discriminate on a class of people for nothing more than the way they were
born. I’ve often said that it’s like persecuting people for having blue eyes.
To paraphrase the popular meme, if your religion requires
you to deny basic human rights to an entire class of people, you need to find a
new religion. (Or just chuck the whole thing and think for yourself!)
You’d think that if these religious folks believed in the
divinity of their Almighty, they’d have to accept that LGBT people were His
creations too. That’s probably why so many religious people insist that gays choose to be that way. Then they can
feel free to condemn their behavior or as they like to call it, “the gay lifestyle.”
Now I’m reading that a bunch of jagoffs are trying to
whip up Straight
Pride parades. But before I could even start to formulate a response, it
was shown that the idea was started by a couple of these so-called “Proud
Boys,” who have a history of crashing rallies and causing violence and trouble.
With luck, that association will dampen any enthusiasm for such an event. (I
know, may be overly optimistic.)
I hate that whole mindset; that because a historically
oppressed minority celebrates or rallies for their rights, these numb-nuts feel
they deserve something too. As if straight white males have ever been a
persecuted class. Unless you count times when someone takes steps to nullify
their customary advantages… That’s when they cry “persecution.”
It’s like the old plea for “Children’s Day,” because every day is Straight White Man’s Day.
Or month… or year.
Support of same-sex marriage and basic human rights for
the LGBT community is yet another reason to turn out at the polls and vote
Democratic. The Religious Right would like nothing better overturn the SCOTUS
decision codifying same-sex marriage.
Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue? Couples with
children who have been married for years, suddenly stripped of recognition? How
does one even go about stripping away people’s rights? How would there not be
riots?
Isn’t “religious freedom” great? All you have to do
legalize your bigotry is to claim that your religion requires it. And then if you
meet any resistance, you just claim persecution and play Victim.
What a country.
from protesting to demand the right to marry.....to seeing that right become the law of the land
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget that it's far more than just the law of our land. Gay marriage is also legal in most of western Europe and the majority of the rest of North and South America. Taiwan just became the first non-Western country to legalize it. It is rapidly becoming one of the hallmarks of cultural modernity.
Even if the ruling legalizing it in the US were to be overturned, it would be an absurd stumble backward into a bygone era, rather as if the ruling that struck down laws against interracial marriage were overturned. Such a reversal would be a national embarrassment and, I suspect, would not stand for long.
John Roberts is well know to be very concerned with the Supreme Court's reputation and gravitas. My guess is, he would do everything in his power to block a challenge to Obergefell.
The straight parade pisses me off because as usual some neanderthal has missed the point. Someone commented that every one should have a parade then. I said the parade is not to celebrate their sexuality it is to promote inclusion and equal rights for all. As women do from time to time. Where can I move to get away from these clueless horrible people?
ReplyDeleteProbably Sweden. If you can af-fjord it.
DeleteI suspect we're going to be hoping Roberts protects the Supreme reputation in quite a number of cases in the near future.
ReplyDeleteRemember that “ancient book” also bans shell fish, pork and polyester fabrics. But nobody’s bleating about shrimp cocktails, bacon or no-iron clothes. It also says something about hair and haircuts, I think, but check Leviticus for the Holiness Code. The “ancient book” NEVER mentions lesbians or woman-woman love but does include the story of Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi. “Wither thou goest, I will go...thy people shall be my people”. And great King David said of his friend, Jonathan, “Thy love was wonderful to me, even surpassing the love of women”. Try that on your “religious” objections next time you holy folks want to discriminate.
ReplyDeleteKnowing a few gay people is a good antidote for bigotry. You are also spot on about that. Familiarity breeds acceptance.
The more people who come out, the more people who never knew any gay people before wonder what the big fuss is about. Bit by bit, the influence of these "holy people" wanes in the face of personal experience.
DeleteAt least I hope... It may take a while down in places like where you live.
The more I learn about how the bible actually came to be what it is now, the less I believe anything attributed to it. It was written by a bunch of people who weren't there, 100s of years after the fact, then translated and edited by a patriarchal, religious leadership, and the inclusion of contents (whole books thrown out) and direction of foundational precepts (Jesus was divine, so he couldn't have had a wife and kids, etc.) decided by a group with an agenda of their own. How can we believe ANYthing in the stupid book? It's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually a pretty spiritual person and have had some incredible moments when I felt the presence of an unearthly higher power, but I refuse to be swayed by arguments that use that book as a reference. The things I've learned about how it was formed have made me surprised that Christianity is so widespread. We've all had so much wool pulled over our eyes withat this thing. Why is it so powerful? Craziness.
It's a political document that has been taffy-pulled every which way by people in power to serve their own ends.
DeleteI look at it (the New Testament, anyway) as a series of examples of how one might be a better person. But as the infallible word of An Invisible Man in the Sky, to use to promote yourself and persecute others? Screw that.
Sometime, I'm going to have to rerun a fanciful piece I ran a long time ago that talked about what it might have been like if the Bible had been focus-grouped.
Lol. I agree about the general "be good to other people" stuff in the New Testament... if only all those Evangelicals paid more attention to THOSE parts. Regarding the focus-group post, I'd love to read that. :)
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