5.11 - Go to Bloody Hell
"What's your position on gay rights?"
"Gay and right shouldn't be in the same sentence together."
Every so often, I get riled about gay rights. It's usually in response to some fucking asshole or bitch bemoaning the Leviticus passage against homosexuality. Or how poorly sexual minorities are treated by Christians - in general. Before I go off and make come ridiculous generalization about a group, I know there are exceptions. There are good Christians out there who are tolerant of gays. But there are far more who are imps of the perverse and make me sick.
Tonight, I had one of those moments. My Darling Girl and I were flipping through the channels on tv at her house and came across a PBS special looking at a small town in Iowa and the persecution of a high school lesbian. It led to us getting into a vague disagreement about homosexuality. I fear that my bisexual rhetoric has led her to believe that sexuality is more of a choice than it really is. Her contention was that if you can choose to be straight or gay, why would you choose to be gay if it means your life will be harder, that you'd be persecuted, possibly be attacked or worse? It led to a bit of a tirade on my part of the hypocrisy and malice the Christians, Catholics, - religious people at large bring into the world.
For the most part, my stance on life comes out of my knowledge of psychology and the human condition as I've experienced it - first hand and vicariously. Generally, if you can make yourself happy without harming someone or something else, I think that's fine. Once harm is done, there's a problem. Discomfort is not harm. Fear is not harm. Being uncomfortable or afraid of sexual minorities is not enough to persecute them. For every time I see something about Matthew Shepherd, another hyperconservative message preaching intolerance, or a crying child and mother who are being attacked by people in their community, I curse another religious person, praying that they are met with the same amount of terror that they inflict. I don't believe God answers these prayers - rather it is my knowledge that everyone will suffer at some point which instructs and sustains my habit. Wiccans have a similar rule.
I think I'm so hot on this topic is partially because the anti-gay marriage amendment hit Congressional floors recently. I doubt it will pass, but the fact that we're considering it insults my sense of what America is - or should be, used to be at any rate.
I'm mad as bloody hell. Angry, damned angry, that there are people who believe they have some God-given right to decide what's right and wrong for others. It's that type of thinking that undoes the progress and fabric of civilization. We keep pursuing this and we should send blacks back to the cotton fields, women to the kitchens, Arabs to Gitmo, Japanese to internment camps, latinos to slums, men to the mines, and just revert to some impossible situation where every behavior, thought, and dream is dictated by group membership rather than individual identity.
People need to grow the hell up. And religious people who feel they can oppose the freedoms of others - they can go to bloody hell.
"Gay and right shouldn't be in the same sentence together."
Every so often, I get riled about gay rights. It's usually in response to some fucking asshole or bitch bemoaning the Leviticus passage against homosexuality. Or how poorly sexual minorities are treated by Christians - in general. Before I go off and make come ridiculous generalization about a group, I know there are exceptions. There are good Christians out there who are tolerant of gays. But there are far more who are imps of the perverse and make me sick.
Tonight, I had one of those moments. My Darling Girl and I were flipping through the channels on tv at her house and came across a PBS special looking at a small town in Iowa and the persecution of a high school lesbian. It led to us getting into a vague disagreement about homosexuality. I fear that my bisexual rhetoric has led her to believe that sexuality is more of a choice than it really is. Her contention was that if you can choose to be straight or gay, why would you choose to be gay if it means your life will be harder, that you'd be persecuted, possibly be attacked or worse? It led to a bit of a tirade on my part of the hypocrisy and malice the Christians, Catholics, - religious people at large bring into the world.
For the most part, my stance on life comes out of my knowledge of psychology and the human condition as I've experienced it - first hand and vicariously. Generally, if you can make yourself happy without harming someone or something else, I think that's fine. Once harm is done, there's a problem. Discomfort is not harm. Fear is not harm. Being uncomfortable or afraid of sexual minorities is not enough to persecute them. For every time I see something about Matthew Shepherd, another hyperconservative message preaching intolerance, or a crying child and mother who are being attacked by people in their community, I curse another religious person, praying that they are met with the same amount of terror that they inflict. I don't believe God answers these prayers - rather it is my knowledge that everyone will suffer at some point which instructs and sustains my habit. Wiccans have a similar rule.
I think I'm so hot on this topic is partially because the anti-gay marriage amendment hit Congressional floors recently. I doubt it will pass, but the fact that we're considering it insults my sense of what America is - or should be, used to be at any rate.
I'm mad as bloody hell. Angry, damned angry, that there are people who believe they have some God-given right to decide what's right and wrong for others. It's that type of thinking that undoes the progress and fabric of civilization. We keep pursuing this and we should send blacks back to the cotton fields, women to the kitchens, Arabs to Gitmo, Japanese to internment camps, latinos to slums, men to the mines, and just revert to some impossible situation where every behavior, thought, and dream is dictated by group membership rather than individual identity.
People need to grow the hell up. And religious people who feel they can oppose the freedoms of others - they can go to bloody hell.