The personal impact of anti-gay discrimination
Offline As someone who is in favor of equal rights for people, seeing the personal impact that discrimination has on these people I feel exposes what a revolting ideology American social conservatism is. CurrentTV has been airing a number of videos for gay pride month about these lately and I thought people here might be interested.
http://current.com/items/76295542_marina_and_her_moms
Marina and Her Moms
The daughter of a gay couple shares her experiences growing up. One of her mothers is not a citizen and because gay marriage isn't recognized, she may have been forced to leave the country.
http://current.com/items/89003460_let_my_partner_stay
Let My Partner Stay
"Because same-sex marriages are not recognized in the United States, certain marital benefits, like the advantage of permanent residency for a foreign born partner, are denied to bi-national spouses. This commonly results in the foreign partner being forced to leave the United States, and their loved ones, behind. Brittany and Joanna's story is one of thousands."
http://current.com/items/88964453_gay_marriage_ok_in_ca
I thought this was a particularly beautiful video as it showed the reaction of one activist when she was told that the California court ruled in favor of gay marriage.
http://current.com/items/76346382_welcoming_church
This is a story about a baptist church that welcomes homosexuals. While I don't think I could ever understand it, a number of gay people despite being treated like shit by Christianity still believe and still want to go to church, since that was how they were raised. This church, however, is welcoming, and puts emphasis on the love, acceptance, and merciful side of Christianity rather than the warmongering hateful side that the religious right subscribes to.
Now, as for my opinion, a lot of states, including my own state of Florida and also California are proposing constitutional bans on gay marriage, timed for the presidential election hoping to channel that sheer hatred for and fear of homosexuals into getting John McCain more votes. They mask it with silly linguistic objections, appeals to the will of the voters, or speak of setting a good example for children but in my mind these are all basically code words for the same sort of bigoted garbage that was used against inter-racial marriage and redneck machismo against people who are different. The basic human rights of a minority should not be subject to the will of a majority.
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Nobody in the 21st century should have to wait for a court ruling on whether or not it's an offense for them to love someone else. It's retarded; it demeans both the court system itself and the individuals under scrutiny.
None of the objections to gay marriage are reasonable or factual. They're pussy-footed, bush-beating myths. 'Good for the children'? In what way will it negatively impact them? That's code for, "If you act gay, your kids might act gay," and while that may be a good guess, so who gives a damn? The whole argument can only expand from there into, "Well, more gays is bad," which brings us right back into the territory of extremist bigotry and hatred.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Well said, guys. That "Gay Marriage OK in CA" video really is cute, too. I've never understood the objections to gay marriage at all, so good for any state that decides to make it official.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
I just had an epiphany.
heyzeus and I were discussing murder statistics last night in Skype, and possible causes (memes, cultural influence, past history, etc) that might explain why the U.S. is so far ahead of other industrial nations in regards to the number of violent crimes per year. I also finished watching (again) this video of Stephen Pinker discussing the decline of violence over human history:
I want you to watch this video, then go back to the supreme court ruling at the top of this post. Remember what I said earlier about the court system being demeaned?
Any court system whose highest echelon of power has decided that the matters of most importance to it are those related to the legalities of whether or not two women in love should be able to marry is a joke. Likely, it's always been a joke - these are simply the moments where it becomes obvious.
Is such a an institution credible as a Leviathan (to use Hobbes's term) of justice? Of course not. And if it isn't, what's to keep criminals from calling the bluff of legal repercussion?
If the crime rates in the U.S. are an indication, as well as the instances or repeated threats and vandalizations Marina went through, nothing (or very little) is to keep them.
My recently bred hypothesis that perhaps I'll explore sometime in the future: the comparatively high violent crime rates in the United States are a result of a justice system that has not presented itself as a credible entity, but a mockery and a vain infant.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
What the heck is the purpose of a Gay-Pride day or perade or what-have-it.
Being "proud" to be Gay is JUST as fallacious as being "ashamed" to be Gay.
It's the same fallacy, the same error, the same bad reasoning, just flipped.
If they knew what was good for them, the homosexual community wouldn't further those flawed lines of thinking.
The flawed line that is: Your personal character is dependant on your sexuality. Or that your sexuality is dependant on your character.
Attaching the two to one another is bigotry, good or bad, positive or negtive. And bigotry is logically flawed. Crtitcally.
Just like racial bigotry. Many African Americans talk about black pride. Why? You should not be judged by your ancestors. They should not be a source of pride nor shame. And yet they further that line of thinking.
I'm white, I'm a man, and I'm straight. Why would I go around saying I'm proud of any of that? They're not acomplishments or aspects of my morality or personal character. Nor are they aspects of my intelligence, wisdom, or education.
They're random. Taking pride in them is foolish. Period.
"Gay Pride!"
Pfft. They should have all their rights and people who attack them out of bigotry in any way are dumbasses.
But talking like that makes them pretty dumb too.
The homosexual who shouts "Gay Pride!" is just as much a bigot for the same reasons.
And that's the ugly truth.
I agree Samuel.
I have always made it a point to try avoiding "gay" and use the word "homosexual" instead. They have tried to make homosexuality synonymous with happiness and gaiety when it should be obvious, by looking around and noting what you see, that many homosexuals are filled with neither happiness nor gaiety. And, as someone who takes writing seriously, I would like to reclaim the word "gay" for other uses (it's such a small and useful word!) without bringing homosexuality to mind. For example, how many people can listen to the theme song for The Flintstones and not think about homosexuality?
Stultior stulto fuisti, qui tabellis crederes!
Fully support gay marriages but it was a poor political move to call it 'marriage'. In the UK we have civil partnerships which give people the same legal rights, the people involved in it generally call it getting married but as its not officially called that it managed to get passed without any real serious political opposition.
Give it a few years and I'm sure the law can be modified to be called marriage.
If you call it a civil partnership its about human rights, if you start calling it marriage gives more ammunition to the religious loonies(unfairly but thats politics)
I think you guys(Samuel and Paradox) are looking too far into this. Being homosexual was a shameful, sinful disease that people suffered from....or it was seen as a choice to lead a lewd, depraved lifestyle. That was how it was perceived. Rebranding a word, gay, that already has a positive connotation, was a political strategy. The strategy to replace homosexual(negative connotation) with gay(positive connotation) it was a subtle subconscious way of getting people to accept them through the use of framing linguistics. Having pride rather than shame in your sexual orientation wasn't meant to say being gay was great or better than being straight, rather that being gay was normal and fine, and unworthy of scorn.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
My sentiments exactly.
Asking them why there is an outspoken gay community is much the same as asking us why we choose to act as an outspoken group, rather than just quietly go about our business. We can't. We've been ostracized and isolated by our lack of belief, just as gays have been ostracized and isolated by their sexuality, and both they and us have every to band together and say:
'This isn't right. We're people too, and we demand equal treatment. I am no born into shame by being atheistic, homosexual or of a different ethnicity: I am PROUD to be who/what I am."
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940