Ok, maybe he should have gotten a new birth certificate before trying to get married. I mean he has to know the amount of bigotry loose in the world. But still he had the important piece of paper showing that he is legally a male. I found the story here. Now, I should have known that anything posted on this website would be not tolerant of GLBT people, but some of what they did say blew me away. Here are the couple that really bothered me:
Regardless of surgery the DNA chromosomal makeup remains the same either XY or XX.
I am continually surprised by peoples stupidly, bigotry, and the ease with which we hate others that are different. Why is that? What is hard wired within humans that causes us to easily hate members of our own species?
It seemingly takes a certain amount of time before the hated group begins to be absorbed into our society. When the hatred that had been focused looses it't target, a new victim must be found to be the scapegoat. Throughout the history of our country many groups have shared the hate spotlight, and each of them have lost their status as "most hated" and really the only ones left to center the bright hot hate light on is the GLBT.
Today over at I should be laughing, Bob was talking about the hate that Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish have had heaped upon them. Ok, so I get it, many religious people don't agree with gays and lesbians being parents. And thats fine, it's an opinion, it shouldn't be the law of the land, but one can hold whatever opinion they wish.
However, this is where I begin to get mad, play along with me ok? You are watching the news, and they are airing a segment talking about issues within the black community, let's say education. The program will have on talking heads to discuss the "problem" Experts in education, possibly a concerned parent or two. This would not even get an eye blink from you, yeah? Its news as usual. Now, along with the education experts and a parent, add in a member of the Klu Klux Klan. Can you imagine the fire storm that would occur? Yeah, and rightly so.
None of the news agencies anywhere within our country, no matter how bigoted the area is, would ever even consider adding in a hate group to talk about black issues. Why oh why do the news agencies feel that its ok to invite GLBT hate groups to talk about issues that concern us? Where is our firestorm to burn this sort of mass stupidity out of society? The only thing that comes to mind is for GLBT and our allies to band together to protest loudly every time they do something this hurtful, this stupid, and this dangerous.
Dangerous?
Yes, dangerous. Because society sanctioned open hate causes violence. It allows parents to throw their children out for being GLBT. Children absorb the views of their parents, and this is the leading cause of bullying in schools.
Could it be the news people are clueless? Could it be that in trying to be fair to both sides, they don't realize what they are perpetuating? Yes, I've told you before my glass is nearly full, rabid optimist here. Having said that, the only reason things changed for blacks is because they stopped sitting in the back of the bus, stopped paying attention to the signs, and started making noise. I know, they are visible for all to see, and for the most part we are not. Could it be that it's time for us to make some noise, to become visible, to speak up when ever we hear the rude comments?
This summer one of my son's girl friends, was talking about a worker in a local store. She kept referring to her as "it" Why? Well because this is a transwoman, and she doesn't "pass" well. I told her,"That isn't nice! Stop it! She's a person, a human." I'm not sure if it made any impact on her, but I wasn't going to sit an let her say cruel things. I have stopped these females of my son's several times before about saying horrid things about GLBT before. And what strikes me so odd? Is I have never heard any of our sons say one nasty word against GLBT, ever! Why they didn't attract a more tolerant brand of females is beyond me.
Acceptance and love can be bigger than hate, and their is plenty for all.
5 comments:
Nicely put!
Hate is hate, no matter to whom it is aimed.
This ought to be in the New York Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post, and a few others!
Peace <3
Jay
Huh, that happened in MI. o_O
You see, one of the greatest things the brain does is to automatically categorize things. The drawback is that sometimes it does so too well, and we can't uncategorize something once it's been categorized. Gender, sex, and sexuality aren't any different. True, there is a distinction between gender and sex, but most people just can't wrap their minds around that concept.
Interestingly are studies on kids' brains and adults' brains. Kids by default just absorb everything and don't really systematically group things together until later. Adults do, which makes the adult brain more efficient at the things it knows, but less able to accept/learn something completely unrelated.
"I am continually surprised by peoples stupidly, bigotry, and the ease with which we hate others that are different. "
You spoke volumes with that one line! Great Post!!
If I may say so from the UK - you're absolutely right and this was exactly our experience back then when we had to begin to counter the institutionalised hatred.
The amazing thing which has happened here is that with abolishing the death penalty, judicial corporal punishment, the right of a man to beat his wife and then his children and, most recently giving LGBT community most of the rights it should have had all along - with all of this our parliament and opinion-makers have run well ahead of society and leagues ahead of the religious leaders.
Where the UK is now is that we've seen droves of people desert the church and the far right wing in society (even though most people have a deal of accepting still to do) but now we are watching the Church of England trying to cope with the emancipation of women and homosexuals and not wanting to go along with either!
It would be important if the church hadn't already lost most of the population.
Now which way about is America going to do it?
Is your public opinion strong enough to take the politicians with it and liberalise, leaving the churches to catch up? Or are you going to do it another way?
My view, for what it's worth, is that the Catholic and Protestant churches are now weaker politically and socially than they've been for generations. It may be easier to take the religious mainstream on the journey than persuade your amazingly reactionary politicians!
Oh and by the way - I think gypsies will follow LGBT as the next big hate group - but that's just what's been happening in Europe.
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