So it's been awhile since I've posted. Anyone who read my last commentary on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) knows how I feel about the issues regarding equal opportunity employmet for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) people.
After my diatribe about ENDA I decided to do what any concerned citizen would do and write my senators and congressmen. I got an interesting reply via e-mail that brought up some concern.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's (R) office sent me what I can only assume is a generic letter containing the senator's positions on various issues facing our nation right now. In this letter, the honorable senator noted that she was against hate crimes legislation on its own merit because all violent crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law regardless of the motivation. This position got me thinking and so I did some research and there are many members of our legislature who claim to have at least similar positions on this issue.
Though the idea sounds good in principle, there are some obvious facts that our legislators are not thinking of when they take such a position. Hate crimes legislation has a purpose after all. Of course I agree that all violent crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law but the reason that hate crimes legislation exists is because it is often NOT all treated equally. How often do law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, and juries tend to go easier on the very acts of violence described by hate crimes legislation? The reason that those laws are being drawn up is to make certain that no backwoods justice can take place where a bigot can commit violence against a minority and get off with a slap on the wrist. Hate crimes legislation evens the playing field for minority victims of persecution. Look at the case of Matthew Shephard and how little attention was brought to the case and the leniency shown to his murderers until the motivation behind their crime was brought to the light of day and angry members of the public forced the hands of the legal system and law enforcement.
The members of congress who subscribe to such a position are using it to double-talk their way out of the issue. They are dancing around the issue at hand in order to keep the support of the right-wing who doesn't want hate crimes legislation enacted. Why, you ask? Because the right wing is the single source, motivation, energy and driving force behind the origination and continuation of hatred, bigotry, and persecution of minority groups in our nation today. Unfortunately, they have a lot of pull. Any conservative may publicly claim that all violent crimes should be punished equally but how many of them smirk and snicker behind closed doors when the guy who murdered that "faggot" got off easy? I would guess the number is very large.
The issue at hand is simply equality and fairness. All people are created equal and should be treated as such and therefore all free-thinking people should be behind this issue. Write you congressmen and senators and make them stop dancing around the matter at hand. Make them ADMIT their position and then, when we find out how closed-minded they can be or simply how spineless and unwilling to take a stand they are, we can vote them out. That is what democracy is for, after all!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Right and Right-Wing... Really?!?
Here we are in the year 2009 and still suffering from prejudice, hatred, and discrimination. The United States Congress has begun hearings regarding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA - H.R. 2981) and already the right-wing conservative groups are out in force. Focus on the Family, an advocate of religious rights, recently sent a letter to Congress in opposition to the bill. (for the letter's text see here: 9-2-2009 Letter From Focus on the Family) I think that it might benefit the reader to peruse this document as I fully intend to tear it and its tenets to ribbons.
The right-wingers that drafted and supported this letter had something to say about religious freedom. According to Focus on the Family, because most religious faiths oppose the practice or endorsement of homosexuality or "transgenderism," the ENDA will create workplace conflict among employees because of objections to: "religious articles on employees' desks; water cooler discussions about biblical morality; Bible verses taped to cubicle walls; fliers on company bulletin boards advertising discussions concerning traditional marriage." Where in the hell do these people work? Most places that I know tend to frown on these types of displays and activities as it is. I don't think that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community will be the first to raise objections or dissonance to these types of activities. The first amendment protection of religious freedom extends to ALL religions, even those that DO support (or in the very least, show no opinion on) homosexuality. Do we need to take the right to work away from Catholics or Muslims just because their belief system does not coincide with the Protestants in their workplace? Don't we already have many different peoples of many different doctrines working together in the same companies? How come people from such very different backgrounds can all get along (and are indeed guaranteed equality) but giving equal rights to the LGBT community will suddenly create such a rift? Indeed, I'm sure that there are even atheists and agnostics (both of whose rights to NOT believe are protected by the same legislation that protects the believers' rights TO believe) in the workforce today. Surely the presence of those who don't even BELIEVE in God or religion creates the same form of strife that Mr. Tom Minnery, Senior V.P. of FotF is referring to. Where is the push from the lobbyists to take away THEIR equal rights as well. If Minnery is right, then each workplace should only hire employees who subscribe to the same religious belief and wouldn't THAT be the breeding ground for insight and innovation!
Our founding fathers came here seeking the freedom to believe and worship as they chose. It was for this reason that the hand of Uncle Sam was used to protect religious right, not set religious doctrine. If we allow legislation that only supports the religious right (and indeed it will eventually turn into only CERTAIN religions that are right) then we will be no better than the despotic countries who subscribe to only ONE government-sponsored belief and persecute all non-believers.
I find it humorous that FotF claims that there is no hard evidence to prove employment discrimination against the LGBT community. If discrimination was not seen to be occurring, then why in the hell would Congress be debating a law to prevent it? It's simple logic actually. Many national and international corporations have adopted their own policies on this issue in order to prevent this very thing. Why would Blue Cross, Darden Restaurants, Chase Bank, and Microsoft all have felt the need to write such policies into their employment practices if it wasn't happening? Indeed, discrimination runs rampant. To quote Mr. Minnery, "Moreover, sexual orientation and 'gender identity' should not be equated with race, color, gender or national origin. Homosexuals, bisexuals, and 'transgender' people have never been counted as 3/5 of a person, forced to drink from separate water fountains, made to ride at the back of a bus, or denied the right to vote."
While it is true that widespread discrimination has not yet reached the boiling point that caused our forebears to leave England in the first place and we have not yet hit the rock bottom of the period of slavery, one must wonder: if discrimination is not a problem, why are so many members of the LGBT community attacked, beaten, sodomized, and murdered simply for being who they are? Why would so many legislative bodies have found it necessary to enact hate crime legislation in order to protect a minority group that is not being discriminated against? Obviously, FotF is either denying that this discrimination occurs or advocating in favor of it (I certainly do hope that it is the former). Even women, when they were at their most persecuted, were not MURDERED simply for being women.
We are giving the severely conservative (and disillusioned) groups vindication if we vote down this bill. By allowing government-sponsored (for that's what it will appear to be if the legislation is vetoed) discrimination against a minority group will become acceptable once again in the United States. If we are going to go backwards in time, then why not allow discrimination against ALL minorities? Do we really want to give the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation, and other supremacy groups of all types license to operate once again within our borders?
You may think that this issue is about simple employment, but look at the larger picture. It is an important precedent to set by the force of legislation that the LGBT deserves equal rights. It will be immensely destructive to the civil rights of minorities as a whole if we allow them to be denied. Our founding fathers would roll over in their graves if they heard the tenets of "religious freedom" and "civil rights" being used to back a movement to ostracize, alienate, and discriminate against an entire group of people with FULL LEGAL AUTHORITY! No one seems to remember why America was founded to begin with. I seem to remember reading something somewhere about 'all men being created equal.' I guess that we have forgotten that in this modern day and age.
I can not believe that any group would lobby AGAINST equal rights and equal employment opportunity for a group of Americans that just want to be productive citizens like everyone else. I sincerely hope that everyone is as outraged as I am and takes a moment to write their senators. If our Congress votes down a bill to protect the employment rights of a portion of the American population, it will definitely be a step in the OPPOSITE direction of equality. How can we continue to be a champion of democracy and a beacon of freedom to the world if we allow prejudice, fear, hatred and bigotry to write our legislation for us? How can America continue to be the land of the free and the home of the brave if large sections of our population are, once again in our history, categorically denied basic civil rights? Voting against ENDA-type policies will send the message that "liberty and justice for all" is no longer available in America! I'm not asking for major changes in life, I'm just asking that our Congress considers the matter and votes on the side of freedom; not freedom for one group, but freedom for all!
Write your Senators... I did... Contact US Senators
The right-wingers that drafted and supported this letter had something to say about religious freedom. According to Focus on the Family, because most religious faiths oppose the practice or endorsement of homosexuality or "transgenderism," the ENDA will create workplace conflict among employees because of objections to: "religious articles on employees' desks; water cooler discussions about biblical morality; Bible verses taped to cubicle walls; fliers on company bulletin boards advertising discussions concerning traditional marriage." Where in the hell do these people work? Most places that I know tend to frown on these types of displays and activities as it is. I don't think that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community will be the first to raise objections or dissonance to these types of activities. The first amendment protection of religious freedom extends to ALL religions, even those that DO support (or in the very least, show no opinion on) homosexuality. Do we need to take the right to work away from Catholics or Muslims just because their belief system does not coincide with the Protestants in their workplace? Don't we already have many different peoples of many different doctrines working together in the same companies? How come people from such very different backgrounds can all get along (and are indeed guaranteed equality) but giving equal rights to the LGBT community will suddenly create such a rift? Indeed, I'm sure that there are even atheists and agnostics (both of whose rights to NOT believe are protected by the same legislation that protects the believers' rights TO believe) in the workforce today. Surely the presence of those who don't even BELIEVE in God or religion creates the same form of strife that Mr. Tom Minnery, Senior V.P. of FotF is referring to. Where is the push from the lobbyists to take away THEIR equal rights as well. If Minnery is right, then each workplace should only hire employees who subscribe to the same religious belief and wouldn't THAT be the breeding ground for insight and innovation!
Our founding fathers came here seeking the freedom to believe and worship as they chose. It was for this reason that the hand of Uncle Sam was used to protect religious right, not set religious doctrine. If we allow legislation that only supports the religious right (and indeed it will eventually turn into only CERTAIN religions that are right) then we will be no better than the despotic countries who subscribe to only ONE government-sponsored belief and persecute all non-believers.
I find it humorous that FotF claims that there is no hard evidence to prove employment discrimination against the LGBT community. If discrimination was not seen to be occurring, then why in the hell would Congress be debating a law to prevent it? It's simple logic actually. Many national and international corporations have adopted their own policies on this issue in order to prevent this very thing. Why would Blue Cross, Darden Restaurants, Chase Bank, and Microsoft all have felt the need to write such policies into their employment practices if it wasn't happening? Indeed, discrimination runs rampant. To quote Mr. Minnery, "Moreover, sexual orientation and 'gender identity' should not be equated with race, color, gender or national origin. Homosexuals, bisexuals, and 'transgender' people have never been counted as 3/5 of a person, forced to drink from separate water fountains, made to ride at the back of a bus, or denied the right to vote."
While it is true that widespread discrimination has not yet reached the boiling point that caused our forebears to leave England in the first place and we have not yet hit the rock bottom of the period of slavery, one must wonder: if discrimination is not a problem, why are so many members of the LGBT community attacked, beaten, sodomized, and murdered simply for being who they are? Why would so many legislative bodies have found it necessary to enact hate crime legislation in order to protect a minority group that is not being discriminated against? Obviously, FotF is either denying that this discrimination occurs or advocating in favor of it (I certainly do hope that it is the former). Even women, when they were at their most persecuted, were not MURDERED simply for being women.
We are giving the severely conservative (and disillusioned) groups vindication if we vote down this bill. By allowing government-sponsored (for that's what it will appear to be if the legislation is vetoed) discrimination against a minority group will become acceptable once again in the United States. If we are going to go backwards in time, then why not allow discrimination against ALL minorities? Do we really want to give the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation, and other supremacy groups of all types license to operate once again within our borders?
You may think that this issue is about simple employment, but look at the larger picture. It is an important precedent to set by the force of legislation that the LGBT deserves equal rights. It will be immensely destructive to the civil rights of minorities as a whole if we allow them to be denied. Our founding fathers would roll over in their graves if they heard the tenets of "religious freedom" and "civil rights" being used to back a movement to ostracize, alienate, and discriminate against an entire group of people with FULL LEGAL AUTHORITY! No one seems to remember why America was founded to begin with. I seem to remember reading something somewhere about 'all men being created equal.' I guess that we have forgotten that in this modern day and age.
I can not believe that any group would lobby AGAINST equal rights and equal employment opportunity for a group of Americans that just want to be productive citizens like everyone else. I sincerely hope that everyone is as outraged as I am and takes a moment to write their senators. If our Congress votes down a bill to protect the employment rights of a portion of the American population, it will definitely be a step in the OPPOSITE direction of equality. How can we continue to be a champion of democracy and a beacon of freedom to the world if we allow prejudice, fear, hatred and bigotry to write our legislation for us? How can America continue to be the land of the free and the home of the brave if large sections of our population are, once again in our history, categorically denied basic civil rights? Voting against ENDA-type policies will send the message that "liberty and justice for all" is no longer available in America! I'm not asking for major changes in life, I'm just asking that our Congress considers the matter and votes on the side of freedom; not freedom for one group, but freedom for all!
Write your Senators... I did... Contact US Senators
Pain in Living Color
There are so many different kinds of pain. It comes in more variety than the colors of the rainbow. How can one begin to define something that comes in such varied forms?
Physical pain is something that we are all familiar with. In our lives, it's the Pavlovian negative reinforcement by which we learn self-preservation. When a child places its hand on a hot pan, the pain of the experience teaches the child not to repeat that action. Physical pain is our signal that we are either doing something wrong or dangerous or that something is wrong with our bodies. Something I heard once comes to mind when I think of physical pain: what does the doctor say if you tell him that "it hurts when I do this"? He says, "then don't do that anymore." The simple and nearly immediate impulses firing across the synapses of our nervous system make the sensation that is pain into a very real and tangible feeling. It is something that can be measured and quantified because there is always something to compare the suffering of the moment to.
Emotional pain, however, is much less easily identified, though it, too, tends to play an important role in all of our lives. This is where the cut-and-dried "it hurts" tends to fade into the vast ambiguity of the undefinable. Anyone can easily tell you what hurts, where it hurts, or how badly it hurts when they are suffering physically, but when it comes to defining that mysterious pain of the heart (or the elusive and oft-debated soul) most people are at a loss. So many of our experiences are coloured by the brush strokes of our inner pain that it makes for an almost kaleidoscopic view of our lives.
There are so many sources of pain; it arises from loves lost, the finality of death, friendships forgotten, or failure to complete a goal. It can rear its ugly head even in the best of times in our existence. Often times the things (and people) we love the best have the power to hurt us the most. In the world of man, one person's pain is often another person's pleasure. Such a relative thing is so hard to define, almost impossible to quantify, and definitely impossible to avoid. We all cause and feel pain all of the time and it is this pain that makes us who we are.
Surely, some of us deal with it better than others. Some of us have the ability to turn our pain to good use, making the best of every bad situation. Some of us take our own internal suffering out on those around us, spreading it like a virus through the people that we come into contact with. Then there are those of us (like me) who tend to bottle up what hurts. It might be easy to put things into words when no one knows the author, but when it comes to actually dealing with something that hurts so badly, we clam up. We bury our hurt and our sorrow deep inside so that (we think) it can't hurt us or anyone else by rearing its ugly head.
Of course hiding from the pain doesn't do any good. It's still there, it's still real, it still marks everything that we do, and it just builds and festers inside of us, growing like a virus that infects every part of our lives. How do you recover from that? How can you strip the colors of your pain from the canvas of your life and start painting anew? The problem is that first and foremost, you have to categorize your pain and that's the hardest part of all. When it comes to that difficult task, I think I'm too scarred to find a place to start. That's what happens when you feel too much, get too involved, and hide your hurt... you become jaded, cynical, and broken beyond repair. Life turns into a Van Gogh watercolor, beautiful and distressed...
Physical pain is something that we are all familiar with. In our lives, it's the Pavlovian negative reinforcement by which we learn self-preservation. When a child places its hand on a hot pan, the pain of the experience teaches the child not to repeat that action. Physical pain is our signal that we are either doing something wrong or dangerous or that something is wrong with our bodies. Something I heard once comes to mind when I think of physical pain: what does the doctor say if you tell him that "it hurts when I do this"? He says, "then don't do that anymore." The simple and nearly immediate impulses firing across the synapses of our nervous system make the sensation that is pain into a very real and tangible feeling. It is something that can be measured and quantified because there is always something to compare the suffering of the moment to.
Emotional pain, however, is much less easily identified, though it, too, tends to play an important role in all of our lives. This is where the cut-and-dried "it hurts" tends to fade into the vast ambiguity of the undefinable. Anyone can easily tell you what hurts, where it hurts, or how badly it hurts when they are suffering physically, but when it comes to defining that mysterious pain of the heart (or the elusive and oft-debated soul) most people are at a loss. So many of our experiences are coloured by the brush strokes of our inner pain that it makes for an almost kaleidoscopic view of our lives.
There are so many sources of pain; it arises from loves lost, the finality of death, friendships forgotten, or failure to complete a goal. It can rear its ugly head even in the best of times in our existence. Often times the things (and people) we love the best have the power to hurt us the most. In the world of man, one person's pain is often another person's pleasure. Such a relative thing is so hard to define, almost impossible to quantify, and definitely impossible to avoid. We all cause and feel pain all of the time and it is this pain that makes us who we are.
Surely, some of us deal with it better than others. Some of us have the ability to turn our pain to good use, making the best of every bad situation. Some of us take our own internal suffering out on those around us, spreading it like a virus through the people that we come into contact with. Then there are those of us (like me) who tend to bottle up what hurts. It might be easy to put things into words when no one knows the author, but when it comes to actually dealing with something that hurts so badly, we clam up. We bury our hurt and our sorrow deep inside so that (we think) it can't hurt us or anyone else by rearing its ugly head.
Of course hiding from the pain doesn't do any good. It's still there, it's still real, it still marks everything that we do, and it just builds and festers inside of us, growing like a virus that infects every part of our lives. How do you recover from that? How can you strip the colors of your pain from the canvas of your life and start painting anew? The problem is that first and foremost, you have to categorize your pain and that's the hardest part of all. When it comes to that difficult task, I think I'm too scarred to find a place to start. That's what happens when you feel too much, get too involved, and hide your hurt... you become jaded, cynical, and broken beyond repair. Life turns into a Van Gogh watercolor, beautiful and distressed...
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Taking the High Road... Fucking Friendships...
"I took the high road. I did not intervene. I hurt my friend. He felt and he hurt and he learned a lesson but I didn't make it any better. What kind of friend am I? I hurt him because I didn't save him."
This was the thought going through my mind at 3:30 this morning. This was the rut that I dug myself into as I listened to my friend pour out his heart about his last relationship. This was the thing that was eating at my soul while my friend cried and talked about his pain.
Friendships fucking suck. It sucks to be friends with someone when you know things that will hurt them. It sucks to be friends with TWO people when you know things about each of them that will disillusion the other and infringe on the happiness of either of them. It's just really fucking hard to care about people.
There are so many problems with knowing things; so many things wrong with knowledge of someone else's business. I hate when people tell me things. I really can't stand when someone confides in me if only because I never know what to do. Common decency says that one should never go around blabbing the business (whether "secret" or otherwise) of another person to the world. What do you do when you are under the teary-eyed gaze of the person that those things hurt though? How do you deal with that? Moreover, how do you deal with the fact that, had you been more forthcoming with the information that is not yours to give out, you may have been able to prevent the tears and forego the pain? What do you do when, through inaction, you are somewhat at fault?
That's why I have such a hard time having friends. I confide in no one and I really don't like when others confide in me. True friends require trust and the sharing of information and I avoid that like the plague. It's much easier just to stay out of everyone else's business and keep my hands off of everyone else's lives. I don't want to play chess with other people's hearts. No one ever seems to win that game.
Why do we make our friends suffer so? No, I'm not talking about making them suffer by keeping things from them; I'm talking about making them suffer by TELLING them shit to begin with! We have no right to put other people in the position to make such a difficult decision. Think about the problem for a moment: cause pain by remaining loyal to a friend (or one friend if you are close to everyone involved) or cause pain by spilling your guts at the first sign of tension. When is it appropriate to tell? When is it necessary to give out information and what reasons justify such action? It's a hellish conundrum with no real answer and any decision that is made results in the suffering of someone (or everyone) involved.
That's why friendships suck. Just don't tell me shit that you don't want everyone to know because, from now on, to avoid any conflict, I'm an open book. The new disclaimer on my life is going to be: "If you tell me something, I will probably write a fucking blog about it and EVERYONE will know. No more keeping other people's dirty little secrets."
This was the thought going through my mind at 3:30 this morning. This was the rut that I dug myself into as I listened to my friend pour out his heart about his last relationship. This was the thing that was eating at my soul while my friend cried and talked about his pain.
Friendships fucking suck. It sucks to be friends with someone when you know things that will hurt them. It sucks to be friends with TWO people when you know things about each of them that will disillusion the other and infringe on the happiness of either of them. It's just really fucking hard to care about people.
There are so many problems with knowing things; so many things wrong with knowledge of someone else's business. I hate when people tell me things. I really can't stand when someone confides in me if only because I never know what to do. Common decency says that one should never go around blabbing the business (whether "secret" or otherwise) of another person to the world. What do you do when you are under the teary-eyed gaze of the person that those things hurt though? How do you deal with that? Moreover, how do you deal with the fact that, had you been more forthcoming with the information that is not yours to give out, you may have been able to prevent the tears and forego the pain? What do you do when, through inaction, you are somewhat at fault?
That's why I have such a hard time having friends. I confide in no one and I really don't like when others confide in me. True friends require trust and the sharing of information and I avoid that like the plague. It's much easier just to stay out of everyone else's business and keep my hands off of everyone else's lives. I don't want to play chess with other people's hearts. No one ever seems to win that game.
Why do we make our friends suffer so? No, I'm not talking about making them suffer by keeping things from them; I'm talking about making them suffer by TELLING them shit to begin with! We have no right to put other people in the position to make such a difficult decision. Think about the problem for a moment: cause pain by remaining loyal to a friend (or one friend if you are close to everyone involved) or cause pain by spilling your guts at the first sign of tension. When is it appropriate to tell? When is it necessary to give out information and what reasons justify such action? It's a hellish conundrum with no real answer and any decision that is made results in the suffering of someone (or everyone) involved.
That's why friendships suck. Just don't tell me shit that you don't want everyone to know because, from now on, to avoid any conflict, I'm an open book. The new disclaimer on my life is going to be: "If you tell me something, I will probably write a fucking blog about it and EVERYONE will know. No more keeping other people's dirty little secrets."
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