Ok ok you are saying SHUT UP ABOUT THE GAY RIGHTS ISSUE.
I wish I could. I wish this were just no longer an issue. I wish I could walk down the street and not see signs of the injustices and intolerances of society. Sadly we are not there yet and until we are I am not gonna stop talking about it. Recently I has a discussion with a friend of mine who just happens to be Mormon on whether or not people had the right to vote their own personal morality into law. She of course believes they do and I of course believe the opposite. Her argument is that morality is the basis on how people vote and mine is that the law need be free from the passions of morality (to loosely interpret Aristotle).
I do agree on the point that morality, in the sense that if an action is harmful to the individual, should be included in law. This is in the case of murder, rape or any other action that does not include the consent of all parties involved. Marriage however MUST include the consent of the two individuals petitioning to be joined in such a union. So please to al you conservatives out there PLEASE stop comparing your right to vote your morals to murder, rape, child molestation and all the other bullshit you keep trying to make gay marriage akin to. Believe me I understand the conundrum of gay rights vs. religion. However lets look at it from this angle. If God hates gay people as the Westboro Baptist church would like you to believe then WHY DOES HE KEEP MAKING THEM? I have a hard time believing that God, the all knowing is up there making gay people but being totally disgusted that he is doing so. If it is true that we are all children of God and he/she truly wants us to be happy then why would he deny the gay folk any of the same rights that the hetero's have? I am sorry but the God I know and love isn't at all surprised that there are gay folks running around nor is he gonna banish them to hell for being as he created them.
With that being said lets consider the Jim Crow laws for a minute. Lets for the sake of example substitute the word black for the word gay/lesbian and the word white for straight. It is oddly familiar and frighteningly telling as to where this country is heading if the religious and or homophobic folk get to keep pushing their morals on the general public.
1. A gay/lesbian could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a straight person because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a gay/lesbian could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a straight person, because he risked being accused of rape.
(This in effect happens everyday. I have been shaken hands with straight men but was only permitted to do so after he extended the offer. He then proceeded to sit as far away as humanly possible from me in the same room and never made eye contact... ever.)
2. Gays/Lesbians and straight people were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, straights were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them.
(The benefit of being gay/lesbian is that is isn't always easy to tell. This one for now is moot however i have no doubt in my mind that if there were a way to tell we would NOT be welcome at the same table.)
3. Under no circumstance was a gay/lesbian to offer to light the cigarette of a straight person -- that gesture implied intimacy.
(Ok regardless of the smoking preferences of people. Gay and Lesbian people have to be very cautions as to what, in the name of courtesy, we do for the Straights. Mostly because all too often our gestures of etiquette are misconstrued as showing interest."
4. Gays/Lesbians were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended straights.
(This one hits a little TOO close to home for me growing up in a rural type area. This is CERTAINLY the attitude that I have grown up with and because of that am extremely cautions of my actions in public.)
5. Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that gays/lesbians were introduced to straights, never straights to gays/lesbianss. For example: "Mr. Peters (the straight person), this is Charlie (the gay/lesbian person), that I spoke to you about."
(This I have found to be common place even though it may be a subconscious thing. Additionally I have noticed that may straight people refuse to acknowledge that I have spoken unless they have spoken directly to me.)
6. Straights do not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to gays/lesbians, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma'am. Instead, gays/lesbians were called by their first names. Gays/Lesbians have to use courtesy titles when referring to straights, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.
(Ok so I will admit that in this case it is the fault of the gays. I cannot speak on behalf of the lesbians but I know that we gays have a tendency to throw titles around loosely. Girl is the general standard for all humans regardless of gender.)
7. If a gay/lesbian person rides in a car driven by a straight person, the gay/lesbian person sits in the back seat, or the back of a truck.
(All i can say is give it time. If things keep going as they are now it is only a matter of time.)
8. Straight motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.
(OMG I fear for the guy in his Prius (that his wife made him buy) that comes across a pissed off Lesbian in her F-350. Note
to the dudes. Remember the law of lug nuts. )
This is not only scary but super realistic IF things keep going along the path that they have been set. My only hope at this point is that there are enough gay and gay friendly people in this world to stop this madness before we get to this point.
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