When my supposedly progressive town tried to pass a non-discrimination ordinance that would have prevented people from being denied housing or employment because of their sexual orientation or gender identification, the religious crazies came out in force. They were perfectly comfortable calling me and the other queer people at public hearings pedophiles and accusing us of bestiality. When it came close to passing, our mayor shot it down because of her “Christian beliefs.” Now that even Salt Lake City has passed a similar ordinance, I wonder if it’ll have more of a chance here.
Tag-Archive for » discrimination «
May 31st, 2009 | Author: sarcozona
Lesbian stereotypes are so much fun to play with.
The conservatives on the Supreme Court think pregnancy discrimination is ok. I don’t get it – shouldn’t they consider it double discrimination?
Fathers with daughters often become more liberal. I’d say that’s good evidence that current conservative policies hurt women. Of course, you could also say that spending too much time with women makes men too “soft.”
Choosing Sotomayor was a pretty good political move.
A memorial day thought that made me cry.
PZ on the horrific crimes of the Irish Catholic Church: Can we stop equating religion and morality now? They never seem to have much to do with one another.
This woman deserves to go to jail for murder. And maybe her pastor, too.
The Sri Lankan government has been leveling all sorts of terrible accusations against the Tamil Tigers. Looks like the pot was calling the kettle black.
How to get straight couples to understand why the right to marry is important.
The Christian god isn’t the only real god according to the Bible. He just thinks he’s better.
Delara Darabi – if there had been more news coverage in the West, she may have lived.
I think The Onion does a good job summarizing my views so far on the Obama Presidency: Obama Revises Campaign Promise Of ‘Change’ To ‘Relatively Minor Readjustments In Certain Favorable Policy Areas’
November 09th, 2008 | Author: sarcozona
Proposition 8 in California passed last Tuesday. The proposition overturns a recent California Supreme Court decision recognizing same-sex marriage by ammending the state constitution to say “”Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” This was heartbreaking news for many LGBT people across the country. We wondered how one group could make so much progress while another took such a huge step back.
Then the news came that California African American voters, who’d overwhelmingly supported Obama, had voted in favor of Proposition 8 70% of the time. I was so hurt when I heard that. Why would people that understood discrimination vote to take away civil rights from an entire group of people? Especially when exactly the same arguments were used to deny interracial marriages until the late 1960s:
1) First, judges claimed that marriage belonged under the control of the states rather than the federal government.
2) Second, they began to define and label all interracial relationships (even longstanding, deeply committed ones) as illicit sex rather than marriage.
3) Third, they insisted that interracial marriage was contrary to God’s will, and
4) Fourth, they declared, over and over again, that interracial marriage was somehow “unnatural.”
So I’m angry and confused and wish our schools taught history better. But I was even angrier when I heard about this over at Pandagon:
Los Angeles resident and Rod 2.0 reader A. Ronald says he and his boyfriend, who are both black, were carrying NO ON PROP 8 signs and still subjected to racial abuse.
Three older men accosted my friend and shouted, “Black people did this, I hope you people are happy!” A young lesbian couple with mohawks and Obama buttons joined the shouting and said there were “very disappointed with black people” and “how could we” after the Obama victory. This was stupid for them to single us out because we were carrying those blue NO ON PROP 8 signs! I pointed that out and the one of the older men said it didn’t matter because “most black people hated gays” and he was “wrong” to think we had compassion. That was the most insulting thing I had ever heard. I guess he never thought we were gay.
Responding to ignorance and hate with ignorance and hate makes the situation a lot worse. And in this situation, people were alienating members of their own community.
Chatter