Filmmaker Ryan James Yezak’s moving video on the gay rights movement has gone viral. Take a look and you’ll know why.
Battling ignorance and fear is not an easy task and never will be for as long as the Rick Santorums and Tony Perkins of society persist in promoting their religious-based brand of hate.
More on Yezak’s documentary Second Class Citizens here.
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Minnesota House Rep. (DFL), Steve Simon, gave one of the more impassioned and rational arguments I’ve heard in favor of gay rights as a state panel passed a bill (along party lines) banning same-sex marriage.
“Ask yourself, if it’s true that sex orientation is innate, is God-given, then what does it mean to the moral force of your argument? To put it in the vernacular, what I would ask is, ‘How many more people does God have to create before we ask ourselves whether or not God actually wants them around? How many gay people does God have to create before we ask ourselves whether the living of their lives the way they wish as long as they don’t harm others is Godly, holy, happy, glorious. thing.’ I’ve answered that for myself. I don’t think everyone’s answered that for themselves. I’m comfortable with a society and tradition that bends toward justice, fairness, wholeness, openness, compassion…”
So how do the homophobes counter such an argument? Easy. They claim that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice. Don’t be fooled by bigots and haters making unsubstantiated claims such as this for it is simply a cover to mask their homophobic tendencies.
That last line in the quote above pretty much explains why talking to conservatives about social issues is such a frustrating task. It most often leads to nowhere because so many conservatives display personalities which are devoid of true compassion. Discussing a society which “bends toward justice, fairness, wholeness, openness and compassion” with one who lacks the ability to understand basic concepts of that type is not unlike speaking to a brick. No matter how reasonable your argument or how loud your voice, a brick can forever be nothing more than a brick. It is for this reason that at some point, one must simply move on, do the right thing and ignore the bigots of society entirely, realizing that people of that type are nothing more than a hindrance to progress and little more than puss-filled sores on the skin of humanity.
Here is Steve Simon’s speech in its entirety.
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Underestimating this President might be the most serious mistake one can make. After getting a tax bill through Congress (imperfect as it was), today he signed a bill repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – a move which a mere two weeks ago seemed near impossible. It appears that this not-so-lame lame duck session will end up being one of the most productive in history. A measure funding health care for 9/11 first responders as well as ratification of START are set to pass Congress before Christmas. Good stuff.
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Senate reaches deal for 9/11 health bill.
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The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell passed the Senate with a 65-31 vote aided by eight Republicans who crossed over and voted for repeal.
President Obama fulfilled a campaign pledge to move the country into the 21st century and rid it of DADT, a law of intolerance. His decision to seek repeal through congressional action as opposed to a judicial decision or an executive order came close to failing but in the end, worked out as planned.
Like 2009′s removal of the HIV ban, which was as painstakingly slow but thereby much more entrenched, this process took time. Without the Pentagon study, it wouldn’t have passed. Without Obama keeping Lieberman inside the tent, it wouldn’t have passed. Without the critical relationship between Bob Gates and Obama, it wouldn’t have passed. It worked our last nerve; we faced at one point a true nightmare of nothing … for years. And then we pulled behind this president, making it his victory and the country’s victory, as well as ours.
The biggest winner is anyone who believes in social justice and…
…about enlarging the circle of human freedom so that there are no excuses left, no classes of pre-ordained victims, just individual citizens living different lives with no group-based discrimination.
On the loser’s list is the Republican party, homophobes of all stripes and of course John McCain who fought tooth and nail against repeal. This vindictive, petty little man is still smarting over his 2008 loss and his rationale for anything these days has little to do with personal conviction and everything to do with denying Barack Obama a victory of any kind.
In the end though, Congress did the right thing.
President Obama:
“…no longer will many thousands more be asked to live a lie in order to serve the country they love.”
Amen.
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In my Gays Can Be Morons Too post, I asked how gays could possibly believe they were helping their cause by having voted Republican in the midterm elections. And how, I ask, does one’s own civil rights not take precedence over economic concerns?
Radio host Michaelangelo Signorele does battle with these very questions.
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As Signorele asks, is there any difference between a gay person voting Republican and a person of the Jewish faith voting for an anti-Semite? If there is, I can’t see it.
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(h/t: Balloon Juice)
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