Here’s what’s been going on on the law side of the LGBT debate:
Kansas decides once again to leave it’s anti-sodomy laws on the books, even though they’ve been ruled obsolete by the Supreme Court. Thank goodness they won’t repeal those laws, we might think we’re real people.
An essay about ENDA, the employee non-discrimination act. Because it’s not on the books (and since any version would probably include a non-profit exclusion), I can be fired for coming out. And that’s what happened when a Church’s music director married his husband.
It’s hard being gay in the United States, but I have to remember that it’s much worse elsewhere.
A gay man was forced by his employer to marry a woman or else lose his job (this also broke up with woman’s first marriage, by the way). All because he was asking for equal rights.
And in Sweden, the government is castrating members of the transgendered community. This is heartbreaking, infuriating and evil, all wrapped into one:
It’s bad here, but it’s worse elsewhere. Always good to put things in perspective.
This is floating around, and I love it. There are a couple things I would have added, and a bit of the editing is weird towards the end, but I love it:
The ongoing debate over women’s reproductive health is abhorrent. A snipped I found from Maddow:
The Bishops’ position, which the Republicans have now adopted as their own, is that religious leaders have the right to override that decision, even though it will affect employees who have no moral or religious qualms about birth control. Writing in Newsweek, Andrew Sullivan captured the Bishops’ thinking perfectly: “Catholic doctrine should, according to the bishops’ spokesman, also apply to non-Catholics.” […]
[T]he principle seems pretty clear to me. The Bishops want a veto over public policy. And the Republicans want to give it to them.
Go read the whole thing here, and check out a cool post at Slog about the crazies that are ruining the Republican Party (and yes, I do wish that there was actually a rational conservative party. In order to find the best solutions to our problems, we need to have good, actual debate, and we need ideas from all parts of the spectrum. However, the reactionary Republicans that have taken over the conservative side of the spectrum are preventing that rational discussion).
And to cleanse the palate, the trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter:
First up, sadly, it looks like the Senate is trying to pass another SOPA, just with another name. Bad Senate! Don’t do that.
Al Jazeera has a good segment about a proposed bill in Australia which will fine parents who don’t get their children vaccinated:
Hint, if you keep talking about how vaccines are evil and a ruse by the government, I will delete you from my Facebook newsfeed. That will….certainly not teach you anything.
Mercy is the closest hospital to work. It’s also a Catholic hospital.
Although, sidenote, during the G20 conference, even though Mercy was closer, the hospital designated for the conference was AGH, across the river. Although I guess by helicopter it may have been a little closer, and I know Mercy had a lot of overflow work. But anyway…
AMERICAblog has a great op-ed, worth a read, here is a bit:
So where does it stop? Does the Catholic church think their hospitals can refuse to respond to 911 calls from transgender people? That’s what happened in DC a number of years ago, the emergency medical guys freaked out when they responded to a call and found out the victim was trans. They let her die, not before verbally mocking the dying woman, rather than offend their delicate sensibilities by treating her life-threatening injuries:
Injured in an automobile accident, Hunter died shortly after a firefighter stopped treating her when the firefighter realized that Hunter was a man dressed in women’s clothes. Rather than assisting Hunter as she lay dying, the firefighter harassed her by making homophobic jokes to his fellow firefighters.
So don’t tell me it won’t happen. It has happened. And it’s what the Catholics, and the religious right, are arguing for.
I don’t want to take my chances with Mercy, although, one of my best friends sometimes works at Mercy. And if I have the choice between my best friend and someone who may be inclined to not help me as much since I’m a “sinner” in their eyes, I’m going to go for the better medical treatment, who would be ready to probably kill for me will have to visit me elsewhere.
Update: Sadly, he doesn’t work at Mercy anymore, although it’s better for him, so it’s a good thing.
There are a lot of rights that people take for granted because they don’t realize what they have. Which I guess is a good thing, it’s strange to think about what life would be like without certain rights and it’s a blessing to have them.
So very often, members of the LGBT community can be discriminated against for no other reason than who we love. For instance, housing. I could be denied housing, just because I’m gay (so remember that next time you buy a house or rent an apartment, you’re flaunting your sexuality).
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced on Saturday that his agency will codify its proposed rule that would ban anti-LGBT discrimination in federal housing programs next week.
He received a standing ovation as he took the stage and when he announced the pending codification. “LGBT individuals and couples have the right to live where they choose,” said Donovan.
