Special Treatment Or Inequal Treatment?

http://thecollegeconservative.com/2012/07/13/gay-rights-above-all-else

http://thecollegeconservative.com/2012/06/24/commonsense-questions-about-the-registry-of-homophobic-acts/

With things like affirmative action still looming over our head in some form or fashion, it’s not unusual for people to think that minorities are getting special treatment by the government. This is especially pertinent and topical with GLBT people. Stories seem to indicate that there is a push in some segments of GLBT activism to force acceptance of homosexuals in political culture. These may be isolated in nature, but that sort of mindset is troubling to me, since I can see both sides of this argument. On the one hand, you have people steeped in traditions that oppose it or just have a lack of experience with GLBT people that inhibits understanding them as people with the same wants, needs and traits that straight people have. But then there are those that have been persecuted, isolated, ostracized and scapegoated as GLBT people by the majority and feel like they have to fight for their rights that much more forcefully in return. That sort of vengeful posturing might have some justification in the sense of being aggressive, but it can also send the wrong message about the community as a whole, both gay activists and straight supporters. There is a middle ground that should be publicized more. Combative language doesn’t make things seem more justified on the side that has more supporters but no defense for why they behave in such a headstrong manner. It’s not damaging to be enthusiastic about social justice and other associated goods in the world, but the methods we seek to attain them through should align with the values that are sought to be realized. Equality and tolerance demands equal treatment and congenial behavior towards even those we strongly disagree with.

Accusations continue to fly in this proverbial culture war that the GLBT community is being treated unusually well in America as of recently, “getting away” with things other people, like pedophiles, couldn’t ever do even in today’s more liberal climate. But GLBT people are not getting special treatment unless the government officializes a homophobic registry or otherwise passes legislation that would give them undue favor and protections. Simply having the option through a privately funded group is certainly iffy, but it doesn’t make disagreeing with homosexuals illegal and any hate crime legislation already has qualifications in place about imminent fear being how it can be prosecuted. A qualification between the culture being concerned about GLBT rights and the government being concerned is important, since the former is more grassroots in nature and the government’s organization and power being put behind something is a bit more direct, especially with the legal ramifications.

Some employees at colleges have been fired (technically they resigned, more likely) because of their refusal to counsel people who were struggling with homosexuality in a way that disagreed with their religious beliefs. The problem with this line of objection is that the college in question where this incident occurred was public, so one could argue this is a public accommodation issue in that you can’t claim your religious objections are grounds to deny service to someone or refuse to do your job consistently, such as employees of adoption agencies refusing to take requests from gay couples. There are times when firing someone merely because they disagree with a company about gay rights is questionable, but the company may very well have the right to do so if they are privatized. Gay rights should be a priority, but we should be civil to each other in advancing this cause. We shouldn’t treat the intolerant with further intolerance, but only their beliefs, which are not absolutely identical with them as a person, who deserves respect regardless of what heinous beliefs they hold.

When speaking about rights, we have to understand first and foremost that they are protected by the government, but not forced through legislation without justification. GLBT rights are not something we should determine through popular opinion if it stands to reason that the traits of GLBT are not malleable and essential to their person. Religion is protected due to the cultural and societal significance it possesses, even though it is quite easily adjusted with changes in convictions and new evidence and consideration. But sexual orientation and gender identity, while somewhat malleable, are not so changeable as to be regarded as a matter of caprice. We don’t just choose to be attracted to a certain sex, both or none, nor do we entirely choose our identities in terms of what society judges as masculine and feminine. Guarding them does not have to imply special treatment by any means, but it doesn’t mean we protect any so called right to be a bigot, especially if it involves treating those you disagree with harshly, unfairly or even as social outcasts when they don’t deserve it. Of course we have a right to disagree with people, but equality under the law should also mean we are treated equally as much as possible by the government, which means that disagreements are acceptable within reason. There should not be such divisiveness and negativity based on things we disagree with, since tolerance can be exercised without people contradicting their religious beliefs that see certain things as immoral or wrong. It’s better to treat people equally and not give special treatment that is unwarranted than to try to justify inequality in any sense when it can be done in an equitable manner. Protections extended to groups that are considered special cases, such as GLBT, races, etc, have limitations, but are not unjustified when the likelihood exists that they could be targeted because of their being part of that group by bigotry and prejudice. As tolerant and open as America is, it behooves us to protect citizens from hate crimes in order to truly be a free and just country. Until next time, Namaste and aloha.

James Conway and Gay Straight Segregation

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/26/marines.gay.housing/index.html?hpt=T2

This will be a shorter article, but I could not resist writing some commentary on this issue that has come up in relation to the changes being put in place with DADT by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Recently, the top officer in the Marines, James Conway, has advocated that new barracks be made for homosexual officers, so that straight marines won’t have to share rooms with them. This already smacks of the intent behind segregation in the 50s: that even if you kept people separate, you were giving them equal treatment and not denying one group rights that the other has. But like segregation with blacks, if you are making such a large problem out of gays and straights cohabitating, it begs the question why such ideas haven’t been enforced in other areas of life, like college campuses, particularly state funded ones. Not to mention that separating people into groups based on appearance and other aspects of life is only good in the abstract, not the concrete. Public services and basic civil rights as such should be equally given and shared by all humanity, which was the reasoning that led to segregation eventually falling away.

But if the issue is about trust, then why shouldn’t college campuses do the same thing Conway is arguing? Because college campuses appear to be more informed and understanding of the complexity of such an issue. If I had had a gay roommate for example, I wouldn’t have had a significant issue apart from what would be a similar issue if one cohabitated with a roommate of the opposite sex. Just because there is such a possibility does not mean the people in question cannot confront this issue face to face, talk about it and come to an agreement that does not favor one over the other. While my gay roommate would understand that I don’t see his sexual orientation as anything immoral, I would think it reasonable that they accept that I’m not gay myself and thus would not want any unwarranted sexual attention that would be indistinguishable from sexual harassment.

With such an institution as the military, the idea of self control is reasonably assumed to be part of training. By association, it is hardly irrational to suggest to recruits that while you may disagree with gay and lesbian people and their sexual orientation that there is no reason to deny them the same right to serve one’s country; and that there is also no reason to fear them living in the same barracks as you. The same issue was confronted no doubt when they were thinking of letting women serve in the army, though admittedly gender separate housing could be said to be more reasonable in terms of such an area as the army. But co-ed housing would hardly be completely out of the question. The army is not like college, however, so my comparisons are questionable to begin with, but the importance of such a claim from a senior officer can’t be ignored. Passing the adjustments to DADT policy won’t change people’s opinions so easily on such things as allowing gays to cohabitate with straight people. That will be another thing entirely. Until next time, Namaste and Aloha.

GLBT In H.S. Prom=Educational Distractions?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lesbian_prom_date


I didn’t go to my high school prom and if anything similar to this incident happened at my own high school, it would’ve made me that much less motivated to go. A lesbian teen asked the school to allow her to bring her girlfriend in a tuxedo to the prom in order to get around a prohibition in the rules that required the date to be the opposite sex. Though that may not have been her intention it seems a reasonable compromise to at least conform to some outdated idea of gender roles and have one partner wear male clothes to the prom. But instead of the school rejecting her request and returning her money, getting back the prom tickets and solving the problem without a big ruckus, they CANCEL THE PROM ENTIRELY. I don’t know what the administrators could be thinking when they are quoted as cancelling the prom "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events." Because a lesbian couple distracts from the educational process in Mississippi more than it distracts anywhere else, it seems. We had a gay student at my high school and we’re not exactly in the most enlightened area of Tennessee ourselves and there was no issue in terms of him being at the school, let alone coming to the prom. But I seem to remember he came alone; or he may have transferred because of similar issues with prom rules that exist in our own district.


The point comes across negatively in that the administration seems to think that just because two women who are romantically involved come to a prom, albeit in gender divided clothes, it will distract from the educational process; even though the high school educational process that they no doubt speak of isn’t at a prom in the slightest. One has to wonder why they allow the “distracting lesbian” to even go to the school if she is such a problem to the prom. Though a bigger question remains as to how a prom getting cancelled or having a lesbian couple attend it would even affect educational process. The students must be that focused on whether everyone at the prom is paired up male and female that when the prom has one female/female couple they just can’t focus on their work because their latent homophobia is flaring up. Or they just think a prom is more important that getting an education in general. Not to mention the students are focusing some resentment towards the girl in question, since she supposedly “ruined their senior year”. Yeah, because a prom is what makes your senior year important: not the graduation ceremony and wearing the caps and gowns and being supportive of your fellow students for working hard. No, I suppose that whole process of getting the diploma is bollocks compared to dancing in a crowded room to bad music with hormonally challenged teens trying to get into the fairer sexes’ pants afterwards. Must be my imagination to think students favor a prom over graduating itself as the exemplar moment of their high school years.


The aftermath of this incident suggests that the ACLU is still pursuing the lawsuit against the school for violating the student’s rights. And the school’s suggestion has some merit; that is, allowing a private sponsor to hold the prom in lieu of a public school funded one.And according to the lesbian student she’d probably be excluded from that function as well, since it’s an old generation with money that doesn’t agree with GLBT in general. But one has to wonder why they even bothered to use school funding to sponsor a prom with a rule that they knew one GLBT student could violate with their same sex partner which would they cause them to inevitably cancel the prom entirely. Any student continuing to gripe to the teen in question must have too myopic a standard to consider their fellow student’s feelings about something that they didn’t want to ruin for everyone. One same sex couple at a high school dance shouldn’t rock the boat so much that the party gets cancelled. Students getting exposed to such a thing at their age is part of a larger educational process that the school alleged was being affected. There are going to be minorities in the real world that you don’t agree with, so you should get used to tolerating them even if you don’t agree with them. But this is Mississippi, so I’m not holding my breath that this is going to change anytime soon. Even if the ACLU’s lawsuit succeeds, the school may just elect to their idea of making a private prom instead. And if that occurs, the girl should just move on, in my opinion. This whole incident isn’t worth holding a grudge against inbred Podunk retards that think that two women or men having a committed “Biblical” relationship is still an abomination or some such rubbish. Move on and leave the state if necessary; real friends accept you as you are, as an individual who can change and progress in the world. Real friends don’t bitch at you for happening to love the same sex and wanting to go to the prom like other high school students.