I am going to try and be as calm as possible and not rant and rave about this subject but please bear with me. I would like to begin by reminding everyone that the year is 2016; it appears from the latest anti-LGBT laws that were passed in this “free” country that the year is not known to all parties.
Where do I begin?
Let’s start in the fine state of Mississippi. In the beginning of April, Mississippi’s governor, Phil Bryant, signed a bill into law that allows businesses to deny gay couples services. The reason for this discriminatory law is to protect “‘sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions,’ including the belief that marriage is only between a man and a woman and that sexual relations should only occur in such a marriage.” I’m sorry, but where was I when someone’s sex/love life became someone else’s choice?
Bryant went on to say that this legislation is to give people the ability to “exercise their religious freedom”. Another friendly reminder: our Founding Fathers built this country quite literally on the basis of separation of church and state. I completely respect people’s right to their religion; it is given to us in our Bill of Rights. What I do not respect is when people utilize their religion to discriminate against others. I am an atheist, but if you want to become a nun and devote your life to god, then all the power to you. Can anyone find me a law where a band of LGBT people signed an anti-religion bill? No? Is that because they’re under-represented in legislation? Or maybe also because they don’t feel the need to tell you how to live your life?
Also, I’m pretty sure that in every religious text, god is credited with the creation of mankind; so one can infer that he meant to create me just as much as he meant to create you. If making a lesbian or a gay couple their wedding cake keeps you up at night and puts the fear of god into you, I suggest you do some reevaluating.
Seems like a good time to move on to North Carolina. Also in April—great month to be gay, apparently—North Carolina’s Governor, Pat McCrory, signed a bill “banning anti-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and requiring transgender people in government buildings and public schools to use bathrooms that match the gender on their birth certificates.” I’m sorry Mississippi and North Carolina, I can’t hear your bigotry above my horse and carriage ride; my corset is too tight and the air can’t reach my brain to process what you’re saying. Will this be put in the press tomorrow with the year 1887 stamped at the top? America, are you kidding? Again, it’s 2016. Why are we reverting back to laws that I would expect to find in a history book before we supposedly became an equal-opportunity, free, nondiscriminatory country?
The best part is that McCrory added, “I respect disagreement” once he received major criticism from interest groups and once PayPal withdrew it’s $3.6 million investment in the state. Governor McCrory, you respect disagreement? You mean like the kind of disagreement you have against gay and transgender rights? Seems like a respectable approach you took by choosing not to put anti-discrimination laws into place. I don’t understand how a public official can actually pass a law banning anti-discriminatory laws, and then try and say he respects disagreement. Flawless argument, Governor.
I find it appalling and downright sad to live in a country that harbors this kind of discrimination, inequality, and hatred. We are built on a doctrine that is supposed to guarantee all citizens life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Why is it then that religious conservatives, in a country built on the separation of church and state, can perpetuate such discrimination? This life is about being with who you love, no matter that person’s gender, sexual orientation or religion. Even though you are discriminating against me, I am still here telling you that you have the right to practice your religion; can’t the rest of us love who we want? And not feel lesser than everyone else because of it? Or is it really the 1800s and I’m just entirely out of the loop? Either way, keep your f***king religion out of my sexuality.
