Boss
Take a Memo:
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- #701
Reasonable people already approached the problem and resolved it. Your butthurt over the matter doesn't actually factor into the equation as you think it does. The problem is solved.Evercurious is bisexual who just happened to fall in love with a man who is a jealous type so I now live a "straight" life (we've been together 15 years now.) Prior to that I was in an open marriage with the father of my two children; and honestly had my husband been legally able to marry his other gal I would have been fine with it, though likely the other gal wouldn't have been so w/e. First husband and I had a very lovely marriage, had two wonderful kids as we'd intended, and we're fairly good friends even now that our boys have all grown up.
On the other hand, my adopted sister had to leave her home state, and family, to marry her girlfriend, and had to stay there because her home state would not recognize their civil union. The son of very good friends of the family had to leave his home state, and family, to marry his boyfriend, and again, had to stay there because his home state would not recognize his marriage. I actually /know/ people that these crappy laws hurt very well.
Additionally, outside my immediate "family" I've befriended hundreds of folks from the LGBT community over the years and I've heard their stories. One of them left the US for Europe because of anti-gay sentiment, one of them was fairly regularly beaten in the bathroom at school for being transgender, another was beaten up for wearing drag to a club, another nearly committed suicide because of being teased constantly in HS, another was hate by her own fucking parents for being a lesbian... I'm not an emotional person so I don't "wring my hands" over it, I get angry, because I see and hear what these people have to go through for no other reason than "gay sex is icky"
The double standard of it all makes me belief it's all bullshit, the whole fucking thing; I was fairly open about my bi-sexuality in HS (in the late 80's) I had girlfriends more than boyfriends and pretty much everyone in school knew it; no one really cared, if anything they thought it was sexy or w/e, most men fantasize about two women together or with them so that's socially okay - but a gay man? "ICK!! BURN THEM!!" It's a load of crap from a bunch of bigots as far as I'm concerned, sorry.
They say they're "protecting us" by stopping it, because their God is going to destroy the country/world, because gay men are "dangerous," or w/e bullshit, but the truth in prob. 99% of the cases is that they just think gay men are gross, nothing more. If God was going to "end" this country, then he would have done it in the beginning, because homosexuals have /always/ been here, and yet there /still/ no evidence of all the bullshit these fuckers fear monger in their protests and "arguments", and no evidence what so ever that their God gives a rats ass if a few people fall out of his flock. If he did then why didn't he stop the whole "freedom of religion" thing the founding fathers put in? Why did he leave it in? Free will. Yet the Christian's have no interest in "Free Will" only their personal /interpretation/ of Gods will.
If one wishes to get deeper into my "spiritual" thinking; personally I'm an agnostic, while I'm mostly scientific leaning, I figure that maybe, just maybe, there is something/someone out there who started all this, maybe it even guides us; but if that is the case, then it appears s/he wishes homosexuality to be accepted because it's happening all over the planet, not just here. This is not just /our/ supposedly "degenerating" society, but the will and voice of a global society that will become absolutely necessary in the long term of the human race. Ultimately, in my world view, belief system, or w/e your want to call it, we as a species absolutely must learn to accept each others differences; our different cultures, societies, languages, and our different religions, or lack there of, if we are ever going to have world cooperation/co-existence, if we're ever going to be able to make the transition into space living, if we're ever going to colonize another planet and ultimately save our species, as well as the species of every animal on this planet. If there is a "superior being" out there, then why did s/he make us smarter than the "animals"? So we could war with each other over who's god is better?? I believe that /if/ there is a "God" then we humans have been given higher intelligence /because/ we are tasked with ensuring that all "Earthlings" survive to eternity. We have the brain power to make it happen and even the foundations of the country that could support it, but instead of embracing the freedom that would allow that "advancement" as a species, we're too busy fighting with each other over stupid shit like who's loving and having sex whom. It's a waste of this country's "good" foundation to move backwards in "acceptance" of fellow man in all their differences.
I basically find the argument facetious and shortsighted for "peace," which is why I say that if /Christian's/ cannot accept those who are "different" or have "different beliefs" then they will cease to exist, because the bigotry and hatred they display regarding what two men thousands of miles away from them do, pretty much destroys any chance of any kind of world co-existence and cooperation - which ultimately leads to a path of non-existence for every species on this planet (albeit perhaps, if we're lucky in the Russian roulette of asteroid strikes, not for millions of years when the Sun swallows the planet.) I suppose ultimately that I do not believe that a God who would put us here simply to fight with each other over this kind of stupid shit until he let the sun destroy us is a "good" God to follow in the first place (which ultimately leads me to the idea/thought that it is not, in fact, /God/ who teaches this bullcrap, but rather men, weak scared men who want to maintain or gain control of other men and have no interest in actually "saving" anyone, souls or otherwise, but rather are only interested in pushing their personal agenda and beliefs at the time, no matter how unreasonable and unrealistic those personal beliefs and opinions are.)
I mean if we're going to talk stupid shit; how long before we blow up Japan for their encouragement of sex between 13 year olds? How long before we destroy the middle east because they don't believe in the Christian teachings? How long before we finish the job with the Native American "Pagans"? Where does it stop?
Again... I don't have a problem with removing government from the marriage business altogether. I don't think the government, at the federal level, has any power whatsoever when it comes to how we as individuals define marriage. That should be entirely up to us, and we should be free to believe whatever we want... If we believe homosexuality is wrong and there is no such thing as homosexual marriage... that should be respected. If we believe gay marriage is a beautiful thing between two people who love one another... that should also be respected.
It's clear that our laws and rules can't respect both views because they conflict. So it seems the reasonable and rational thing to do is find some way that we can all get along together and also have a society which we can coexist in. I don't know if it's the "ideal" solution but it seems to me that removing government from sanctioning all marriages and replacing government recognition of traditional marriages with a recognition of domestic partner contracts instead, is a way to ostensibly give everyone what they want. Churches and religious people get to keep the "sanctity of traditional marriage" so vitally important to their religious foundation, and LGBT couples have a mechanism by which they can obtain the benefits of traditional married couples.
PLUS.. there is an ADDED benefit to CUs... it opens the door to any number of domestic arrangements between two legal parties. A civil union contract could be used by an adult child caring for their aging parent, or two spinster sisters living together, or two eternal BFFs who have nothing but a platonic relationship. It's no longer about sexual behavior or romantic love, it's simply a legal contract without any binding emotional condition attached.
Unfortunately, whenever I have presented my idea, the response I get is the same from both sides. The religious people pushing to ban gay marriage say it's not acceptable and gay marriage proponents say it's not enough. It's almost as if the "activists" don't want to resolve the issue.
Despite the doubts, I have plenty of gay friends and I've watched them be discriminated against for a long time while this battle has raged on. It will continue to rage on as long as we allow it to because neither side is willing to give. So we can keep on fighting this fight, one side winning a 'victory' this year only to have it reversed next year, surrendering more and more of our freedom to government and courts where at the end of the day, no one has really gained any ground... OR... we can become reasonable people who approach this problem rationally and with the idea of trying to solve the problem and give everyone what they want.
I know that a lot of you think this. You were all cheering and celebrating the SCOTUS ruling and you're full of hubris and confidence that you've won this war and it's now just a matter of dispatching a few 'bigots' like Kim Davis and you're set... but I don't think so. In fact, I think your real problems just began.
Despite all evidence to the contrary. There is no evidence that the side who wants equal rights for Americans who happen to be gay have any NEW problems. Just the same old bigotry- just now less of it.
I don't know about "sides" since I don't have a "side" ...I just want to see the issue resolved in a way that respects what everyone believes. You want the issue resolved in a way that pleases you but tells everyone else to fuck off. And that is the difference between you and I.
We already had "equal rights" and this has never been about equal anything.
