The PCTC Blog

The REAL "Gay Agenda": Equal Rights for All!

These United States were founded on the concept that all (people) are created equal. Even many of the slave owners among the Founding Fathers envisioned a day in which all (people) really are treated equally. It's supposed to be a major goal as we work toward "a more perfect union." 

So, why does it always seem necessary for a significant number of Americans (neocons, mostly, but there are other self-righteous prigs out there, too) to designate a group of people to be denied the rights that everyone else is entitled to? More importantly, why do so many people try to rationalize or justify it? Denying anyone their basic civil rights is wrong, period. 

One of these days, this "land of the free" might just figure out that the proper line to draw when it comes to rights is no line at all, at least among law-abiding citizens. The only actions we should outlaw are those which negatively affect the rights of others and/or cause serious risk to public safety. For example, I don’t want to outlaw tobacco products. If you want to sit in your own home and chain smoke to your heart’s content, have at it. But I should also have a right to go into public buildings without having to endure your chosen habit. Also, the cost of each pack of smokes should reflect the amount the rest of us are going to have to pay when your silly ass ends up in the hospital because you were too dumb to heed the warnings that are available everywhere.

But I digress.

"Good Christians™": Stop Using "the Bible" to Deny Gay Rights.

A while back, I met with an old friend from high school; someone I hadn't seen in at least 30 years. It was mostly fun, until we were about 45 minutes into our lunch.

We were at a local pizza joint, enjoying the best cheese steaks on the East Coast, when a couple of women walked in, holding hands. While they stood in line, one woman must have said something funny, because the other one giggled, leaned over and kissed the funny one squarely on the mouth. It wasn't a tongue kiss, or a long, slow romantic kiss, or any sort of "inappropriate" public display of affection, but the kiss revealed their level of intimacy just the same.

My old friend saw the kiss and immediately said, "Oh, my God!" with shock and surprise, and when he saw that they were holding hands and had no intention of letting go, he apparently felt the need to add, "that's disgusting." As I hadn't seen him in many years, and figured I probably wouldn't see him again anytime soon, I bit my tongue, until he decided to add to the commentary by saying, "But at least it's not two guys! That would be REALLY disgusting!"

I could no longer hold my tongue.

"It gets Better" Has to be More Than a Slogan -- We Have to be Better

There’s a lot of talk about bullying these days, and I say it’s way past time for that; we should have done this years ago. A certain meanness has been far too ingrained in our society for far too long. Things have gotten better, in many ways, but if we are to become truly great as a nation and as a people, we have to take a different attitude. Even though bigotry has become less acceptable in recent years, there is still too much of an accepting attitude when it comes to meanness toward others, for a variety of reasons.

No doubt you’ve heard a lot about bullying in recent weeks; it’s hard to avoid it. This recent spate of stories is due to what seems to be a saddening trend, in which young people are increasingly committing suicide because they are gay, and they are made to feel like outcasts. And why wouldn’t they? They see judgment all around them, and a lot of it’s negative. They may hear about places like San Francisco, West Hollywood or Greenwich Village, where they can be who they are and live freely, but to a teenager living in the self-righteous “Bible Belt,” those places may as well be Mars. And that should be shameful to the people who live in those places.

We will never be a truly free country until every person under our auspices is treated with the respect and dignity due them as human beings. We are who we are; we should all be left alone to our own lives. No one, and I mean no one, should be subjected to negative treatment because of any singular aspect of who he or she is, unless they are hurting others with their actions. Who a person is sexually attracted to is not the totality of who they are, and frankly, that aspect of anyone’s life is none of your business, in any case. I mean, if they’re having sex in the middle of the street, of course you have a right to object, but other than that, it’s simply no one’s business. And I think we would all agree that we would have the same reaction even if it was a man and a woman.