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LGBT(IQ) Issues
I apologize for the haphazard nature of my posting; it will be this way until I'm back in Pittsburgh next month.
The title of this post is not in reference to the mess with gay marriage; it doesn't refer to barriers to gay adoption; it is not about the fact that it is still legal to fire a person simply for being gay in many states (particularly Southern ones), or that consensual anal sex between two adults was illegal in some states well into the 21st Century. It's not even about the fact that us gay men, after we have sex with any guy - safe or unsafe - can never again donate blood. All of those things, and many others, are irrefutable evidence and support for my claim that the United States is the most backwards, regressive Western nation when it comes to homosexuality. But a recent event was the proverbial frosting on the cake, the elegant bow on a present, and it was a far more damning indictment of the pervasive, corrosive religious influence on this country's secular politics than the anti-gay marriage amendments, in my opinion. And things like this will continue to happen until we firmly and unambiguously tell the right-wing religious nutjobs that their nonsensical, hateful, and ignorant religious dogma has absolutely no place in this country's politics.
There are still many countries in this world where being born gay is a crime. In some of them, it is a capital crime, and there is no shortage of proof that despotic hellholes such as Iran are far from reticent to execute innocent LGBT citizens simply on account of their sexual orientation. So this Thursday, a non-binding proclamation was issued by the United Nations that, in firm language, calls for a worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. This is nothing more than a fundamental civil rights issue; contrary to the claims of critics who say that this is an attempt to give gays "special rights", this is nothing more than an attempt to make sure that no more people are murdered, or witness their basic rights abrogated, simply as a function of their innate sexual orientation. Nations on 6 continents signed this measure, 66 in total. In fact, this is such a fundamental, simple issue that all of the world's Western, industrialized nations signed this decree - save one. Which one? Take a wild guess.
You can read a Huffington Post article on this most disgraceful action here.
So here was the United States, a religiously pluralistic nation and a secular liberal democracy, standing proud in ideological unity with a bunch of conservative Islamic theocracies, African dictatorships devoid of human rights, and the Vatican. On the other side (the only morally justifiable side) of the dividing line was essentially the entire post-industrial world, including every single member nation of the European Union. Hell, even Mexico - arguably not even a developed First World nation, and a place where the poor seem to be expendable - signed the declaration.
The USA has clearly not only lost the leadership position globally when it comes to civil liberties, we now threaten to render our own global cultural stereotypes (the positive ones!) totally obsolete. How can we possibly claim to be a global champion of human rights when we do not even support largely ornamental UN declarations in favor of such rights? When a nation like South Africa - South Africa! - has beaten us in terms of gay equality, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong in the moral fiber of this country. Chalk a lot of that up to 8 years of a President who has made it extremely clear that he would like nothing more than to see an America devoid of LGBT people.
Let's hope that, come Janaury 20, this disgraceful era in our politics will draw to a long overdue close.
The title of this post is not in reference to the mess with gay marriage; it doesn't refer to barriers to gay adoption; it is not about the fact that it is still legal to fire a person simply for being gay in many states (particularly Southern ones), or that consensual anal sex between two adults was illegal in some states well into the 21st Century. It's not even about the fact that us gay men, after we have sex with any guy - safe or unsafe - can never again donate blood. All of those things, and many others, are irrefutable evidence and support for my claim that the United States is the most backwards, regressive Western nation when it comes to homosexuality. But a recent event was the proverbial frosting on the cake, the elegant bow on a present, and it was a far more damning indictment of the pervasive, corrosive religious influence on this country's secular politics than the anti-gay marriage amendments, in my opinion. And things like this will continue to happen until we firmly and unambiguously tell the right-wing religious nutjobs that their nonsensical, hateful, and ignorant religious dogma has absolutely no place in this country's politics.
There are still many countries in this world where being born gay is a crime. In some of them, it is a capital crime, and there is no shortage of proof that despotic hellholes such as Iran are far from reticent to execute innocent LGBT citizens simply on account of their sexual orientation. So this Thursday, a non-binding proclamation was issued by the United Nations that, in firm language, calls for a worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. This is nothing more than a fundamental civil rights issue; contrary to the claims of critics who say that this is an attempt to give gays "special rights", this is nothing more than an attempt to make sure that no more people are murdered, or witness their basic rights abrogated, simply as a function of their innate sexual orientation. Nations on 6 continents signed this measure, 66 in total. In fact, this is such a fundamental, simple issue that all of the world's Western, industrialized nations signed this decree - save one. Which one? Take a wild guess.
You can read a Huffington Post article on this most disgraceful action here.
So here was the United States, a religiously pluralistic nation and a secular liberal democracy, standing proud in ideological unity with a bunch of conservative Islamic theocracies, African dictatorships devoid of human rights, and the Vatican. On the other side (the only morally justifiable side) of the dividing line was essentially the entire post-industrial world, including every single member nation of the European Union. Hell, even Mexico - arguably not even a developed First World nation, and a place where the poor seem to be expendable - signed the declaration.
The USA has clearly not only lost the leadership position globally when it comes to civil liberties, we now threaten to render our own global cultural stereotypes (the positive ones!) totally obsolete. How can we possibly claim to be a global champion of human rights when we do not even support largely ornamental UN declarations in favor of such rights? When a nation like South Africa - South Africa! - has beaten us in terms of gay equality, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong in the moral fiber of this country. Chalk a lot of that up to 8 years of a President who has made it extremely clear that he would like nothing more than to see an America devoid of LGBT people.
Let's hope that, come Janaury 20, this disgraceful era in our politics will draw to a long overdue close.
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