Yup, Teabaggers Are Racists…

Something like 90% of teabaggers are white and less than 1% are black. I genuinely believe deep down the things that really bothers teabaggers about our country are 1) the government is being led by a black man, and 2) the LGBT community is starting to get civil rights. That just doesn’t fit with their world view where white people should be on top…

The latest evidence of this is Rachel Maddow’s interview last night with Rand Paul – the teabagger who just won the Republican primary for Kentucky’s Senate seat. He said in the interview that he only agrees with 9/10ths of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The 1/10th he doesn’t agree with is the part about private businesses not being allowed to discriminate. So while he feels blacks should be able to sit in the front of the bus, he thinks it should be legal if their refused service for things like getting a meal, or getting a hotel room.

He’s also said he feels the same way about the Americans with Disabilities Act. He thinks the government should be required to put in curb cuts for wheelchairs, but doesn’t think employers should be required to provide things like elevators. In the interview below he said it’s adequate if the employer gives the handicapped person an office on the first floor.

The problem is that this type of thinking extends into current day issues like LGBT rights. He would be OK with employers not hiring gay or transgendered people or gay men showing up at a hotel and being refused a room because they’re gay.

He says it infringes on free speech to require private businesses to serve people they’re not comfortable with. I think the point is people are free to say what they want (as long as they don’t incite violence), but if they don’t want to serve everyone they shouldn’t own a service business.

Laura Bush Is For Gay Marriage And Abortion Rights

People like my parents should sit up and think twice ’cause Laura Bush, one of the people they think can do no wrong, just came out clearly for gay marriage and abortion rights last night on Larry King. While she understands where conservatives like her husband are coming from, she’s firm in saying abortion should stay legal and gay marriage is coming – whether conservatives like it or not. But more than that – that gay marriage is the right thing to do – that we deserve the same rights, privileges and duties as straight couples…

She’s now my conservative hero… Can we clone her?

I wonder if she disagrees with George W on drilling in the arctic and offshore?

Equality Isn’t Something You “Study” Or Vote On

To add insult to many years of injury, the Pentagon has decided that the next step in “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is to “study” the problem despite the fact that more than enough studies have been done already, and every other first world country has successfully implemented openly gay men and women into their armed forces without any problem.

How would you like it if some did a study as to whether people like you should be treated with equality and respect? They’re literally going around asking service members and their families whether they have a problem with gay men and lesbians serving, as if we should care if they don’t.

What would the reaction be if we were asking people if they minded if Jews, Mormons or African Americans served in the military? It’s an absurd question on it’s face.

Yet these things do happen… I remember when I went to the University of Texas at Austin I stayed in a private dorm that was run by Jews (orthodox Jews got the lowest floors, then more mainstream Jews were on the floors above them, then there was a mixed intensive study floor, and then the top of the dorm was where the ‘goyim’ lived). When I sat down with them and they were trying to find a room for me they said “well, we have a spot on the intensive study floor, but your roommate would be Latino – do you mind that?” The question floored me. While I was brought up in an almost all white environment I had been taught race didn’t matter.

I know none of this sort of thing comes as a shock to people who are racial minorities and have faced inequality all their lives, but I still really wish I could turn the table on some of these bigots and have a study which asked people if they should be treated with dignity and respect. They seemed to have forgotten “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”…

I know it’s just a matter of time before Don’t Ask Don’t tell is gone, but it sorta galls me that a President who’s had to deal personally with racial discrimination can’t stand up for the core principle of treating everyone equally. Taking policies like this down slowly reinforces the idea that it’s understandable to be a bigot.

And how can a military that doesn’t live by “equality and justice for all” police that concept around the world? Military conflicts just get worse when soldiers think the person they’re pointing their guns at aren’t as good as they are…

UPDATE:

Even though President Obama it crystal clear about getting rid of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the White House has also made it clear that they won’t get rid of it until their ‘study’ is done. What is the logic in that? Either their not taking the study seriously and it’s recommendations will have no impact and they’ll do what they’re telling the LGBT community, or they are taking the study seriously and they may not get rid of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, in which case they’re flat out lying to the LGBT community. Pick a side – any side… Just stand for something…

Dan Savage On Marriage

This is one of those “I couldn’t have said it better myself” moments… Dan Savage goes point by point showing that straight people, not gay people, have redefined marriage. Traditional marriage was about passing property (a female) from one male to another (a father to a husband). Needless to say that’s not the case any more, so we no longer have traditional marriage and no one wants to go back to it. Instead we have the union of two equals now and marriage is defined by the people in it, not externally. If it’s about anything it’s about commitment and companionship.

Take a listen…