Superman marries Lois Lane
(crickets)
Batman has sex with Catwoman
(silence)
Spider-Man gets it on with Mary Jane
(yawn)
Ironman has sex with as many women as possible
(meh)
Superman’s son kisses another man
Proud Boys: OMIGOD can’t they keep this sexual stuff off the comics? I don’t want to know about their private lives, I just want to see them fighting! Why do they have to shove this crap in my face?
I would love to live in a world where we wouldn’t need Gay Pride parades or Black Pride marches or anything like that. But as long as there are a group of people who want to make others ashamed of what they are, then there will be people saying, “No, I am not ashamed. I am proud. You cannot shame me.”
If we lived in a society where it was absolutely fine to discriminate against people with blue eyes, I would encourage blue-eyed people to have their own “Blue-Eyed Pride” parades. They would need them, to establish that they will not bend to the will of those who would take away their rights for no good reason.
I admit that I’ve never paid much attention to “Italian Pride” because I don’t feel like having an Italian last name has really hurt me that much. Oh sure, there’s probably someone out there who won’t like me for that reason, but I don’t have an entire political party dedicated to destroying any rights I might have.
People who are marginalized by our society need representation. They need to see that they have worth and value.
Is there a need whatsoever for “Straight Pride”? Or “White Pride”? No, of course not. No one is preventing straight people from getting married. No one is marching with hate signs saying “whites will not replace us.”
The point of Pride months is to stand up to those who want to shame people for who they are. Don’t let others demean you. Be proud.
Sometimes I see people complaining when they see someone who is transgender or where you can’t tell if they are male or female. There was a tremendously unfunny character on Saturday Night Live named “Pat” where the entire skit was about people trying to figure out if Pat was male or female. Has that happened to you?
Imagine for a minute if everyone was like that. Imagine you couldn’t tell from someone’s looks or their name or the clothes they wore whether they were male or female.
Would that change the way you treat them?
“But I’m single and I want to find a partner,” you say. Okay, fine. So does that mean you’ll only be friends with potential partners? Maybe you should get to know the person better first. If it turns out that they are not sexually compatible with you, what’s the problem? You have a new friend!
And if you treat someone thinking they are one gender only to find they are another, does that make you reconsider how you treat that gender?
This is not easy. We’ve been ingrained to place people into categories and have certain expectations from them, and it’s a hard thing to overcome, admittedly. But it might be a good idea every once in a while to think about people you know and work with and ask yourself if you would have treated them differently had they been a different gender.
(BASED ON COMMENTS HERE AND ON FACEBOOK, LET ME CLARIFY:
This is a thought experiment about how we treat people differently whether they are women or men, and how if you didn’t know, how would you act. I’m not really talking about going somewhere like a party or a bar where sometimes the purpose is indeed finding someone you might want to be attracted to physically.
And for God’s sake, I LIKE looking at pretty women, so I don’t want that to go away. I don’t WANT everyone looking asexual, nor do I want to shame women who like to dress sexy.
I’m mostly talking about thinking about how you may treat women differently from men for things that have nothing to do with wanting them as a sexual partner. Do you treat female coworkers differently from male coworkers, for instance?)
The small sign reads “The original gender neutral bathroom”
Porta-johns set up in a row at a festival:
“No problem.”
Porta-johns at a festival with a cover from the rain:
“No problem.”
Porta-johns at a festival with a cover and sides to keep out the weather:
“No problem.”
Toilets in stalls at a festival inside a building:
“Oh my God, there could be a transgender person using the stall next to me! Think of the children!”
Our culture has degenerated to the point where people openly are left-handed, in public, unashamed, and television and the media encourages such deviant behavior.
Left-handed people keep shoving their left-handedness down our throats and are expecting us to just accept this without complaining. They call for “Lefty Pride” and openly promote their radical agenda. President Obama himself constantly signed executive orders using his left hand, and people acted as if it was no big deal.
As we know, being left-handed is a sin in the eyes of God. Sure, people claim they were born that way, but even if that were true, these sinners chose to act on their left-handedness, and often perform left-handed acts in public. We can love the sinner and hate the sin, after all, but when you choose to sin, God does not excuse you. Think of the children!
We need to preserve our precious way of life and fight against those liberals who want to treat being left-handed as if it was “natural.” And don’t get me started on grocery stores that promote shellfish where the children can see it!
“Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.”
Celebrating the differences that make us great and accepting those differences was one of the key concepts in the original Star Trek. So I’m glad to see that the official Star Trek merchandise now includes pride symbols.
There have been complaints, of course, because there are who claim to be fans of Star Trek who really aren’t, because they don’t get the whole theme of the show. In fact, for most of science fiction (apart from dystopian stuff), when you look to the future, you see more acceptance of different cultures, not less.
When Star Trek first began 50 years ago, it was a shock to see a female officer, and even moreso to see a black female officer. Well, yes, she was in charge of “communications” which, in many episodes, made her just a glorified receptionist, but then there were those where Uhura went on those missions alongside the men, fighting right beside them. Every once in a while, we’d get other female officers and even a black admiral or two. “No way the future would be like that!” some people claimed in 1966, never imagining that within their lifetime it would be unusual not to see people like that in power.
We clearly haven’t reached the goal of true equality, but like the Vulcans, we should always strive for infinite diversity in infinite combinations. Live long and prosper.
“As a show of support, groups of people across America are attaching safety pins to their lapels, shirts and dresses to signify that they are linked, willing to stand up for the vulnerable” says the New York Times. 
While I clearly stand with that group, I have not yet worn a pin.
And mostly it’s because I am not sure the “vulnerable” want me to. I mean, it seems kind of condescending to me. Am I wrong there?
Some are saying the pin is a meaningless gesture, like sending your prayers and thoughts after a tragedy. A friend of mine recently pointed out, however, that as an attorney, my pin may mean more to someone–because I really am in a position where I might be able to actually help someone who needs it.
I’d really like to hear from my friends on this, especially those who will be impacted by Trump’s policies, such as the LGBT community and the Muslims and racial minorities and women and atheists and … okay, everyone except for Christian white males, I guess.
Hey, remember those fun-loving evil bakers who claimed they were being discriminated against because they were not allowed to discriminate against other people? And how the court said, “You know, that sure seems to violate the law. Pay the fine.”? Remember them?
Are you shocked to learn that they are refusing to pay the fine? Like bigot Kim Davis, they claim that God’s Law is more important than United States’ law (and of course, only their version of “God’s law” since there are plenty of Christians who think these people are absolute jerks).
If you ask these bakers where in “God’s Law” it talks about gay marriage, they can’t answer you because, you know, it’s not there. Jesus said nothing about it. He did, however, talk an awful lot about greed and how that was a terrible sin.
You see, these bakers were pretty smart about one thing: They got a lot of rubes to contribute to their “legal fund” and now they’re sitting on half a million dollars. You’d think that paying a fine would count as a “legal cost” but geez, that would mean they’d have to give up a small percentage of that lovely cash.
No, that cash is much better used elsewhere. Since Jesus told us all we should be giving to the poor and helping charity, it will go there.
Ha ha! Just kidding! Of course they’re not giving a cent to charity!
Bigotry is very profitable these days.
I really didn’t want to write more about Kim Davis, the Kentucky Clerk who refuses to issue legal marriage licenses to people she is bigoted against … but she just won’t go away. People keep emailing me about the case. So let’s answer a few legal questions.
Has she broken the law? No, she has not “broken the law” in the strictest sense. What she did was refuse to do her job for religious reasons and ordered everyone in her office to refuse too. As someone pointed out, this would be like having a Jewish postmaster who feels that delivering Christmas Cards was against his religion, so he orders all the mail carriers under him to not deliver any of these cards. Or maybe a better example is a Muslim clerk at the DMV who doesn’t believe women should drive and so prevents any licenses to be issued to women.
Kim Davis and the Constitutional scholars she relies upon
Kim Davis is not following the law. This denied basic civil rights to citizens who were entitled to them. The judge ordered her to give people what they are entitled to under the law. She refused, and got to see the jail from the inside.
But there really isn’t a “law” to allow gay marriage, is there? Her idiot supporters argue with a straight face that there is no “law” allowing gay marriage and therefore she is doing nothing wrong. I have no idea what this stupid argument means. There is a law providing for marriage, and the Supreme Court has said that the law must be applied without discriminating. There is also no “law” that specifically says a marriage is allowed between different races, yet no one thinks this Clerk could refuse to issue one, do they?
This argument comes from morons like Mike Huckabee, who wants to swear an oath to the Constitution but has apparently never read it. He argues with a straight face that since the legislature never passed a law allowing gay marriage, the Supreme Court didn’t have the right to make the decision in the first place and therefore we can all ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling. This is the kind of argument that we lawyers refer to in our legalese way as “bullshit.”
Can she fire the clerk who is issuing these licenses? Fortunately, one of the Clerks in her office has stated that he will continue to issue marriages to anyone eligible even if she comes back and orders him not to (as she has vowed to do in her loving, Christian way). Can she fire him? Sure, but would it be a legal firing? Probably not. How can you justify firing someone who did their job when you ordered them not to? He’d have a pretty good case against the state for an unjust firing. (Since this is Kentucky, I can be fairly sure these people aren’t unionized like they are in my area.)
Can she cancel the licenses her office has given out already? No. She doesn’t have a job that allows her discretion. If you are eligible for a license, you get one.
She may try, of course, and I think that will not be appreciated by the judge.
Can she go back to jail, and how long can she stay there? She is out of jail now, because the judge assumes she will either do her job or allow others to do their job. If she still refuses to do so, the judge will probably send her back to jail. That’s what Contempt is for — they’re not meant to be punishment, but instead to force people to do what they are supposed to do.
You might recall cases where journalists refused to reveal their sources and were held in contempt. Some stayed in jail for months.
How can we get rid of her? The only way to get rid of this elected person is to impeach her. This is Kentucky, so that’s probably not going to happen, any more than Alabama would have impeached George Wallace when he disobeyed the courts to block black children from going to school with white children 50 years ago. The judge cannot force the legislature to do this; all he can do is keep jailing her if she refuses to obey his orders.
Why are her lawyers doing this? Davis’ lawyers are a bunch of right-wing hacks supported by a lobbying group that is propping her up to use as a fundraising measure. Their briefs have little law in them and read more like the kind of rants you see on crazy blogs that talk about “God’s Law” ruling over secular law. They probably know they have no legal basis for their appeals and so instead are writing what their donors want to read. That way, when the judge rules against them, they can argue that he is “denying God.” Ca-ching! More donations. Appealing to bigotry has become quite profitable lately, you know.
Her own lawyers have to know she will never be successful. A recent legal panel on Fox unanimously was against her, calling her lawyer “incredibly stupid.” (Yes, I did say “Fox” — not a mistake.) When even the experts at Fox News are against you…
Why is there a double standard when Obama violates the Constitution all the time and gets away with it? Seriously, people ask this, and usually their definition of “violating the Constitution” boils down to “does stuff I don’t like.” Some people know in their hearts what the Constitution says and means without that pesky need to actually learn anything about it (in much the same way Kim Davis has done with the Bible).
Is the judge some sort of liberal crusader? No. The judge is a conservative Republican, appointed by George W. Bush. He probably doesn’t support gay marriage, but he does support the law. You gotta admire him for that.
I had a nicer headline originally but you know, this better expresses my feelings.
The United States Supreme Court yesterday denied the Kentucky clerk’s appeal wherein she claimed that she should not be forced to perform her job because of her religious beliefs.
As a Christian, she has vowed to obey the Bible, which says gay couples should not get married. (It actually doesn’t say that at all, but that has never stopped True Believers). She is still refusing to do it. 
As a clerk, she is supposed to certify marriages and not discriminate, but she is claiming that God’s Law supercedes American law. (It actually doesn’t, but that has never stopped True Believers.)
All the standard hypocritical nonsense is there — for instance, she’s been married herself four times (which actually is prohibited very clearly in the Bible).
Bigotry in the name of religion is still bigotry. If her religious order was against, say, interracial marriage, she would not have the right to deny marriage licenses to interracial couples either. I assume her religion also says that marriages should be between people in her own religion, yet this woman grants marriage licenses to people from every religion and no religion all the time.
No, this is just plain bigotry.
I blame the Hobby Lobby case for some of this, wherein the Supreme Court decided that businesses can have religion (WTF?) and thus discriminate on the basis of it. The Supreme Court views this case differently for one major reason: This is not a business. Seriously. Businesses always win in the Supreme Court these days.
But back to this woman: I’m sure she has firmly held beliefs. But if those beliefs prevent her from performing her job, then she should resign. Issuing marriage licenses is part of her job requirements.
Can you imagine if you refused to perform part of your job because your religion said you couldn’t do it? How long do you think you’d keep your job?
ventrellaquest.com 