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Beat drum.
Fear-monger some more about teh evil transgender people, trying to drive a wedge between subcommunities of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people again. Y’know, just like the wedge Democratic congressmembers did within the LGBT community with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) legislation circa 2007/2008.
Bang-bang-bang-bang! goes the religious right drums!
Well, the American Family Association’s (AFA’s) “news” division — OneNewsNow — is beating the anti-LGB-and-especially-T drum again with their piece Anti-Employer ENDA Still Alive And Kicking:
A Washington, DC-based pro-family group is voicing its concern about a continued push by liberals in Congress to give homosexuals a special status in employment discrimination laws.
Oh. That group would be the Family Research Council (FRC)! What does their senior fellow for policy studies, Peter Sprigg, have to say?
“[ENDA] interferes with the freedom of an employer to make their own decisions about what the standards for employment should be,” Sprigg explains. “It could mandate the employment of homosexuals and transgendered people in occupations that many people would consider inappropriate, such as working with small children or as teachers.”
Why is ENDA so bad, OneNewsNow/American Family association “reporter” Russ Jones?
Under ENDA, the federal government theoretically could punish a business or church with litigation for opting not to hire a homosexual applicant or someone choosing to deny their God-given gender.
Egads! Those evil teh homosexuals and evil transgendereds!
Trans folk are especially evil, don’ cha know! Tell us about that Peter!
“The gender-identity part in particular really eliminates the right of employers to set dress and grooming standards for their employees,” says the FRC fellow, “because the most fundamental dress and grooming standard is that you dress in the way that’s culturally appropriate for your biological sex.”
My gawd, that’s horrid!
Or is it. We’ll just ignore all those Biblical scriptures that indicate gender variance is accepted by their God, and substitute what those in religious right organizational leadership believe about trans people.
And too, gawd forbid we have separation of church and state.
And by the way, what does the religious right know about the imminent passage of ENDA that we in the LGBT community don’t know? If they all have information on when we’re going to see votes on ENDA in the House and Senate, I’d appreciate them filling us LGBT community members in.
11 Comments
Fear brings out the bigots and hate groupsAutumn
Thier fear is that they will not be able to tell people what people should do! A 4×4-8 foot wood poll could hit them between the eyes and they can not see that they are hurting people by thier actions. They really believe that all LBGT people make desisions to be LBGT! They can not tell the difference between opinions & science! Het don’y you know that the world is only about 6000 years old and man & dino’s were here at the same time? Yea, Autumn you and I, we just don’t understand thier ideas so we are wrong!
Once again…The say it would be inappropriate for us to work with small children or be teachers and I say being radical “Christianites” should preclude them from working with small children or being teachers.
So if they want to give up there protections against discrimination then I’ll stop fighting for mine. But until then they need to shuddup’.
HahaThat should have been “their” instead of “there”. Guess I shouldn’t work as a teacher after all
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This may be off topicBut this:
We’ll just ignore all those Biblical scriptures that indicate gender variance is accepted by their God, and substitute what those in religious right organizational leadership believe about trans people.
Reminded me of this:
Before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the issue of transsexuality in Iran had never been officially addressed by the government. Beginning in the mid-1980s, however, transsexual individuals have been officially recognized by the government and allowed to undergo sex reassignment surgery. As of 2008, Iran carries out more sex change operations than any other nation in the world except for Thailand. The government even provides up to half the cost for those needing financial assistance and a sex change is recognised on the birth certificate. (Source, wikipedia article: Transsexuality in Iran)
Far be it from me to suggest that Iran is an LGBT paradise, but isn’t it interesting that a country that can be so behind in human rights in so many other aspects, but can be so far ahead of America in this one way.
I should note, however, that Iran also confuses transsexuality with homosexuality, as they council gay men to undergo gender reassignment. It’s a weird world we live in…
One of these things is not like the others…Galatians 3:28 likely has a meaning different from what you are implying and Catherine Booth stated in ‘Female Ministry, or, Woman’s Right to Preach the Gospel’.
Within Tradition it simply means that there are no hierarchies in the Christian God’s Love except for Faith (& of course that in turn means following the teachings in the Bible, which have their own inherent hierarchy proclamations, but that digresses the intent of Paul’s immediate message). In other words an individual’s social position will not prevent salvation.
Without going far outside of Tradition, there is nothing to substantiate that the passage means that the writers of the Bible or the Christian God implied a genderless or sexless (M/F) human race, nor that the intent was to equate male and female, nor to say that the Christian belief was not based on a hierarchical gender binary or make any other such statement. Rather, the entire chapter acknowledges quite the opposite. All three (Jew/Greek, slave/free, male/female) were understood at the time to be binary relationships where one was obviously considered superior, the other inferior. They were also considered and accepted as such within the teachings of the Christian faith and the Bible. It is with this acknowledgement that the passage goes on to state that one’s inherent inferiority does not have to prevent salvation and acceptance by the Christian God. In other words, God’s Grace isn’t just for the Good People of the Word, he’ll take you dregs, too…If you are faithful.
The point being hammered home was that it was Faith, not Law that mattered. Neither social position (following of the cultural norms and Laws) was not considered by the Christian God at the time of Judgement. All that mattered was blind, unrelenting devotion and faith. In other words, do as you are told by (our) God, follow the teachings of the Bible (which include very strict gender roles, so women; obey your men) and if your faith is strong enough, you will gain the Grace of Heaven, God’s eternal love, a dozen donuts, etc, etc…
typo, sorry“Neither social position (following of the cultural norms and Laws) was not considered by the Christian God at the time of Judgement.”
s/b
Social position (following of the cultural norms and Laws) was not considered by the Christian God at the time of Judgement.
Doesn’t matterI’d guess you’d still be the better teacher.
It’s fascinating how the worst transgressors use projection to make it seem as if someone else is the problem. A quick scan of Google and a few been-around-a-while old school news archives indicates almost all of those that were unfit to be around children were Devout and Evangelical. Didn’t see any (not one) that was LGBT. Not saying it couldn’t happen, just that the invalid meme has been repeated so many times Post WWII that people don’t realize there’s nothing to back it.
More weirder if you dig deeper
No, that just makes your claim of them being “far ahead” a bit of a stretch.
They accept that being gay is real and unchangeable, yet it is still not at all acceptable. To fix this inconsistency they simply “convince” gay men to undergo SRS so that there is no longer a problem; they simple become het women and love/have sex with the men they find attractive. In that single move the Iranians simultaneously claim that gender and sex are completely mutable, and that the end result of transition is one’s true gender and sex. Now THAT is weird (and harmful to everyone involved).
Surgically Induced TranssexualityThey don’t realise that gay men are men, not wannabe women.
Castration or the Gallows is the choice gay men face in Iran.
Like I saidI don’t mean to suggest that Iran is an LGBT paradise. It certainly isn’t, nor is it a wonderful place for the rights of women. But they seem to recognize some realities of the transgender experience that their western counterparts do not.
Another observation: When we speak of male privilege in our society, it is nothing compared to the level of male privilege over that of women in Iran. A trans woman in Iran gives up an incredible amount of power. If this doesn’t illustrate how important it is to express the gender identity one truly feels, I don’t know what else does.
FRC can kiss my pasty, trans ass.
Because after getting government loans to help with tuition, and tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships, being on the Dean’s List, I should flush my teaching credentials down the drain because you’d rather have a white, Judeo-Christian, alcoholic pedophile teach your teenagers… than me.