Recently Devin got wind of the pesky Westboro Baptist Church latest protest plans against The Laramie project, a play about Mathew Shepard, in memory of the 10Th anniversary of his death. In case you are not familiar with the story:
"In October 1998, a 21 year old student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die, tied to a fence in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming. His name was Matthew Shepard, and he was the victim of this assault because he was gay."
The protest was set to happen just blocks from here at Glendale Community College. Westboro is the same organization that shows up to funerals of gay service men and woman spewing their "Christ like" hate. We almost went....but didn't. I am so mad at myself because what would the world be like if we all stayed home and didn't get involved and let this kind of crap go on unchallenged? Luckily for all of us, at least 100 like minded people showed up to counter protest. I am grateful others are more brave than I am. Kudos to Hero organization, the Secular Free Thought Society and, our friends from the Atheists Meetup group for showing up while Devin and I sat on our butts playing Dungeons and Dragons. More pictures here if you are interested.
Oh yeah...the fact that we passed the discriminatory law here in Arizona against Gay marriage is disappointing. I thought we were making progress. Sigh....
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7 comments:
Two steps forward, one step back. That's always the case and you know it. Next time they have one of these protests you HAVE to go. Protesting is AWESOME! Trust me on this! I need to find one to take our boys too as it's just quite moving!
Yeah..it will have to be something I feel strongly about. I'm just not one to go shouting about stuff and get in other people's faces. :)
You don't have to shout and get in people's faces. You can do almost as much with a strongly worded sign, which can also be used as a weapon (defensively, of course)at close range.
I completely support this! Go GAY RIGHTS! Everyone should have a choice in a country that bases their values upon that word.
Gays have the same rights as anyone else in this country....except marriage. So what's all the fuss about? They can have civil unions with the same benefits as a married couple! Marriage is between a man and a women! And by the votes in CA and AZ that's the way the majority of the people in this county feel!
Dear Annonymous,
I appreciate you taking the time to comment! I find it interesting, that you chose to focus on the last sentence rather than the real subject of the post: People are harassed and even murdered because they are gay and there are a group of people out there who think that's ok.
That being said, " the big deal" about gay marriage would be a bigger deal for you if the tables were turned in some bizzaro world. If Gays were the majority would it be ok for you to be denied marriage? Was it ok for blacks to be denied the right to marry whomever they chose? Just because a "majority" of people agree with you does not make it right. Civil rights legislation would never have passed on a majority vote.
Civil unions are a work around, but they don't always cover issues like medical decisions and estate questions. A gay couple frequently has to carry all kind of paperwork with them when they travel just to proove they have the right to make medical decisions for their partner.
I went to the Gay Pride thingy in Phoenix a few years back as an extra credit for a class on GLBT studies I was taking at Glendale CC. Some church was at the gate yelling at people as they entered the event and some guy yelled at me that my lifestyle was an abomination. I thought, hmm, I'm straight, female, 40-something living alone with two cats. That's just pathetic, not an abomination.
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