A couple days whilst driving through Salt Lake, I saw a billboard that was soliciting foster parents by displaying piteous images of parentless children.
I was immediately struck by how ridiculous and disgusting it is that Utah, as well as many other states, has decreed it illegal for (unmarried) cohabitating couples to adopt or foster. Other states like Arkansas have outlawed adoption or fostering by anyone except legally married couples. In Utah, this prohibits any gay (or unmarried straight) couple from adopting, while (surprisingly) still allowing single gay or straight people to foster or adopt. In Arkansas, you have to be married, straight, (and for all I know, evangelical Christian). And while it might be technically legal for a single gay person to foster/adopt, since there are no anti-discrimination laws in Utah protecting LGBT persons, the chance that the state would allow an openly gay/bi/trans person to adopt is negligible.
Can you imagine how terrible it would be for a child to not be allowed to be adopted by an aunt, uncle, sibling or other family member simply because that person is cohabitating or gay? Is it better to rip a child away from family and force them to live with strangers or no family at all just because their available family member is in an unapproved relationship or has an unapproved sexual orientation? Or consider the children who will never have parents or families because bigoted Utah legislators have decreed it better for a child to languish alone than to be cared for and loved by the wrong type of family.
The fact is, there simply aren't enough people anywhere who are willing to open their homes to these children. In order to legislate outdated religious mores, the bigots in charge of far too many state legislatures are willing to punish children in order to forcibly compel the queers and those oh so immoral unmarried straight couples to abide by conservative, religious, heteronormative doctrines.
It saddens me that so many Americans are so blinded by their religion, that they think it is somehow morally justifiable to not only force their religion on others, but to deprive hundreds of thousands of children of a loving family because it's not the one god-approved flavour. Can anyone really argue that it's better for a child to be raised in an orphanage or state care than to be loved, raised, and supported by gay, unmarried, or single parents?
Of all the bigoted anti-gay morality laws that states like Utah pass, this one is by far the most heinous and offensive.
And yet I know many people and family members who support such laws. I find myself wondering if it even worth the effort to work with people who would fuck over children just to satisfy selfish hatreds. I think more and more that there's no dealing with some people, and that, like with desegregation, the US needs to just tell the religious asshats that they can believe whatever the fuck they want, but they aren't allowed to discriminate outside of their ridiculous churches, and that they certainly aren't going to be allowed to codify their discrimination into laws and state constitutions.
I truly believe that the only way to bring full human rights equality is to force the bigots to accept legal equality, instead of waiting for them to catch up with civilised society. I'm tired of having to sweet-talk around morons whose delusions include thinking I'm possessed of the "devil" and other nonsense that would be classified as insanity if so many other people didn't share the same mass delusion.
A person who claims to be Jesus we say is insane. A person who claims Jesus told them to kill their children we say is insane. A person on the street corner who claims that Jesus talks to them we call insane if their unkempt, but revere them if they're at a pulpit. A person who claims Jesus told them it is immoral for gays and non-married straight people to adopt children we allow to make our laws. A person who claims Jesus told them to invade another country we allow to run the entire nation.
Why is it "normal" for Jesus to say one thing to a person, but it is "insane" for him to say another, rather similar thing to a different person?
Why don't more people see how fucked (not to mention unconstitutional) this is?
If we don't demand and end to the religious manipulation of government, no one will.
27 April 2009
and jesus said, "let the little children come unto me, that I may fuck them over"
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11 wisdomy word(s):
you're absolutely right and you raise a great point. i (and at least one of my childhood friends) can attest to the fact that it's far more dangerous to wander the halls of the lds meetinghouse as a young boy than it would be to play kick the can in the castro district. we were both raped by a fifty-something degenerate who was allowed to prowl around in our st. george ward.
"A person who claims to be Jesus we say is insane. A person who claims Jesus told them to kill their children we say is insane. A person on the street corner who claims that Jesus talks to him we call insane if he's unkempt, but revere him if he's at a pulpit. A person who claims Jesus told them it is immoral for gays and non-married straight people to adopt children we allow to make our laws. A person who claims Jesus told them to invade another country we allow to run the entire nation."*applause*
That has just become my favourite quote of all time.
I couldn't agree more.
It is disgusting that children are punished because of people's outdated and idiotic prejudices.
And I love the quote that the person in the previous comment pointed out.
@Grégoire:
I'm very sorry that happened to you. Whether it's physical, emotional, or intellectual abuse, there's no shortage in religions in general, and in Mormonism specifically.
@yunshui,
Thanks! I'm constantly astounded the way our society accepts mass delusions as normal, but individual delusions as abnormal. Why people can't see that the ancient Norse gods were just as real to the Vikings as Jesus and God are to Christians and Allah is to Muslims - i.e. not at all. Oh, and I just edited it to have conforming pronouns. I wrote it late at night, so it needed a little editing.
@purple goat:
Yeah, I get so angry when I think of children not being able to be adopted by their uncle or aunt or older sibling because that person is cohabitating or gay. Or of the children who may never ever have parents because of the bigotry of the Utah state legislators.
Or of the children who may never ever have parents because of the bigotry of the Utah state legislators.I've been away from Utah for so long that I've forgotten exactly what the atmosphere is like. Had I not lived there at all I might not believe this was the norm.
It is pretty humorous to see the obvious hypocrisy of it all. A group of people who have to fight to get married... If anything, I'd imagine religious people would support the cause instinctively. It tends to support their supposed ideas about the superiority of monogamy. When I was a little kid I remember being told that getting divorced or living with someone out of wedlock was a lousy thing to do. Mormons and Christians are now sending the signal that it is "OK" to shack up. Funny, sad and depressing simultaneously.
Amazing to think that relatives would be barred from adoption, regardless of their situation. It's a very strange world.
I think most Mormons would balk at the idea that they are somehow condoning shacking up. They don't want us marrying, they don't want us shacking up, they don't want us to have children. Essentially they just want us to go away. They'd truly prefer it if we didn't exist.
Great post buddy. It's truly insane.
@jake
They'd truly prefer it if we didn't exist.Yep, they sure would. Makes it hard to be friends with them, let alone family.
Dear Jake,
It's funny you bring this up. I think most people desperately need a scapegoat... and for Mormons (at least in this generation) gays and lesbians seem to be *it*.
If every glbt utah-ite disappeared they'd be in a horrible, hopeless quandary. They'd either have to find a new group to blame all the world's problems on, or they'd (heaven forbid) have to start improving themselves through self-criticism.
The former takes years to set up, the latter is so painful that most people simply can't do it. Ask any Canadian about what's wrong with Canada, for example. ;) In the case of the Mormons, a bit of critical collective self-analysis would probably be a wonderful thing and in the long run it'd improve the conditions of life for every member.
But anyway, yeah, it is pretty funny how the Mormons just *divorced* hundreds of thousands of monogamous married couples through political manipulation. I thought marriage and monogamy was the ideal... family, isn't it about time?
I think the biggest problem the Mormon community has is, unlike most minorities, it seems that they have little or no empathy for other minority groups. Of course i'm talking about the mormons as an entity, not individuals.
I think they are SO preoccupied in having everyone understand who they are and why they do what they do, that they don't worry about other points of view. I mean just the way that most mormons consider the whole blacks-and-the-priesthood-racism issue as old news and don't understand why it's still an issue for many boggles my mind. They honestly don't understand why some blacks would still be wary of the Mormon church.
I blame the insular quality of the Mormon culture and the strict adherence to just about everything that comes out of Salt Lake, even things like lesson plans for sunday school. I recently opened an Ensign for the first time in about 2 years just for kicks and giggles. I was amazed how NOTHING new was in there. NOTHING.
When did mormonism switch from a progressive, rebellious religion to the stilted, stagnant thing we see today? I blame Brigham Young.
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