Rosa Parks stays at the front of the bus

Barb Davis White; barbdaviswhiteforcongress.com

The fight for LGBT rights have been long compared to those of the Black Civil Rights fights of the 1940's, 50's and 60's (and beyond). I tend to agree with this comparison. I'd also extend the LGBT fight to further into history with Woman's Liberation of the 50's and 60's (and beyond), but also Woman's Suffrage (1920 and before).

These fights have been the oppressed versus "the man" (in most of the cases, "the man" is old, white men). "The Man" tries to strip rights away from "the other." In the case of LGBT, other is defined by their sexuality.

So I can't help but take big offense to the following statement made by Barb Davis White (pictured above).

"Rosa Parks did not move to the front of the bus to support sodomy.”

White was at a legislative committee meeting discussing Gay Marriage in Minnesota. White, a self-proclaimed "tea-bagger" (yeah, I know so sexual...), goes on to say that allowing a white man to marry a black woman (and vice versa) was more fundamentally (and spiritually) sound because the only difference between a white man a black man is skin color; but the differences between men and women is too great!

Denying two consenting adults anything, is wrong. Just because I happen to be in a type of relationship that wasn't "popular" when god sent his words down to the few men who wrote The Bible; doesn't mean I'm wrong.

What does the bible say about interracial marriage?

Deuteronomy 7:3–4

3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.

I can take quotes and greatly exaggerate them too! But I won’t, this passage from Deuteronomy was talking about intermarrying with people who are of a different religion, so they won't turn you away from god... but taken out of context, one can see how it’s that fear of the other, that is being highlighted.

So that brings me to the title of this post... why did Rosa Parks take a seat at the front of the bus and refuse to move to the back? In her autobiography, Parks says why she didn't move, "... the only tired I was, was tired of giving in." She said nothing about being gay or black, just tired – tired of oppression.

The connection between Gay Rights and Black Civil Rights, is strong, and I believe that it is just a continuation of the same fight, the fight against oppression. I want all oppression to end, I don’t care about the color of your skin or who you sleep with or which god you pray to or if you have differenting ability; all I care about is that you are afforded the same rights granted to the majority of people in the United States (i.e. straight, white men). I’d have to say the Rosa Parks would agree that oppression of any kind is wrong; and White should look closely at what is causing her homophobia.

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Dear Kirk Cameron

In response to my friends blog I have decided to write an open letter to Kirk Cameron.

You might want to check this out first, for context of this post:



Dear Kirk Cameron,

Back in 1990, when I was 6 and you were on Growing Pains I had a weird crush on you and Tracey Gold. I wanted to be a part of the Seaver family. It was a great show that was exciting to watch and always could offer a laugh.

Time goes on, and TV shows disappear and you and Tracey moved from the limelight of my 6 year old eyes into the recesses of syndication.

19 years later, and I've discovered that you are crazy as a loon! Here is a list of my several problems with your video:

1. I'm an agnostic. I have been since YEARS before college! My top 100 university professors did not teach me how to be agnostic. My high school teachers didn't teach me to be agnostic. The Catholic Church taught me to be agnostic. I spent 14 years of my life trying to believe the "word of the lord." But it just didn't make sense to me. How could there be fossil evidence of dinosaurs when the Bible said the world started with Adam and Eve? How could Jesus have been the son of god (yes that is lower case) when god is incorporeal? And hundreds of other questions that didn't make sense: Most importantly, how could the church hate like it does, when Jesus loved everyone.

If we take for a fact that everything in the Bible is true, than Jesus was a miracle worker, he kept company with prostitutes and beggar and lepers. Basically the slums of the people of the time. He preached love, tolerance and acceptance of these people, not total disregard for who they are. He taught everyone to love all of god's creations. Not HATE! (Like you and the Christian right are doing). How could a religion based on the teachings of this "saint" be promoting bigotry and intolerance? That's when I left Catholicism.

When I understood that I was gay, and that god no longer accepted me, I realized that religion wasn't a place where I would find solace and acceptance, just hate and ignorance.

2. I believe there is a higher being, for some of the same reason that you mention. There is no scientific proof that on what actually created the universe (whether some sneezed and we're the by-product on it, or god needed to be created and in the process the big bang happened, but until we have a reason for the big bang, I have to agree that something started the whole thing). But I do hold the believe that that is where it ended. God isn't part of my life, he doesn't control my choices, he isn't holding a scale to weigh my heart against my sins. He's just not around. Where's the proof?

3.  I'm a teacher. I teacher Kindergarten. I allow my students to read whatever they want. I allow them to talk about whatever they want. And as long as they are talking pure and unhurtful words, I allow them to say whatever they want. When they ask if I believe in God, or if I go to church I answer truthfully, and say "Yes, I believe in a god." And "No, I don't go to church. Do you?" And if they ask religious questions I always defer with "This is a question to ask your parents." I don't push an agenda on them, I just help them be tolerant of EVERYONE!! (not just who the religious right think we should be tolerant of).

4. You are a loon! And you and the religious right need to rethink your scare campaigner. Us on the left won't put up with it for long. Even you said that Atheism and Agnosticism are on the rise. You loose more and more people when you preach hate and intolerance (btw, how many modern scientists would agree with your statements, it's easy to pick names from the distant past to give credit to your argument. How many of those same people believed the Earth was flat!!!!!).

It's time to understand that the Bible is not the word of god, but a few men's stories.

"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye." Matthew 7:5


Thom

P.S. STOP BEING A LOON