Sushi's Song of the Day, 5/22/2012: Gay Rights Edition

I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm actually pretty passionately opinionated and informed about certain political, social, economic, and environmental issues. I do a lot of reading and research, and enjoy debate and discourse, although it seems increasingly difficult to find people who can discuss opposing views rationally and thoughtfully, without getting all emotional. Of course I am guilty of that at times myself. People believe and say some crazy shit. It's hard not to react with bewilderment. Or outrage. This seems to me an extremely pivotal time for our country on numerous fronts. It's hard not to care. I often wish I didn't, and that I was less informed.

But what can I say? I do care. And I'm curious. I could totally see myself as an investigative reporter. Oooh. Or a photo journalist. Now we're talking.

I say all of that as sort of a heads up that the manifesto may get a bit more...meaty. There's a lot going on, and I plan to tell you what I think about it.

The issue of gay rights is seeing a lot of action recently. Some of that action has been favorable. Some of it not so much.


There was the somewhat shocking (to me) passage by the state of South Carolina an amendment banning gay marriage. I don't know why I found it so surprising, but I did. The right goes on and on about the evils of big government, but they seem to want to legislate some deeply personal things. 


But then the POTUS made it known he stood, however inactively, in the corner of marriage equality. Some say he was forced to make a statement due to the fact that Joe Biden has a big fat mouth. Maybe. It was still a brave move that may cost him the support of some of his base.  
Even Fox News dude, Shep Smith, or The Shep, as I like to call him, dared not to tow his network's prevailing party line, and straight up called the republican position wrong.

(Hey, is it me, or is The Shep looking rather gaunt these days? I'm worried about him, and I'm not even kidding.)

In a perhaps lesser known but pretty significant development, Dr Robert Spitzer, the psychiatrist who famously "proved" that homosexuality could be cured has now renounced that claim, admitting he was wrong. He even apologized to the gay community and individuals who may have been harmed in pursuit of this nonexistent cure:

"I believe I owe the gay community an apology for my study making unproven claims of the efficacy of reparative therapy. I also apologize to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works with some "highly motivated" individuals."

That's classy. It's hard to admit you were wrong, especially publicly. He should get a rainbow sticker or something.

Still the ignorant and hateful anti-gay rhetoric has been especially ignorant and disturbingly hateful.

Like this awful Pastor from the awful state of South Carolina who warns of the slippery slope from gay marriage to unions of man and beast.

What, he wonders, will prevent marriage being defined as between a person and animal?

Oh, I don't know...just off the top of my head, animals cannot consent to legal arrangements of any kind, and are physically incapable of signing the numerous forms and certifications involved. It's a reach so ridiculously extreme, I can't believe people make it as often as they do.

But the taker of the gay hating cake is definitely this guy:

who is advocating rounding up all the homos, pretty much Auschwitz style, to facilitate their dying off.  This plan is as stupid as it is evil, since the vast majority of gays are born to and raised by straight people. This is a Pastor, people. A man that people look to for spiritual guidance. And he wants to put the "queers" in concentration camps.

It troubles me that I inhabit the same world as these people, and that they truly believe what they are saying is pretty fucking frightening. 

But it's also so ridiculous, you gotta just laugh, and thank God for Satire.