GOP: Gays don't need special legal protections
Paul Clement is the hand picked choice of John Boehner to defend the Defense Of Marriage Act in court, since the Obama Administration has come to the decision that it is unconstitutional and not defensible. The GOP decision to go ahead and defend DOMA is estimated cost to Americans of $1,500,000.00. Even the LGBT Community has to pay. Here’s part of his $1.5 mil. defense:
"Homosexuals have a great deal of political power" and are not entitled to the safeguards that courts have established for laws that discriminate against racial minorities or women", attorney Paul Clement said in a filing supporting the Defense of Marriage Act.
Either I’m missing something or Mr. Clement is grasping at straws and hoping that no one’s paying attention. Following this logic was there any real need to overturn discriminatory laws once the slaves had been freed. Maybe we didn’t really need to even abolish slavery once the majority of people no longer supported it. Did we really need to actually give women the right to vote once they started to speak up and demand their rights. After all we all know they are not really the weaker sex.
If there are laws on the books that discriminate against one group of people then we have a problem. If you ignore a problem it hasn't really gone away. Having a segment of the population that has been the subject of discriminatory laws claim their voice and demand their rights is a starting point but not the solution. Now that we have gained a little political strength will Mrs. Golinki get the same treatment as Mrs. Heterosexual Married Lady. I don’t think so. After all there is still a law that says she won’t. There isn’t to much grey area in the concept of equality. We are or we aren’t. If we don’t make things right they stay wrong.
To end on a positive note it is nice to see that conservatives are acknowledging that times are changing. The attitudes of average American’s is shifting. This is one of our countries great strengths, when we become aware of injustice we seek to remedy it.
Bill Schoenleber 10/15/2011
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Gareth Thomas Overcoming A Struggle With Bias
Where does bias start? How can we get past it?
Self Honesty - We are all conditioned as a result of our environment. It starts at a time when we don’t have the awareness to be able to analyze it and until we are confronted with discrepancies between our self perceptions and our experiences it just runs in the background as a subconscious filter on everything. Any body ever have one of those red flag moments. You heard it too many time “I’m not a _____________ (bigot, racist, sexist, etc.) but….. How about when one of those red flag moments comes out of your own mouth. I can tell you from experience it’s really uncomfortable.
Self Examination - Life has a way of presenting us with circumstances that challenge us to grow. By learning to step back and look at how we react to a situation we can get clues to our own biases and those of others. When we feel anxious or uncomfortable it is an opportunity to reflect and ask why we are responding the way we are. Is our response in keeping with our highest ideals of how we want to be perceived? As a young man form a very homogeneous suburb being exposed to an integrated environment my discomfort brought awareness that I needed to deal with biases that I was unaware of. As a person coming to grips with my sexuality I had to deal with issues of acceptance and self worth. Having an inter racial relationship has increased my awareness of the subtle affects that long term biases can have.
Progress and the future - Undoubtedly the views of society have progressed and will continue to change. Public displays of anger at injustice make most people uncomfortable but have been instrumental in making progress at addressing inequality. Although demonstrations of anger and outrage over injustice bring the problem to light, greater exposure to diversity will ultimately move us where we want to be. Getting to know people as individuals makes it more and more difficult to maintain the misunderstandings that have been the fuel of bias. As we get to know individuals the stereotypes will continue to erode. We have an inherent drive to seek what is right. Let’s work toward a day when bias disappears entirely.
Bill Schoenleber
Joseph Osborne & Bill Schoenleber Social Curators
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