“Folks can’t even have a manger scene in their yard anymore!!!”
I gently corrected him, emphasizing the fact that thousands of people and churches across the country have manger scenes displayed every winter holiday (heck, some leave them up year ‘round). I tried to explain the difference between a private residence and the local police department in as elementary a way possible. He wasn’t interested in hearing my thoughts…until I asked him how he would feel about a statue of Mohammed being erected in front of the court house. I won’t repeat what he said.
This was a shock. My Grandfather is the reason I’m a progressive. He has been a lifelong Democrat, having lived through the Depression, WWII, the baby boomer years, and the Civil Rights Movement. I asked him where he was getting his information and he mumbled “I read it”.
Tomorrow I’m attending my first public rally in opposition to Kansas House Bill 2453, the “religious freedom bill”, and in support of civil rights for all Americans. I’m anxious, I’ll admit. You see, Topeka is home to one of the most notorious hate groups in the country, the Phelps family. They hate everyone, but they really hate homosexuals.
I don’t like confrontation; it makes my stomach churn. Tomorrow could be ugly. But I am compelled to be there. I’m going with a friend who just this weekend married her long time love and soul mate in Iowa. She’s been quiet, trying to live in obscurity in a Johnson County suburb with her partner, raising their daughter, paying their taxes, being good neighbors, and keeping a low profile so as not to bring attention to their little circle of three. If she can step out of her comfort zone and march to defend her family’s rights then so can I, by her side.
Folks have tried to debunk opposition to the bill by saying it has been misrepresented; but the majority of people who have read the wording haven’t exaggerated the sentences that talk about unemployment benefits, adoption, and government employees. The broadness of the bill, and the unconstitutionality of it, is only up for debate by those who have willingly chosen to wear blinders.
Their arguments don’t bother me (they are free to believe whatever they choose) but the underlying basis of the bill does. It is why I will be in Topeka tomorrow.
You see, this isn’t just an LGBT issue. This is an American civil rights issue. This is one of the reasons our ancestors fought to get out from under the thumb of England: the power of the Church.
The KKK used scripture to justify the murder of black men and women and to demonize interracial marriage:
Exodus 33:16 "So shall we be separated: I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the Earth."
Leviticus 20:24 "I am the Lord they God which have separated you from other people."
Joshua 23:12-13 "If you do in any way go back and cleave unto the remnants of these Nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them and they unto you: Know for a certainty That there shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your side and thornes in your eyes. Until ye perish off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you."
The list goes on and on: Deuteronomy 7:3, Proverbs 23:27, Psalm 144:11-12, Hosea 5:6-7. "So We, the True Chosen people of God, the True Tribes of Israel, are commanded not to Race mix. We are not equal in the eyes of Yahwey."
Scripture has been used to justify anti-semitism:
"And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)" Act 12:2-3
"But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. " Acts 17:5
And misogyny:
"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing." 1 Tim 2:11-15
And for demeaning those who are disabled:
"Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them." Lev 21:17-23
Believe what you want. Read the translation of whatever scripture you want. Pick and choose which sins are worse than others in your own mind all you want. Hate, love, serve, denounce, and proselytize all you want. What you think and what religion you follow is your own right. It is your right to place whatever you want in your yard, as long as it doesn’t incite a riot or disrupt the peace. It is your right to worship whatever God you choose, wherever you choose. Contrary to local Kansas myth, your child can even pray in school (Supreme Court ruling; but no, a public school as an entity cannot hold mass prayer – each individual can pray as long as it doesn’t disrupt the other students). What we need to beware of, what we must be vigilant in watching, and what the term “establish no religion” means is that we cannot pass laws based upon a particular set of religious beliefs.
If we allow this bill (and others like it), maybe the next bill in Kansas will state that all divorces will be ruled in favor of the husband if a Judge’s deeply held religious belief holds that women should bow to their husbands.
If we allow this bill, maybe the next bill in Kansas will state that astrologists can be arrested or executed: "Thou shalt not allow a sorceress to live." Exodus 22:18.
If we allow this bill, maybe the next bill in Kansas will state that all synagogues must be relocated to more than a mile from churches because the “deeply held religious beliefs” of some doctrines believe the Jews are responsible for Jesus’ death.
I wasn’t alive during the Civil Rights movement and I sometimes find myself wondering if I would’ve been the kind of person who would have been strong enough to sit at the lunch counter with black friends in a show of solidarity and support for equality. Would I have been able to withstand being spit on, punched, hit and knocked to the ground?
If I had been born German, would I have been strong enough to hide a Jewish friend or neighbor from the Nazis?
If I was friends with Alice Paul, would I have been strong enough to withstand imprisonment in order to fight for the right to vote?
No, homosexuals are not being carted off to concentration camps in the United States today. Nor are they being beat to death or hung from trees on a daily basis. Our country doesn't bear the scars of 200 years of slavery and murder of homosexuals like she does African Americans. Local law enforcement officers are not turning a blind eye to victims like Mathew Shepard in today's world, although they did in the past.
But make absolutely no mistake: there was a time when gays and lesbians were in physical danger if they were discovered...and Shepard's death after being tied to a fence post and pistol whipped was just fifteen years ago. It has been well documented that homosexuals were carted off to the gas chambers, side by side with their Jewish brothers and sisters during WWII Germany. The general human propensity to hurt people they deem as "less than" or "sinful" has always been something that left me breathless, unable to speak. Am I exaggerating? Do your own research.
Which leads us to Kansas, circa 2014. I believe that to deny any American the same privileges as their fellow citizens and to deny them the right to marry whomever they love because of a certain religion is wrong and has no place in a representative government such as our own.
Make no mistake, this is a civil rights issue and it is not going to go away. Red states like Kansas and elected leaders like our own can muck up the issue and cause it to drag…and stall….much like the Southern states did with regard to segregation, but they are only delaying the inevitable. Our culture is moving forward as it has done in the past. Until we learn to remove religious dogma from defining our political platforms we have failed to reach the mountaintop.
As stated previously, I don’t know if I would have been strong enough when the consequences could have been fatal but I’m so very grateful that amazing people came before me and suffered the cost so that we don’t have to now.
The only thing I can personally do, for my friends and for all Americans, is step up and make a stand tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing others do the same.
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