Thursday, April 26, 2012

Look the gift horse in the mouth.

Look at what I found:

Mormons and homosexuality

     Cool, so it seems like even the most painfully bigoted people in the world are starting to change their minds about gay people, right? Eh...I'm not convinced. This is yet one more article in a somewhat insidious trend that I have been noticing lately. It seems like there is a trend toward forgiveness and looking the other way in the gay community. Lots of politicians are starting to be seen as empathetic to the queer community, more and more religious are being absolved of their hatred. However, the fact of the matter is that while we are looking for the best people and that is just SO kindergarten chic, it is dangerous to be painting our enemies in a positive light. I know, I know, "'Enemies', Kile, don't you think that is a little bit strong?" Absolutely not. And that is the point.
     As this article explains, the mormon church, though it represents 2% of the state of California, donated HALF of the mammoth funding that was used to uphold "traditional" (or as I like to call it, "boring") marriage. From here, the author does a feeble job of trying to pinpoint one openly gay mormon leader and a trend of acceptance for the group at BYU who recently released an "It Gets Better" video. How do we know that this group is being accepted? Because they aren't being KICKED OUT OF THE SCHOOL. THIS is your trend toward compassion for queerness within the mormon church? Honestly, if we are using this as a moment to stop and breathe, we have got some serious problems on our hands.
     The fact of the matter is that, even at its best, the mormon church  coverage explains:
When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speaks, the City Council of Salt Lake City listens. At least the council seemed to in 2009 when it voted on an ordinance to make it illegal to discriminate against gay and transgendered residents in housing and employment. "The church supports these ordinances because they are fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage,” church spokesman Michael Otterson told the council.
     Violence to the institution of marriage? Are you kidding me? So, essentially, the author is trying to get us to stop being upset with mormons because they're doing the best they can within their moral system. Well forgive me...but screw any moral system that, by the same token, does violence to the institution of my life. This church, at its core, hates gay people and is trying to denigrate out lives. Let us not forget how damaging this is to our ability to survive. In an almost entirely liberal state, they donated massive time, energy, and a large portion of their own livelihood to ENSURE that already legalized marriages were made obsolete. I am looking for positive trends as much as the next guy, but I will call bullshit where bullshit is running rampant. I am incredibly proud of the BYU students for their efforts and, in a sad sort of way, I am proud of the faculty for not expelling the students for spreading a message of love and acceptance. However, I am sorry, I just cannot let this speak as an indication that the larger mormon community is vanishing as a problem.
     As we start to make incredible strides toward legal and moral acceptance, let us please not start to forget the hardships of our past. There is nothing wrong with being upset and carrying that with us. There is nothing wrong with demanding full and unrelenting acceptance from everyone around us. If we start to settle for anything less than full acceptance, we will never get as far as we can. We are not here to pander to the comfort of comfortable people...we are fighting for our lives. We can never forget or overlook that. It's time to start looking the gift horse in the mouth...


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