Four new bills filed in the Utah Legislature promise to have significant impact on government policies affecting gay and transgender Utahns -- and the gay community is alarmed about that proposed legislation.
At issue, according to gay rights advocates, is a series of measures passed recently which provide protections against discrimination. The sponsor of those bills is Rep. Lavar Christensen, R-Draper, who also helped craft Utah's constitutional ban on gay marriage.
One bill, House Bill 270, would define marriage in state law as existing between one man and one woman and supported by God....
Christensen maintains his bills simply codify existing laws and are not intended to target protections for those who are gay and transgender.
[For the full article, see here.]
The last sentence above is hypocritical on its face! Hateful bigots often spew their venom couched in unctuous and sanctimonious rhetoric, all the while being wolves in sheep's clothing who use God as attempted justification to deprive LGBT people of full and equal rights.
That article also states, The bill says laws, government services and publicly-funded programs should strengthen the traditional family wherever possible. For the LDS Church to now begin championing traditional marriage" is both ludicrous and bizarre!
Given the LDS Church's checkered marital and sexual history, as well as its history of institutional racism, it is the height of chutzpah to now extol the traditional family that has taken many forms throughout history.
When most people are prejudiced, they are rarely up front about their motives and/or actions. Rather, they couch their prejudices, and externalize their discriminatory actions, in sanctimonious terms so that homophobes (and all who want to exclude others from mainstream society) can feel that it's appropriate to seek to deny others from the same civil and sacramental rights that they, themselves, enjoy.
This hypocrisy and warped theology is not unique to the LDS Church, but they can be seen to craft these traits into a high art.
2 comments:
I hope the new studies coming out about the adverse health effects of homophobia can be used to put an end to this type of hateful legislation.
Your hope, and my hope, Don Charles, will only be realized in a rational society. Unfortunately, when we have homophobia, couched in terms of a theocratic mind-set which contains a theology of genital placement and exclusion, rationality goes out the window. Best wishes, Jerry.
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