Since Newsnibbles has gone international we have been observing with some intrigue what is occurring in the world of US politics. From Pizza Walnuts to faecal stains there seems to be just the right amount of all the things that pique our interest.
So, what started this mad journey into the crazy world of politics? At the beginning of the month, one of our readers emailed the
Newsdesk with a story that a change to Tennessee anti bullying laws could protect teens who bully for religious reasons. What this would mean in real terms is that the change in law would allow further marginalisation of gay teens, telling them that a religion is against who they are. Even if this did not result in direct bullying (which seems extremely unlikely) it would most likely bring teens who are still attempting to establish individual identities to feel that who they are is somehow not acceptable to certain groups. As always, when we discover a news story that we think may cover, we asked the fans what they thought. Chimp emailed in to say:
“This is an egregious suggestion that people of religion should be given an exemption to anti bullying laws because their religion sanctions it, is what amounts to hate crimes. It additionally, in effect provides an instruction on “how to bully”. Should a religion be given exemptions to other anti discrimination laws if their religion holds that people of colour are inferior?
In the Declaration of Independence it states “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
These words were written by Thomas Jefferson who as you may know went on to be one of the framers of the US Constitution. If one then looks to the first amendment of the United States Constitution, this proposed law goes substantially towards violating the principle of non establishment at least in my opinion humble though it may be.
Further the United States has ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 7 of which states:
Article 7.
- All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.
- All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Chimp goes on to say that “in ratifying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The US asserted that they will both adhere to the document and that they fully support it. Passing any law at a state or federal level that openly allows discrimination and I might suggest encourages it overtly contravenes the UDHR and breaks the promise that the US made to uphold it.” He then concluded, “this proposed law is both anti human and anti-American in every aspect and shames us as a species and as a nation.”
Recent statistics have revealed that suicide is the fourth most common cause of death amongst young people. According to the statistics a report by Yale University revealed that victims of bullying are between two and nine times more likely to commit suicide than non victims. There have been a number of reports teens committing suicide across America as a result of bullying.
One group who are trying to change the way people view homosexuality is The Red Eye Gravy Theatre Company based in Washington DC. They are currently rehearsing a same sex production of Romeo and Juliet.
Artistic director of the company, Shannon Listol Wilson took some time out from a busy rehearsal schedule to talk to us.
“Our production of Romeo and Juliet will feature the title roles as a gay couple. Romeo will be played as a woman. Why can’t the greatest love story be about a gay couple? Why are people being persecuted for who they love? These questions and more will be answered at our post-show discussions. In the news and media, there have been so many stories about gay teenagers being bullied to the point that they feel they don’t have anywhere to turn, and they choose suicide. Our show will be a benefit production with all profits from the show going to support The Trevor Project, the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Youth. The show is dedicated to the memory of Gaurav Gopalan, a member of the DC Theatre Community who was murdered this past summer.”
On the proposed change to the law she commented:
“I am utterly appalled. I don’t understand people’s capacity for hatred. The idea that abusive behaviour is acceptable under any religious banner is contradictory and abhorrent. Most religions teach tolerance and love. Jesus taught Christians to love their neighbours as themselves. Allowing bullying in any form for any reason goes against any religious teaching that I am aware of.”
Recently the Republican Candidate for Tennessee State Senate in District 7 (yeah, we don’t know either, Google it) claimed that HIV was virtually impossible to catch through heterosexual sex. He also asserts that heterosexuality should be taught in schools, presumably for those who don’t know how to do it. As a part of this suggested educational reform, the word “gay” would be banned from schools, rather like Voldemort – oops, we said it. Now, if the Ministry of Magic doesn’t get us then we may still get detention. As regular readers of the site may be aware, we occasionally ask our many Twitter followers what they think of certain stories. In relation to this awesome revelation @TheWallStBull told us “I blame the school system for letting him cut every single science class for 12 years.” He also addressed Mr. Campfield’s Twitter account directly saying “Dear Stacey Campfield: It’s apparent you do n’t realize that in some parts of the world, people EAT monkeys.” The comment refers the myth that HIV originated from humans having sex with monkeys, something else that Mr. Campfield asserted, according to the report.
It’s not just in Tennessee either. Recently, the mayor of Michigan has been reported as allegedly describing homosexuality as a “mental disease”.
This is not a recent surge in anti-gay politicians to pop out of the States. As with the apocalypse, Newsnibbles has just arrived to the party late. It seems that demonising homosexuals is viewed as a legitimate political standpoint to take in order to secure the votes of certain religious or Right Wing groups.
One of the more vocal of these politicians is currently running to be the Republican Presidential Candidate; Rick Santorum. For some reason, if you Google “Santorum” the first site to appear is a website called Spreading Santorum which has a rather unfortunate translation of the meaning of the word “Santorum”. Whilst a search in dictionary.com only provided the search result “did you mean SANITORIUM?” – (which we didn’t, although perhaps it was a targeted cookie tracking from our previous “mental disease” clicks, or something else) Spreading Santorum defines the word as “the frothy mixture of lube and faecal matter which is sometimes the by product of anal sex” which is graphic.
Amongst some of his more controversial quotes Rick Santorum has compared homosexuality to beastiality. On the subject of gay marriage he is quoted as saying:
“Is anyone saying same-sex couples can’t love each other? I love my children. I love my friends, my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage, too?”
We approached Drew Emery, award winning film maker and gay rights activist for his view on what Santorum had to say. He told us:
“Rick Santorum is either wilfully disregarding, or wholly ignorant of the idea of romantic love between same-sex couples. It is no accident that the fundamentalist Right sees so-called “gay marriage” as the definitive battle in the culture wars. Once romantic love between same-sex couples is recognized, it is impossible to disregard us as fully human and, as such, fully deserving of our human rights. Love is love and anyone in the presence of it can see as much. Yet, if a man can love a man, or a woman can love a woman, then this upsets the traditionalists’ base of power: a
patriarchal view of society that is organized from the family structure on out. Perhaps Santorum has never actually seen a same-sex couple in love. Yet, in this day and age it is impossible to imagine how this could be true if he had an even modest interest in learning about experiences outside his narrow purview.”
Drew’s film, Inlaws & Outlaws is a documentary about relationships, presented in a way that shows people rather than genders.
The issue of gay marriage is currently one that is very prevalent across America, dividing people and opinions. Recently Microsoft has taken the step of coming out in favour of gay marriage, stating that they were unable to employ the best people whilst their relationships were not being accepted in the State in which they were being asked to work. Bee told us “a lot of people feel very strongly about it, as gay people can be in committed relationships for years, but because these relationships are same sex they do not have the same legal rights as a heterosexual married couple.”
It seems that this is a contentious issue, which does not just affect Americans, but by extension everyone who has an interest in people of the World. We would love to hear your views, why not post a comment below?
I noted with some interest recently that the UK may indeed be on the verge of legalizing same sex marriage. A recent survey in the US suggests that better than half the population is in favor of it. All then, that keeps the US from following the will of the people and the actions of other industrialized societies are the bigotry of the powerful few and the ingrained hatred of religion. It is high time that we shook off the burdens of both and recognized that “all men(and women) are created equal”
Er which also means if I am not allowed to bully heterosexuals then I am equally not allowed to bullo homosexuals.. Just clarifying there.