When you need to rant...

[CensoredAlso]

I get what you're saying. They're pestering, harassment, and then there's when they manage to get the entire school to spam you with so much hateful intent that it's almost impossible to get through the day let alone ignore them. And ignoring them only goes so far. They'll keep doing it no matter how hard you try.

I'm pretty much been there, believe me. It's just happened enough times in my life for me to realize there are times when there's nothing anyone can do/will do to stop it. But I also know it never lasts, bullies and their little enablers always get their comeuppance eventually.

 

[charlietheowl]

They just explicitely and specifically legalized discrimination against gay people, that's what. Because not institutionalizing individuals' and religious institutions' legal ability to discrimiate is persecution.

The entire text of the bill is linked to the article, so you can read it without taking my or any other person's word for it. I find it pretty incredible stuff. Even more incredible is the sponsor's explanation: "Discrimination is horrible. It’s hurtful … It has no place in civilized society, and that’s precisely why we’re moving this bill. There have been times throughout history where people have been persecuted for their religious beliefs because they were unpopular. This bill provides a shield of protection for that."

There are no words.

Luckily, by all indications this bill is not going to pass in the Senate there, but it still doesn't excuse the thoughts behind the bill. What would have been the next step in Kansas? Making gay people wear special identification in order to make sure a business owner can deny them service quickly? Hopefully everyone who was in favor of this bill will be swiftly voted out of office when their terms are up.

 

[Drtooth]

Hopefully everyone who was in favor of this bill will be swiftly voted out of office when their terms are up.

Which I'd love to believe, but it sounds like they will indeed get re-elected as they're taking the same lame "Pink Scare" wedge issues that appeal to those who are easily emotionally manipulated. Because that's what it's all about. Getting re-elected by scaring people.

On that subject, I must ad... while I am also avidly against Russia's loony "all gays are pedophiles" mentality, how come there are so many people who are absolutely convinced that the Olympics committee with never ever ever in a million years ever again award the Olympics to a country with human rights violations... wait for it... when they awarded it to China not too long ago? I mean, they're among the champions of human rights violations, and for the most part, they don't really discriminate (but they really want to give Tibet a crap time specifically). And it's not like they're backing off on any of that.

 

[Dominicboo1]

One correction: this is not law yet. It has passed the Kansas House of Representatives, but it has not yet been signed into law. One can hope that they will come to their senses...but I'm not holding my breath.

Oh good news Slackbot! My friend told me this was old news, and wasn't passed.

 

[Slackbot]

Nope, it's current news. It may yet be passed.

....

Hmm, looks like it's less likely. People have protested it, and the politicos might be swayed by the people the are supposed to govern.

 

[CensoredAlso]

It may just be the usual "highly unlikely bill that purely serves to energize the party."

 

[Drtooth]

It's downright disgusting that "religious freedom" got mutated into "freedom to persecute others in the name of religion." Separation of Church and state means that the law of the land trumps the laws of Fundamentalism, and that prevents us from being a creepy religious Autocracy like the ones that are supposedly so evil we have to bomb them. Freedom does not mean freedom to take the freedoms away from others because you don't like it.

What really infuriates me is that the huge wave of violent homophobia in Africa was sponsored and introduced by savvy Evangelicals who realize that their point of view is rapidly becoming out of touch in this country.

 

[CensoredAlso]

No one ever said democracy was going to be easy...

 

[Drtooth]

Yep. No one did. But it's those who want to make it hard because they're afraid they'll lose a tiny amount of power that they act like the ill behaved kid at a toy store throwing a tantrum that they didn't get enough Pokemons or whatever. Not that they didn't get what they wanted, but that they didn't get as much as they wanted as possible.

The difference is, kids eventually learn that you can't have everything and that life isn't supposed to be fair like that.

There's something just completely perverted when "freedom" means freedom to take away the freedoms of others because they don't agree and then to turn around and act the victim because they don't get to be the very same bullying, persecuting, and freedom snatchers they call everyone else.

Besides... nothing out there is saying they have to like gays. Just that they don't have the rights to treat them like garbage and pin it on an obscure piece of out of context text buried in the Old Testament.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Yeah there's a lot of issues like that in this country, heh.

In any case, I seriously doubt this will pass. It's a smokescreen just to liven up the party. The "we reserve the right to refuse service" thing is ancient history.