Wednesday, May 29, 2013

And herein lies the difference...

I'm not sure if you've heard about this yet, but there's a very...interesting children's book that was just released. It's entitled, God Made Dad and Mom, and if it sounds like it's a kids' book with a nasty hidden agenda, that's because it is.

Author Amber Dee Parker and her teenage illustrator, Hannah Sequra, have put together this horrid collaboration targeting the youngest of generations as a way to keep the misinformation train a'chugging and the discriminatory, judgmental, heterosexist, elitist mindset firmly in place.

God Made Dad and Mom centers (loosely) on a young boy named Michael, a trip to some special kind of zoo where all the animals are heterosexual and mate for life, and Michael's family praying for his poor friend Jimmy who has two dads. Oh, and there's some stuff about "God's plan for a family" in there, which as we all know has been comprised of only one man and only one woman and their biological offspring since the beginning of time. I mean, it's not like we have some ancient book detailing how marriage has evolved over the centu- Oh wait. We do. And it's the same book this author is using to justify her viewpoints on the family...huh. Weird.

Oh, I forgot a major plot point! Okay, so it doesn't really have a cohesive plot. But the book ends with Michael asking if he's adopted, and his parents admitting that he was. Seriously, folks. I could not make this shite up.

Essentially, this is a book encouraging children to discriminate against same-sex couples. Even worse - to treat the children of these couples as something to be pitied, and to pray for the breakup/divorce of their 'pretend family' so everyone can run off and go be part of what someone besides God has deemed is God's plan.

Listen, everyone has an absolute right to their own beliefs. And they further have the right to educate and/or indoctrinate their own children. But this filth? This is taking it way too far. It is openly discriminatory, openly elitist (heterosexual families are the only real families - aren't you glad we aren't those poor gay people?), and openly condescending.

And right there, we have the difference between the gay rights movement and the fundamentalists who oppose them. But before we get more in-depth with that, I want to share another lovely children's book with you. This one is entitled, Chased by an Elephant, and is now available at Walmart stores for public consumption by your child - which really doesn't surprise me, given Walmart's recently rabidly anti-gay politics, led by the nose by the uber-right-wing American Family Association.

In Chased by an Elephant, author Janis Barrett Graham attempts to slay the dragon of teen sexuality - especially teen homosexuality. The book details how you can utilize "counseling, truth, and accepting Jesus" to overcome the Demon of Gayness.

Now, this is the same woman who is married to the president of Standard of Liberty (an LDS-headed anti-gay group), which could explain her making comments like these:


"The number of our young people involved in sexual sins has greatly increased in recent years. Some of the most stalwart-seeming youth find themselves involved in pornography, fornication, promiscuity, homosexuality, and the like."

Um, anyone remember the 20's? The 60's? No? Well then how about this little gem regarding LGBT teen suicides:


"Could it be that there are hidden factors at work that contribute to gay youth suicides? How about encouragement to adopt a popularized but unnatural sexual label? How about addiction to soul-killing same-sex pornography? How about being introduced by adults to behaviors too heinous to mention in polite society? How about being told they are forever homosexual and thinking they will never have a normal family life?”

Yes...yeeeeeees...come to the dark side, Janis. We have cookies...yummy, yummy cookies. But we'll only give them to you if you swear a blood oath to proclaim your unnatural gayness to the world and give your children to Creepy 'Uncle Tickles' Larry.

All joking aside, this is the mess we're up against. This is the mindset we're having to battle day in and day out - that homosexuals are unnatural, homosexuals are child molesters, homosexual families are not 'real' or 'normal' families...it goes on and on. 

But I've got news for Ms. Janis - it is because of people like her and her equally horrid husband who continue to spread scientifically disproved misinformation and promote that reparative therapy works if you just believe enough and have enough faith (read: money) that those babies think the only option they have when they can't fix what wasn't broken in the first place is to take their own lives. You make them out to be something to be fixed when it is you who are broken, madam.

Which leads us to the common denominator in these two tomes, and why it struck me suddenly that this is the one thing the public at large has got to open its eyes and see - there is a fundamental difference...an enormous, important difference...in how each side of this LGBT debate functions.

I don't know about you, but I've never seen a children's book (nor any book) out by LGBT activists on why we should feel sorry for those straighties' kids, and how we need to pray for them to loosen the hell up. Nor have I seen anything from our side catering to children, suggesting that all they need to do is pray really, really hard, and they too can be gay and have all the great parties.

Do you know why that is? Why we never see them? Because they don't exist. Anywhere. 

The members of the LGBT family are not trying to convince straight people they should be gay, and that the power of prayer can change them over; or teaching their children to feel sorry for those kids who only have one dad or one mom, and to pray for them, that their parents will realize they're living outside God's plan and get a divorce.

Because that's not what we're about. All we want is equality - not domination. We don't want to replace the population of the world with only gay couples. There's plenty of room for all of us at the party, people. Nor do we want to change how heterosexual couples live their lives or force them to be gay because we believe it's a better 'lifestyle'. None of us would dream of putting anyone through all that useless, self-esteem stealing trauma! So why is the other side so hell bent on doing just that to us?

Every single member of our community knows the power and the freedom and the beauty of being your authentic self, which may be why things are so different between the two groups. We're all battle-scarred. We've all had to fight against obstacles that the straight community could never even imagine. We've had to deal with coming out to our parents, our spouses, our friends, our kids' friends' parents, teachers, limo drivers, restauranteurs - every single time you meet someone new, you have to gather as much courage as you can and reveal the most intimate, vulnerable thing about you, over and over and over.

So having been through that, it is unimaginable to us to work against allowing people to be their true selves. On the contrary, we want to encourage it - gay, straight, black, white, purple - it doesn't matter. 

We don't need divisive crap like this. We don't need to raise another generation of hatred born in ignorance. There's room for us all at the table of life, and we've already been seated. Now we'll just have a cocktail or two, and wait for the rest of you to come to your senses and join us.

Think for yourself - I'm begging you. Don't just repeat what you heard in church or on television or the radio or whatever talk show. Research, research, research. The majority of those who oppose LGBT rights do not have enough information to make an informed opinion, because they're simply regurgitating what is fed to them. 

Feed yourself. Free yourself.

We'll save you a seat.

JBT









Friday, May 17, 2013

What If?

Every now and then I dip my toes in the poetry well. This was something I wrote tonight as a performance piece for the open mic slam I'm preparing for. I have written poetry for 25 years. As you might imagine, the tone and subject matter has changed a bit throughout this period. However, I tended to only write when I was angry, hurt, depressed, etc. Lately my life has been so wonderful that I haven't written a thing - a blessing, yes, but also tough for me as that's one of my biggest stress releases.

But it hit me all of a sudden this evening that I have the perfect thing to still be angry about, and it fits right in with all the other mediums in which I profess my opinions and support - I'm talking about the fight for LGBT equality, of course. If I can use this new medium as a way to reach others through social media, and especially if given the chance to perform one of my pieces to a public audience at a slam, maybe this will reach a whole different demographic than I'm used to.

So. I decided to go ahead and share what I just wrote with all of you, and get your input on it. Keep in mind, this was written specifically in a performance style, so it does lose something in just reading it. But I thought I'd share it anyway, and see what you all think.

Please leave a comment once you've read this over. (It will really help me out in the future.)


What If?

You look at me
Your eyes chewing on my details
As you prepare to spit out an undigested, undesired opinion
I can see you count them off…
‘1, 2, 3
Same as me’
Minivan
Extra curves
Kid hanging off each arm
Just another
Suburban mother
Nothing to look at
Nothing to bother
Yourself
With.
But…
What if you knew?
What if you could see down to my truth
My insides
My deepest, darkest depths
The things I have done
The bodies I have ravished
The hearts I have left panting
And writhing
In abject agony at my departure?
What if you could open my doors
Expose my skeletons
And come to know them by name?
Then you would see that I am nothing
Like I seem
I am not
Some straight man’s absolution
I am not
Some straight man’s whore
I am not
Some straight man’s plaything
Secret fling
Wedding ring
Because…
I am not
Straight.
See, where other women have
A ‘he’ in their lives
I, instead, have a ‘she’
A ‘she’ that is my love
A ‘she’ that is my life
My wife
My everything
So what if
You knew this truth?
Would I be worth the bother then?
Or would I simply BE a bother
A stark reminder
In your daily life of privilege?
Your rights trump my rights
Then
Your dreams are the only ones that count
Then
Your love is God-breathed and mine is a sin
Then
But wait…
Only moments ago I was part of your crowd
Another mother
Not something other
Now everything is changed
In your head
Yet I’m still a suburban mother
Still just a regular gal
Nothing is different about me
From then ‘til now
Except you
So what if
You made a change
What if
You decided my ‘she’
Instead of a ‘he’
Was irrelevant
To my ‘me’
What would change then
If?

© Jeni Cantrell 2013

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

I'm Baaaa-ack! And I brought Pat Robertson with me.


Good grief. Uncle Patty is at it again...only this time we've been thrown in the pool with murderers, rapists, and thieves. 

Seriously? 

Let's see here...people who kill others, people who force themselves sexually on others, people who steal from others, and people who are in love and simply want the right to live their lives with the same respect and regard as is given to others. 

Do any of you remember the game on Sesame Street - One of These Things is Not Like the Other? Take a minute and read the above paragraph again, and let me know if you can find the thing that is not like the others. Go ahead. I'll wait...

What's that you say? You're already done? And so quickly, too! Surprising, given that Mr. Robertson seems to think they're all so similar.  

The irony in his little pitch would be hilarious if not for the fact that he means every word. At one point, he even encourages his viewers to stand up for 'freedom' against those who might 'take away their right to free speech'. And all the while, it is he and his cronies who are fighting against freedom for any who think differently than they. Amazing that someone could build such an enormous, multi-million dollar empire and not be intelligent enough to recognize the double standard under which he operates.

Listen, you can think whatever you want about me and my 'kind' on your own time and in your own home. Knock yourself out. But once you put out a public statement like the one put forth by the ESPN contributor whom Pat is referencing, you stand to reap the societal consequences of such hateful and bigoted speech. You want to despise all illegal immigrants? Sit around the dinner table and talk about how the wetbacks are completely screwing up our country and we oughta box 'em all up and ship 'em back? Fine. Go ahead. You absolutely have that right. But you want to go on television or radio and say those things? You're gonna get called out - and rightly so. 

See, the real issue here is that our dear Mr. Robertson and his ilk continue to believe that sexual orientation is 'fixable'. Yes, human sexuality can be and often is fluid (see: Kinsey Scale), but the ever mounting pile of scientific evidence (and the personal statements and stories of untold amounts of LGBT individuals) all point to what we who live this life have known all along...you are who you are. And nothing can change that. In fact, there are numerous studies that have shown how dangerous reparative therapy (a.k.a 'conversion therapy' or 'pray the gay away') actually is. These, of course, are from rather reliable sources - such as a little group known as the American Psychological Association. And then there's this article by Dr. Doug Haldeman, which has the best line I've ever read regarding the reason some LGBT people actually seek out reparative therapy, "Many of these individuals are vulnerable to the idea of repairing in themselves what is actually society's problem: a history of rejection and discrimination based upon socially instituted homophobia." 

Our sexual orientation is no more fixable or changeable than yours, Pat. We were made to be exactly who we are, and our existence is not harmful to any but those who are afraid of what they don't understand. You claim that the 'power of God' can change anything, and that may well be true. But the point to remember here is that in this instance, there is nothing that needs to be changed, so your argument is invalid.

It will only be when people such as this man either fall away naturally, open up and allow themselves be educated, or care enough to search out the answers on their own that the hate speech will stop. Because make no mistake - that's exactly what it is...language full of fear and judgement and hatred and assumption. But we will win out in the end, because our weapons in this fight are love and community and steadfast compassion; and when we open up the floodgates to let that light up our way, there is no hate that can stand against it for long. 

So get out there, be brave, and shine.