Hating gays is the dumbest thing

I was telling my mother last night how I couldn’t cry anymore. Despite having many, many reasons to since coming back to this country, my tear ducts have dried up. Luckily, However, Tennessee lawmakers exist, and their hate is so palpable that not only have I cried, but my heart actually hurts.

Tennessee lawmakers are putting forward two bills, both with detrimental effects against an entire group of people.

The first is the “Anti-Bullying” law, which hopes “to make sure [the law] protects the religious liberty and free speech rights of students who want to express their views on homosexuality.” In other words, if you’re a “Christian” student you can say whatever you want to to gay children (just to remind you we’re talking about children here). 

Tennessee Equality Project official Chris Sanders said it best to WSMV: “What if one student calls another one a sinner, or a sodomite or says you’re perverted or you’re unnatural or you are going to hell? That’s where it gets really dicey.”

Where in the Bible does it say you have a right to do this - judge people based on their sexual orientation? Hurt people’s feelings because “the Bible tells you so”? I have a feeling it doesn’t, and never has. 

The worst part? A teen in middle Tennessee recently took his own life due to bullying, and the guy putting forward the bill says it was due to the student’s drinking and drug problem. 

The other bill could actually keep bullying from happening in the first place, IF it wasn’t passed. Proposed last year in May (and passed in the state Senate), this “Don’t Say Gay” bill is just that - it says that schools cannot discuss any sexual orientation except for heterosexuality. 

So, let’s ignore Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, Marcel Proust, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams… I mean, you’d have to. Their sexual orientation had a huge influence on their writing. You can’t ignore the oppression they faced for being gay. But I suppose that law would just continue it.

When I first read about this stuff, my initial reaction was “Why did I move back to America?” But I realized, we can’t run away from idiots, we have to fight against them. So while we’re fighting SOPA and PIPA (which I agree are extremely important, especially considering the platform I’m posting this on), don’t forget about other stupid laws, because they’ll slip right under your nose.

If any of this crap is passed, I’m getting my teaching license and pulling a John T. Scopes.