From her email:
"First of all, it is absolutely appalling that the attorney general of the state -- the top legal officer of the state -- is openly advocating discrimination. This isn't a random nutjob just spouting off, as so many do. He holds a position of considerable legal authority, and is using that position to promote hatred.
Furthermore, he is the lawyer for state entities, and is advising them to take legal steps to strip legal protections from a group of people who have suffered grievously from discrimination, hatred, and abuse -- not just over time, but gay-bashing is sadly and shockingly still an everyday concern for many.
The news story has it wrong. this is not an "increasing split" on issues regarding gender orientation -- it is pure and simple an effort by someone in power, seeking more power, to advance the despicable and uninformed prejudices of the past for his own political gain. This is shameful beyond description.
Universities and other learning institutions have a strong interest in making all their students, teachers, and employees safe. Bans on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation are one way that intent to provide a safe place is expressed.
I swear to god, Dick Cheney is more enlightened than this man, on this issue. That's not a compliment."
Thank you for writing this, my dear friend. I couldn't have said it better, or with more passion.
I'm wondering if all those independents who voted for McDonnell and Cuccinelli are having any second thoughts now? We tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen. Steve Shannon, I guarantee it, wouldn't have pursued this course of action.
ReplyDeleteIt's gonna be a looooong 4 years...
I called Cucinelli's office yesterday. The nice man that answered the phone was insistent that C does not discriminate, he was only clarifying for the colleges what the law is.
ReplyDeleteWell it would seem to me that if he was only clarifying, he should only be concerned about the protections the state wants to ensure. This is the minimum standard. Should the public educational institutions include further protections in their anti-discrimination policy, he should only be over joyed. Can't exactly justify the statement that HE does not discriminate. Does he really need to have lynchings to accept that he is discriminating against GLBT?
If he doesn't intend to discriminate against those he describes as "disordered," then what stops him from signing a pledge to that effect? Hollow and cowardly words from an activist ideologue.
ReplyDeleteit really does shock me that a state attorney general would try to coerce state universities into abandoning non-discrimination policies. what good is to be served by that? who else does he think undeserving of protection -- women? racial and ethnic minorities? those with different physical abilities?
ReplyDeletewhat i always told my kids is that nobody can help who they love, and love is good. when the gay jokes started cropping up -- usually a kid's friend in the back seat, while i was schlepping them somewhere -- i would pull over and deliver the lecture.
i have a lot of GLBT friends. they are good people, as hardworking and responsible and loving as anyone. and they get beaten up for who they are; strangers hate them for no reason; and that's not right. i've even had friends beaten up because some kids thought they *might* be gay -- 2 men walking together, what else could it be?
one of my son's best childhood friends -- a fellow boy scout, son of a family we were very very close with in the day -- came out to his mom a few years ago. and she kept it a secret for quite a while, didn't even tell his dad, only broached the subject with me in a hypothetical ["what would you think if you found out your son was gay?"]. that made me incredibly sad; N was the same great young man he had always been. how could she doubt that?
N is completely out now, doing great, graduating college this year. he is happy, after some years of distress. i have to credit the safety of his campus for part of this story with a happy ending.