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PrintAn open letter to America concerning the hate-filled homophobes of the religious right
“In no instance have...the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.”
— James Madison
As all the right-wing Christian conservative blow-hard (RWCCBH) homophobes down there in the States continue to blather on about how gay marriage is going to destroy traditional marriage, I just keep scratching my head, struggling with all my might to understand just what the $&#% they’re talking about.
The fact is, here in Canada, same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide since 2005 and not one traditional marriage that I know of has ever been threatened or damaged in any way whatsoever. That’s four years and millions of marriages without even one—not one—being threatened in the slightest.
And you better believe that if one ever was it’d be all over the news: “Yes, yes, that’s right, Your Honour, we were happily married for 20 long years, but then this gay-marriage bill passed and we saw gays getting hitched and it made our marriage seem so meaningless and empty. Obviously we had no other option but divorce.”
Personally, I know many people who have gotten divorced in this country, both before and after the legalization of same-sex marriage, and not one of them has ever cited the threat of gay marriage as even a mitigating factor in their relationship’s demise.
I know my own marriage is still going strong, despite this seemingly imminent threat.
I’m not really sure how other people getting married—whether they be straight, gay, or bi—is supposed to threaten my marriage, but I’m guessing that, when it comes to the RWCCBH homophobes, it probably has something to do with a secret desire to be free of their present marital situations (à la Larry Craig and Ted Haggard).
Now I’m not saying that all right-wing Christian conservative blow-hard homophobes are secretly gay. I’m just saying that I find it quite interesting that they are all so totally and utterly obsessed with preventing gay marriage from becoming a legal option and that they so passionately insist that the availability of gay marriage is going to somehow threaten their own marriages.
And, by the way, I’ve got no problem with any, or all, of the RWCCBH homophobes being gay, if that’s what they indeed are. Though I most certainly do have a problem with their hypocrisy.
Perhaps they should stop worrying about other people’s love lives and life commitments, and instead focus on their own for a while. Because, obviously, it doesn’t matter who other people are marrying; the fact is nothing threatens a person’s marriage but the reality of their own relationship with their spouse (though, sometimes, a really hot coworker full of lust and desire can be a bit of a threat too, I guess).
Procreation vs. love
As these RWCCBH homophobes clamour for reasons to deny gays the same rights they themselves enjoy, they ridiculously point to procreation and state that marriage is primarily intended to make babies. Yeah, that’s right; not surprisingly, the main reason for getting married, according to these lovers of all things pre-Enlightenment, is not in fact love, but rather to simply produce offspring.
Not wanting to get into the obvious psychological deficiencies and personality disorders that have so clearly inflicted anyone in the modern world who marries for procreation over love, let me just say that I can’t really imagine these RWCCBH homophobes denying infertile individuals the right to marry. Nor can I imagine them disqualifying postmenopausal women from marriage either. So why the concern with baby-making abilities when it comes to gays? I mean, besides the obvious homophobia, hatred, and small-mindedness, of course.
Fear and loathing—and Bible study
What’s with these people anyway? I mean, they’re scared of everything. If it’s not God condemning them to hell for masturbating, it’s “socialized” medicine turning their beloved homeland into North Korea, and/or it’s “liberal educated elites” pushing evil, dangerous stuff down their children’s throats. Stuff like science. Come on, guys; you can’t be terrified of everything, can you?
Me? The only thing that really scares me is them. That is, the only thing that really terrifies me is the possibility of these right-wing Christian conservative blow-hard homophobes one day actually taking over America. It may seem unlikely now, but seeing that their numbers continue to grow almost as fast as their minds continue to close, it is, sadly, a distinct possibility.
And, if it ever were to happen, forget about same-sex marriage. How about life without science, government services, or masturbation? And in their place nothing but a shitload of Bible study? Yeah, I’m talking about a takeover by the American Taliban.
In which case, I suspect that we here in Canada would feel a lot like the Dutch and Belgians in the late-1930s. That is, not exactly very safe or secure.
Mike Cowie is a freelance writer who writes about politics, music, film, travel, and much more. You can read more of Mike’s views on his Web site.
Comments
As someone who knew Ted Haggard as a child, I was reminded of the family environment in which he lived. For just one example, his father, Marcus "Doc" Haggard was the local chapter leader for the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade, which basically packaged everything it didn't like as being part of a communist plot (not unusual society-wide in the 50's and 60's). Early on, the CACC viewed homosexuality as a tool for the communists: communists encourage homosexuality because homosexuals have weak minds therefore are easy to brainwash. (It's no surprise, now that communism isn't perceived as such a large threat, that the CACC is now lead by David Noebel, outspoken homophobe, and much of their effort is overtly directed against homosexuals). Not that the anti-communism influence was the only factor, just one. In short, I think that Ted, like many other gay or bi kids coming of age in the 60's and 70's, was strongly influenced by a repressive environment, learned to stifle his attraction to men, and finally he just couldn't do that any more.
Dave
People are free to say whatever they want no matter how stupid and silly it might be. That only changes when people violate other people's property rights and invidivual freedoms and liberties. Once you start limiting free speech all the rest of your liberties will be gone soon thereafter. the same.
Finally....I'm kind of surprised that you didn't go for the FundaMENTAList jugular with your trademark scathing wit. Sure....writing "That is, the only thing that really terrifies me is the possibility of these right-wing Christian conservative blow-hard homophobes one day actually taking over America. It may seem unlikely now, but seeing that their numbers continue to grow almost as fast as their minds continue to close, it is, sadly, a distinct possibility. ".....provides one with the kind of ironic gallows humour that one imagines could have taken place during one of literary fiction's most famous scenes...such as: The Jewish carpenter is losing lots of blood from spikes driven through his extremities but he looks over at the thief hanging next to him and in his dying last breaths asks if he can get a good deal on a swag Uzi.
SMBs
Unfortunately for everyone on the planet, your government, even under Obama, are still hell bent on world domination and since your debt load is way past being unsustainable I fear that your government/military will unleash the kind of atrocities upon the planet that will make their genocidal deployment of depleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan seem like a day at the spa. These zombie xians believe the end times are here and they have the bio weapons and billion dollar tax funded bunkers to ensure their survival as the "chosen ones" while the rest of us perish in unimaginably tortuous ways. Meanwhile, back at the hacienda, your average American is more consumed with Idols and other idiot preoccupations than in dealing with the rising tides of mass xian fundamentalist induced insanity.
SMBs
Read Chris Hedges' "American Fascists". It's very enlightening.
I will be leaving Canada this year still hoping that the horrors of Vancouver may not be indicative of the entire country, but I will also have failed to find anything here that was really so much better (or different) than the US.
Rampant capitalism with a growing outsourcing of services and manufacturing to foreign, cheaper locales; hyper-consumerism accompanied by an increasingly blind reliance on technology; shallow and superficial human interactions due to a prevailing preference for "social networking sites" over face-to-face contact; increasingly awful television programming with a preponderance of "reality", "talent" and "style" shows... All of this is true of Canada just as much as the US.
The only thing I can think of that's better here than in the States is health care, but that doesn't mean much since anywhere in the world healthcare is better than in the US. Actually, there's better, and cheaper, health care in most European countries than here. Oh, and gay marriage, of course, which is thankfully also spreading fast throughout Europe.
But both things will eventually happen in the US too, whatever the current (and heavily manipulated) polls may or may not tell us, because history teaches us that things like laws and regulations, and the social mores that produce them, will and must change.
So if the writer of this article thinks that the "numbers [of US right wingers] continue to grow", one must blame the media, which invariably give more space to negative, sensationalist, loud-and-foul-mouthed behaviour because apparently it sells more copy. It's always easier to produce a report on the handful of crazy Americans who clamour against healthcare reform instead of talking about the millions who want it, and the many organizations that are mobilizing to effect this change.
Both Europeans and Canadians should stop using trite stereotypes about America and try and understand the historical reasons for the country being the way it is - they should also look at how many times, and how much, the country has actually changed throughout its history. But I guess that would too much work for Europeans and Canadians because they would also have to address their own imperialist and genocidal pasts (and presents).
Instead they, and especially Canada, have this convenient scapegoat, America, always at hand when the need to launch accusations of imperialism, colonialism, racism, war crimes, etc. arises. Even many intelligent Americans have been duped into believing that Canada is a paradise on earth (even as it now deports the war diserters it once welcomed). It is not. It's just another Western capitalist, colonialist, racist country.
My best guess is that he has been driven mad by the fact there are so many gorgeous women (and men) here and not one would f*ck his ugly Italian ass.
Of course he is bang on about our sell out governments and rampant capitalism but Canada is the most multicultural country on the planet and despite the existence of a shrinking band of shit for brains, racist, Harper loving red necks we are certainly NOT a racist country.
Bye Bye Blue Med....time to take your handjob pimpled ass back to the Bronx or where ever you might find an equally bitter displaced Italian to share your misery with.
SMBs
Genocide in Canada? I'd be interested to see you try to pull a credible reference in support of that. It is a little reckless to press such sweeping judgements upon nearly thirty million Canadians, based on nothing more that a few bad encounters with a hand-full of Vancouverites. Sounds personal to me...
Go see what another blogger has to say about your puerile and alarmist crap:http:
//jnarvey.com/2009/09/22/on-fundamentalists-terrorists-and-phantom-threats/
"Me? The only thing that really scares me is them. That is, the only thing that really terrifies me is the possibility of these right-wing Christian conservative blow-hard homophobes one day actually taking over America."
You are nothing but a low-grade bigot. Your hatred for Christians is so obvious and you try to couch it in fair-sounding comments.
Funny how guys like you would never come on and say the same thing against Muslims. You know Christians are easier targets that don't bring jihad to your doorstep. Freaking coward!
I dare you to post this.
Two things:
a) This piece was about the blatant homophobia of the Christian Right, while your buddy Jonathon Narvey's posting is about terrorism. For some reason he seemed to confuse the two subjects.
and b) I do in fact write about the disgusting homophobia and sexism inherent in the fundamentalist Muslim mind.
Check it out here: Mad Medieval Mutterings of Misogynistic Mullahs: Iran vs Saudi Arabia in "Always Blame The Victim".
And here: Saudi Arabia: Land of Justice and Godliness.
And here: The Pakistan Rant or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Rapists.
So, hey, thanks for your concern, but I simply don't hate all Christians, only the fundamentalist and hypocritical types. And it's fundamentalists of every stripe that scare me, certainly not just those of the Christian persuasion.
Mike Cowie
You wonder what words were excluded in the elipsis.
That's right, the same James Madison who was the fourth Pres. of the U.S. - and one of the biggest slaveowners in his native Virginia.
A real `guardian of liberty' for sure.
A few notes on this completely ignorant, uneducated, uninformed `essay' on the `hate filled homophobes of the religious right...'
First, yes, Canada has had same-sex marriage since 2005; no non-gay marriage has collapsed bec. of it. Who made such an argument in the first place. The answer: no one.
Second, again, the institution of same-sex marriage was legalized by judicial fiat. Would it have passed a free vote in Parliament. I doubt it.
Third, far from being the position of `the homophobes of the religious right', gay marriage has been rejected by a large majority of Californians in a recent plebscite. You know, California, that bastion of right-wing homophobic hate.
Fourth, again, with regard to your stupid remarks about `right wing homophobes' the position of a majority of California voters is held by... (tam dum!) the government of Barack Obama.
You know: Barack Obama, the right-wing, racist, homophobic president of the U.S.A.
So please, author, educate yourself before you open your mouth and puke up the barf that passes for this essay.
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