New laws are pretty queer

 New laws are pretty queer

 

In 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution failed to receive the required number of state ratifications for inclusion into the Constitution.  One of the major concerns about it was that it would require same sex bathrooms.   It didn’t, but  any lie told often enough and loud enough will gain traction and so it did.

Now we are engaged, it seems, in a great fear of homosexuality.  The American Psychological Association agreed long ago that homosexuality is not a mental disorder but a born condition.   Never mind that.   Every year more states are working to pass laws that will leave LBGTQ kids open to bullying and torment.  It is anticipated that these laws will dramatically increase the negative experiences of these kids AND significantly create an environment that is conducive to suicide.

Twenty-one states have legislatures that have introduced statutes ranging from prohibiting gender affirming treatment, using bathrooms based on the gender decided at birth, limiting discussion of homosexuality in curriculum, allowing for exemptions or discrimination based on religious reasons.  These religious reasons are exclusive rather than exclusive.   So evidently God allows for the separation and exclusion of some of his creations who do not conform to the majority of his creations.  

It is never clear exactly what the objective is in these proposed statutes.   Do people think that homosexuality is catching and these kids are going to “give” it to other kids?  Are they afraid that the homosexual lifestyle sounds so wonderful that heterosexual kids are going to want to “convert”?  Or is this a question of people wanting to impose their religious beliefs on others. 

Probably it is none of the above.  Probably it is more politicians pandering to the lowest common denominator among their constituency.  Trolling the bottom for votes.

These kids are who they are because of anything they have done.  It is how they were born just as they were born with brown hair or blue eyes.  They have enough issues to manage without being piled on by politicians who are working in their own self-interests rather than that of their constituency which happens to include LBGTQ people.  Perhaps we need to worry less about what pronouns are being used and worry more about some of these queer laws that are being passed that risk destroying innocent kids' lives.