First They Came ....

As some of you may know, I'm battling a cold right now. I've lit my candles and poured my tea. I've put on my warm comfy socks and my organic lazy shirt given to me by my sister. I've applied the camphor to my nose and settled back for what I hope will be a short and sweet battle.

Some of you may know about my dedication to equality. I have had many years of protesting and letter writing. I have stood outside City Hall buildings and supported the rights of the LGBT Community.

However, what some of you may not know is that in my dear sweet state of North Carolina Gaston County Senator James Forester introduced a bill into the House that states that no other union other than marriage between an opposite sex couple would be recognized in the state of NC. Equality NC had this story listed yesterday.

Gay Marriage Watch shows this today:
Forrester, a Republican who has been the primary lead on the amendment for the past seven years, was joined in sponsoring the legislation by Jerry W. Tillman (R-Montgomery, Randolph) and Dan Soucek (R-Alexander, Ashe, Watauga, Wilkes). Twenty other senators, all Republican, are co-sponsoring the bill. Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger (R-Guilford, Rockingham) did not sponsor the amendment.

I get up each morning wondering when the ever present assault on loving relationships will end. How is it that just because it's two women or two men, it's suddenly not only less than, it's also destructive to others. I sit and watch the heterosexual relationships around. Right now, most of the people I interact with are straight. Sometimes, they cheat on their spouse, sometimes they are hateful and mean to each other. Sometimes they are violent. That's not to say that gays and lesbians don't experience this, but my point here is why is it that just because they are opposite sex partners, they have a more "valid" relationship than those of same sex partners.

Is it possible that we just step away from things like laws and decrees when we're talking about another persons freedoms? Can we just let people having their loving relationships and not judge them or apply our own sense of morality to it? Personally I have an issue with people who call names. I don't like it, I think it's immature and hurtful. However, I'm not trying to get a law passed to stop those people from getting health care.... or maybe from visiting their wife or husband in the hospital when he/she is ill. I also don't understand how one can be Christian, however I'm not sitting up on horseback riding around bashing Christians. I can be who I am, and they can be who they are with out having to destroy what each other has.

The first thing you do in a war is dehumanize the enemy so that your army can kill them without remorse. That's whats happening here. Just like those Gays and Lesbians with the pink and black triangles in Europe years ago, our LGBT population is being set apart from the mainstream and told they are not good enough, or equal enough to have the same rights and protections that any other American citizen has, I'll even go further to say, the rights and protections of other HUMAN BEINGS.

Paragraph 175 was added to the penal code in 1871 and it reads: An unnatural sex act committed between persons of male sex or by humans with animals is punishable by imprisonment; the loss of civil rights might also be imposed.

The Nazi party added the following:

Paragraph 175a: Penal servitude up to 10 years or, where there are mitigating circumstances, imprisonment of not less than three months shall apply to: (1) a male who, with violence or the threat of violence to body and soul or life, compels another male to commit a sex offense with him or to allow himself to be abused for a sex offense; (2) a male who, by abusing a relationship of dependence based upon service, employment or subordination, induces another male to commit a sex offense with him or to allow himself to be abused for a sex offense; (3) a male over 21 years of age who seduces a male person under twenty-one years to commit a sex offense with him or to allow himself to be abused for a sex offense; (4) a male who publicly commits a sex offense with males or allows himself to be abused by males for a sex offense or offers himself for the same.

Paragraph 175b: An unnatural sex act committed by humans with animals is punishable by imprisonment; the loss of civil rights might also be imposed.
Paragraph 174 of the penal code forbad incest and other sexual offenses with dependents, while paragraph 176 outlawed pedophilia. Persons convicted under these laws also wore the pink triangle. (stats from www.pink-triangle.org)


You may or may not agree with "Gay Marriage". You may or may not agree with "Gays Adopting Kids", at some point in your life however, you have to decide if your personal moral values should be codified and forced upon every other member of society. I'm thinking if your views are not the majority, that could be a pretty scary prospect.

I'd like to leave you with this:

First They came... - Pastor Martin Niemoller
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.