journalism

Religious liberty is attempting to make a most unflattering comeback in the United States. Mike Pence, Republican Governor of Indiana, recently signed a Religious Liberty Bill modeled on the former Religious Restoration Act. The bill will legally allow business owners and the like to refuse goods and services to LGBT individuals on the basis of religious freedom. While Pence later went on to “fix” the bill, the fix does not directly apply to religious groups and LGBT individuals are still unprotected by Indiana law. The fix was simply a way to make the bill more palatable to those opposed to it. Arkansas, Louisiana, and Georgia are also in the process of enacting their own Religious Liberty bills, further enhancing the threat to LGBT Americans. The bill in question goes way beyond upholding religious liberty. It allows for discrimination on the grounds of faith. Many religious people argue that they should not be forced to participate in a same-sex wedding or serve same-sex couples and individuals because they believe it is sinful and unnatural. And of course these same people go on to implement the ever popular “it’s say so in the Bible” excuse. Anti-LGBT christians do not want to knowingly aid those of that “lifestyle”. But in what way is discrimination supposedly Christian? Of course no one who supports this bill is willing to admit to what it actually does, that it legally allows someone to discriminate against another person. Of course they deny it. Read the news articles and watch the videos. They cannot outwardly admit to it.

Interestingly enough, no one is preventing Christians from practicing their faith, going to church, praying, wearing whatever religious garments and accessories they choose to. Yet many still claim that is in fact the Christians who are being discriminated against. However, the Christians are not the ones being denied service, and that is the very important difference of the matter. One cannot infringe upon someone else’s rights, call it religious liberty, and then act as if they are the real victim in question. It is completely unethical. It is also uneconomical. Businesses will only end up losing profit by turning away paying customers on the sole basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Big businesses like Apple will take a stance against states in which the bill is enacted, which will certainly not be a loss for the billion dollar corporation, but rather for the various local Christian-run eateries and flower shops. Hopefully, it is this argument that will turn some heads because apparently money is much more greatly valued than the rights of other people. Needless to say, there are many Christians who strongly disagree with using religion as an excuse for homophobia. However, it is the Anti-LGBT Christians whose voices overpower the non-discriminatory ones.

This is going to be my first exposé on this blog. I feel so compelled to write this because of the many blog posts I have encountered that have been solely about the Men’s Rights Movement and the feminists they feel determined to hate and destroy. There is a blog called Don’t Be That Girl(http://dontbethatbitch.wordpress.com/), whose author seems to be unidentifiable. On the about page is a list of characteristics of a “Mature Woman” and a “Feminist”. You can imagine these characteristics differ greatly between the two categories. When I first came across the site, I was absolutely appalled. What kind of people dedicate themselves to hatred? The owner or owners of the blog literally hate any woman who considers herself a feminist or who even remotely acts like one. In other words, a woman who doesn’t tolerate catcalling and other bullshit that some men try to pass off as complements. However, it doesn’t even remotely end there. They claim that feminist women are out to kill men and destroy their families, and that women initiate the “Friend Zone” because they are financial and emotional rapists. I’ll admit, I have never ever heard of a financial rapist before, and I highly doubt its legitimacy. So you may read for yourselves the utter ridiculousness I am commenting on, here is a sample from the blog:

“A feminist is a human female:

Who though physically and sexually mature has yet to grow past the boys are icky phase of the pre adolescent female…
Who instead of taking responsibility for the consequences of her own actions and choices blames both the male gender as well as the males in her life for her own failings…
Who as both a conniving, manipulative and predatory individual and group seeks to both diminish the legal rights as well as to steal the financial resources of the male gender through legislation, child support and taxation…
Who intentionally disguises their sinister goals beneath the camouflage of the equal rights movement…
Who uses the family court system and the Political Arena to both rape her male partner of his home and children as well as to cripple and destroy him financially…
Who actively promotes the murder of the individual members of the male gender (the same way that the Black Widow spider kills her mate after engaging in the act of copulation) by running to the defense of those females who intentionally murder their male partners and children…”

I still can’t get over the fact that they compare feminists to spiders. Not only do I hate spiders, but the comparison is so radical and nonsensical that I refuse to spend any more time writing about it. So, here are some ACTUAL facts about feminists.

Feminists do not hate men
Plenty of men are feminists
Feminists support the equality of both men and women
Feminists do not have a hidden agenda to destroy the male population (Surprising, I know)
In the history of all of feminism, there was never a bra burning incident. The women simply brought an extra bra with them to place in a receptacle.
The bra was supposedly invented by a woman.

The only hate group I see here is the MRA.