The Ugliness of Government Endorsed Bigotry

I have no use for homophobes and, as regular readers know, even less use for the "godly Christian" crowd that keeps homophobia alive and well so that they can feel superior about themselves and/or avoid challenges to their childish, ignorance based religious beliefs.  Such people are a cancer on society and are literally dragging America down through their hatred of others and open embrace of ignorance and rejection of modernity and scientific knowledge.  In their all too typical arrogant way, they blame others for America's decline when what they really need to do is take a long look at themselves in the mirror.  Yet sadly, for too long America's laws gave special preference and deference to the religious based bigotry of these people - Virginia still does - and far too many lives have been damaged or destroyed so that the "godly folk" can give themselves a self-congratulatory pat on the back.  These are in truth loathsome people.  Thankfully, the younger generations seem to recognize this as they walk away form toxic forms of Christianity in near droves.  An op-ed in the New York Times looks at but one of the thousands and thousands of lives harmed by such government sanctioned homophobia.  Here are excerpts:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — WE don’t get any say about the kind of world we’re born into — about whether it’s prepared for the likes of us, whether it will open its arms. Hal Faulkner certainly didn’t get the world he deserved. It was needlessly cruel to him, senselessly judgmental. For the most part, he made peace with that. 

But over the last few months, with cancer spreading fast through his body and time running out, his thoughts turned to one aspect of that landscape that he could perhaps revisit, one wrinkle he might be able to revise, a wrong he had a chance of righting before his death. 

Back in 1956, when he was 22, he was discharged from the Marines after more than three years of proud service. There were no real blots on his record. No complaints of incompetence or laziness or insubordination. There was only this: A man with whom Hal had spent some off-duty time informed Hal’s commanding officer that Hal was gay. The commanding officer suspected that this was true and, on that basis, determined that Hal had to go. The discharge was classified as “other than honorable.”

Before federal law was changed in 2011, more than 110,000 gay, lesbian and bisexual people were discharged from the United States military over time because of their sexual orientation. And until the 1990s, when the policy tweak known as “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” vaguely softened the prohibition against gays in the armed services, it was common for such discharges to be dishonorable ones that barred gay veterans from receiving any benefits and sometimes disqualified them from civilian jobs they later sought. 

But now that the military accepts gays, there is also a process that permits those who were dishonorably discharged to appeal for reclassifications of those dismissals as honorable. A military spokesman said last week that he didn’t know how many veterans had sought to take advantage of it, or with what success. But Hal caught wind of it, and knew that he had to try. 

But the bigotry that ended his military career followed him beyond that point, and so did the fear of it. He lost another treasured job, he said, because of his sexual orientation. And from the 1950s through at least the 1970s, he felt that financial security and success hinged on a certain degree of secrecy. Had he been more open about being gay, he said: “I wouldn’t be here today. I’d probably be on the street.”

The case came to her only two months ago, when doctors were saying that Hal might have only weeks left. She was racing the clock. She pressed the military for an expedited decision. It arrived in a letter in mid-December, and she traveled all the way to Fort Lauderdale for a gathering on Friday afternoon at which the letter was presented to Hal. 

JOHN GILLESPIE, a member of OutServe-SLDN’s board of directors, traveled here, too, from Mississippi, and he arranged for two local Marines, in uniform, to be on hand to congratulate Hal, who’d been told what the letter said and would now get a special moment to savor it. 

“He lived his entire adult life with this shame and this stain on his honor,” John said to me, explaining why he insisted on creating that moment. “The world has changed so much that with the stroke of a pen, that stain and that shame are gone.”

Damaged lives so that the likes of Maggie Gallagher, Tony Perkins, Linda Harvey and other hate merchants and "godly folk" can feel better about themselves and avoid using God given intelligence and harm others instead.  I really, really have no use for the "conservative Christians."  As noted, I see them as a cancer.  Am I being harsh?  I don't think so.  Gays cannot change how they were born.  The godly folk can stop embracing hate and ignorance.