Republican Tennessee goes after marriage equality

We’ve all known it was coming – or certainly I have and have said so often enough – but the point of the GOP’s war against trans people has always been to expand back into their old war against all LGBT people, and anyone operating outside of what they think of as “traditional” gender roles.

In that way, it is absolutely also a war on women who are anything other than conservative child-raising stay-at-home moms, of course. Keep that in mind, because there is no point at which this stops on its own.

They’re clearly intending to take Justice Clarance Thomas – the one with the insurrectionist wife – up on his invitation to challenge Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which recognised marriage equality in law. He and multiple other judges on the Supreme Court wish to overturn that decision, as they overturned Roe v. Wade, thus ending same-sex marriage in much if not most of the United States.

Should they succeed, they will move down the line to Lawrence v. Texas (2003). Lawrence v. Texas was the landmark decision ruling that due to the Constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law, states could not make LGBT people illegal as they had been doing for some many years. We would go back to a situation wherein queer people were out-and-out illegal in half of US states.

Those of us who were alive then used to keep a list of where we could not safely travel. We have had to revive that list as the Republican war on LGBT people has ramped up. Florida, for example, is absolutely a no-travel state.

Here are the bill numbers. If you’re in Tennessee, you should tell the governor to veto it.

This is just one of the many, many reasons why the MAGAts – and the entire Republican party – must go down to a truly epic defeat this fall.

I don’t care whether you think Joe Biden – who has done more for the climate than any president ever, has been the most supportive president of organised labour since FDR, and whose first-day actions including overturning last-minute Trump/Pence regulatory changes allowing denial of all health care to any LGBT person for any reason – is “too old” or “hasn’t done enough for you” or whatever. From local to state to Federal to President, Republicans must lose en masse in November. It must be overwhelming, and then it must be repeated, because the only punishment they truly care about is removal from power.

Protest voting is bullshit. Not voting isn’t even a protest. Voting third party (outside local elections, where it’s fine) is also bullshit. Republicans must be punished in the only way that works, or they’ll not just keep doing what they’ve been doing, they’ll do it even more, and that means voting for whoever can defeat them.

That’s just the facts, and that’s what must be done.

The good news is… if we fight, we will win.

We just have to actually fight.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

superbowl jesus ad, part 1: let’s frame-by-frame it

Let’s talk about that superbowl foot-washing ad from the far-right fundamentalist network trying to recruit more minions into far-right Christianity by teasing them in with a centrist and even liberal-attractive billion dollar ad campaign.

The top level organisation behind it funds anti-LGBT hate groups, the most extreme anti-abortion groups, etc etc etc. You know, the usual worst of everything. The Texas Observer has all the details – and how they don’t believe the very theme they’re selling – and you can read about it in their well-documented writeup.

But I’m not writing about that today. That’s covered already. I want to write a little about the imagery; what it means, what they’re saying, and how they’re saying it.

First, let’s talk about the whole foot-washing thing. It’s not complicated. Jesus washed the feet of his followers just before all the shit went down. It echos baptism in a common practice of the day, God in the form of Jesus washing away the sins of those who follow the Christ, a.k.a., the saviour-king.

(Christ isn’t a name, it’s a title; I don’t know how many people get that, but there it is. It’s Jesus, the Christ, not first name Jesus last name Christ, Jesus T. Christ or Jesus H. Christ as someone might exclaim in an old comedy.)

When you wash the feet of someone, you’re standing in for Jesus, communicating the idea of that forgiveness of sin. That’s the role of a priest, in Catholicism; in other versions of Christianity, who can do it varies. In American fundamentalist evangelism, it can be anyone – or no one, if you decide you’re being moved properly by the holy spirit of Jesus yourself.

But what’s left out of this ad is the critical follow-up – now, go and sin no more. That’s why the fundamentalists and their co-travellers are upset about the ad. It’s meaningless – religiously, spiritually – if you don’t agree you have sinned, and pledge that you will stop sinning.

Critical to that saving is the acceptance of Jesus, as represented by accepting the washing of the foot – and the sins. Without the vital, absolutely necessary part of accepting and becoming a follower of Jesus as they see him, by their rules, none of it means anything.

So when you see Person A wash Person B’s feet, what’s happening here is that Person A is being put in the position of the literal saviour, and Person B is being put in the position of the sinner, the one who must come to redemption through Jesus or burn in hell forever. The one apparently serving – by washing someone else’s feet – is, in reality, the one in the position of power over the one whose foot is being washed.

Now, keeping all that in mind, let’s take another look at those pictures. Buckle up, this is gonna be a long ride.

( First slide, please )