There's an infamous cartoon meme depicting a rainbow steamroller crushing "christians," "traditional marriage," "the family," and so on. I won't post a link for it as it is not only disgusting, but also unfortunately easy to find. Just because something exists does not mean it is a threat to you.


This type of propaganda isn't new. The same things were said of Jews, African Americans, Irish, etc. On any given Sunday, there are crazy pastors whipping their flocks into frenzies of fear and ecstasies of hatred. It doesn't matter if it's a crazy shaman, a mad ayatollah, or Father Coughlin. The hate is the same. Just pick a vulnerable minority as scapegoats and blame every evil in existence on them. Outlawing people, turning them into non-persons, or banning or burning books doesn't get rid of them.


Why are people driven by hatred? That's a question that has no answer, but religious fanatics do not seem to be able to live in a world without fear or fear of -- something. If they don't have any "enemies," they create them. They want everyone and everything around them to be just like them. That's not only wrong, it also makes for a very, very boring world.


Remember the Scopes Monkey Trial? What is it with these people? Do they know no other way of living beyond trying to stop the world and live in the past?


#################

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/26/tennessee-homosexuality-lgbtq-book-bans-florida

‘Archaic’: the Tennessee town that made homosexuality illegal

For five months this year, homosexuality was prohibited in a Tennessee college town.

In June, the city council of Murfreesboro enacted an ordinance outlawing “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct”. The rule did not explicitly mention homosexuality, but LGBTQ+ people in the town quickly realized that the ordinance references 21-72 of the city code, which categorizes homosexuality as an act of indecent sexual conduct.

The ordinance was essentially a covert ban on LGBTQ+ existence.

Erin Reed, one of the first and only national journalists to cover the ordinance earlier this year, noted that Murfreesboro isn’t “the only community that has these old archaic bits of code that target homosexuality.

Earlier this month, following a legal challenge from the ACLU of Tennessee, the government of Murfreesboro removed “homosexuality” from the list of acts defined as “public indecency” by the city code. The small victory came after officials repeatedly refused to issue permits for the BoroPride Festival, citing the new ordinance.

Despite the ACLU’s recent win, advocates warn that the story of Murfreesboro represents a new frontier in anti-LGBTQ+ lawmaking. Republican state and local leaders across the US south are reviving vague, sometimes decades-old rules on “indecency” and “obscenity” as a bludgeon against queer life.

Kasey Meehan, the program director of the Freedom to Read program at PEN America, said the organization has seen “several threats to free expression all under the guise of obscenity prevention” in “Tennessee and Florida especially”.


#################

I was curious about what college is in Murfreesboro. It's Middle Tennessee State. I think I know of a girl who is there now on a sports scholarship.

The ACLU is going to be kept very, very busy.

WHO do you know there on a sports scholarship? Initials will do. My daughter is there on a full ride athletic scholarship.(LF-do you know my kid?) Go Blue Raiders! The athletes all know each other from different teams. There's some gay girls playing college sports (surprise!). A few of her teammates are gay, as well as one of her roommates in a different sport. MTSU is the 3rd largest employer in Murfreesboro, I've spent a lot of time there. Ever had a burger at Jack Brown's or a few brews at Whiskey Dix? The right wing Trumpster republicans that run the city are despised by the MTSU kids. Kids, not gay, went downtown kissing on each other, trying to get cited or arrested after they passed the law. As far as I know, it hasn't happened. The cool thing today is that the kids on the teams don't care about your religion, sexual preference or race. It's "Can you play your position well?". Half of her teammates are international kids. They can't believe the religious influence that local governments have in America, especially in the South.
The good part is that, due to the actions of religious zealots trying to force their values on others, kids today are shunning organized religion en masse.

Let me know if you're talking about my kid.

No, sorry, I don't know your kid. The girl I know got two offers for full rides, and this was the better offer. I'm glad for her, and glad that she's in a supportive atmosphere with her fellow athletes.

Thanks Summer. Was your friends kid in major culture shock? My kid, born in CA, grew up in Utah, can't believe the culture of the South. Great food, great people, but about 70 years behind times.

She would have been in even greater culture shock at the other school on her list. ;) I think she's doing fine.

"Remember the Scopes Monkey Trial? What is it with these people? Do they know no other way of living beyond trying to stop the world and live in the past?"

That is actually a good thing for me. My jazz group plays for a major Scopes anniversary dinner and dance. We are booked again already for July 2024. The event is only 30 miles from my home in Tennessee.

The anti-LGBTQ trend seems to be growing here. It is discouraging. The TN legislature is also anti gay. I believe most of us are not surprised that the vocal anti gay LT-governor of TN was caught in intimate correspondence with a gay performer. Those who speak out the most seem to have the most to hide.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2023 01:53PM by Eric K.

Eric K Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The TN legislature is also anti
> gay. I believe most of us are not surprised that
> the vocal anti gay LT-governor of TN was caught in
> intimate correspondence with a gay performer.

Wow.

Re the legislature - hopefully in the near future this phenomenon will die.

Re the LT-gov - hopefully there will come a day when people in any position can be who they are without the need to try and live a double life.

Re the topic in general: I don't know why it's 2023, nearly 24, and society still struggles with this, making life unnecessarily more difficult for some folks when it doesn't impact the protestor's existence in the least.


If I want to go to church on Sunday - let it be.

If I don't make the same choices as you - let it be.

Live 'n let live - 'n all that.


I'm in favour of the sentiment in the iconic song Let It Be by the Beatles. Just... Let It Be.

It means "let it happen"-- let some new world, a happier and more peaceful world, become a reality.

He sings: "When the broken hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be."

In a brief article by Christopher Chase in 2004 about the song he said:

"When Paul wrote this song in 1969 there was violence in Ireland, wars happening in Vietnam and around the world."

He said: "It gives us his vision for peace."


And of course there's Lennon's song Imagine: "imagine all the people living life in peace".


Sadly, all these years later, we haven't got there yet.


Here are the boys:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Let+it+Be+&client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=585454099&sxsrf=AM9HkKkinRXJuY8Fz1UjKp_297-kw4RObw%3A1701025596886&ei=PJdjZZ3gNaay0PEP05utqAs&ved=0ahUKEwid7tKTruKCAxUmGTQIHdNNC7UQ4dUDCA8&uact=5&oq=Let+it+Be+&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiCkxldCBpdCBCZSAyChAjGIAEGIoFGCcyChAAGIAEGIoFGEMyBRAAGIAEMgoQLhiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgUQLhiABDIKEC4YgAQYigUYQzIFEAAYgAQyChAAGIAEGIoFGEMyBRAAGIAESKYQUJENWJENcAF4AZABAJgBWaABWaoBATG4AQPIAQD4AQHCAgoQABhHGNYEGLADwgINEAAYgAQYigUYsAMYQ-IDBBgAIEGIBgGQBgo&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:359bb7ac,vid:CTcb_33-DiI,st:0


https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Imagine+John+Lennon#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:50b8c1cc,vid:ugrAo8wEPiI,st:0



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2023 02:35PM by Nightingale.

It is "Live and let Live" as long as you live the way I approve.

...there is still a great need among some human beings to control the behaviors of their fellow homo sapiens. To me, it suggests that even if it is illegal, there are some who very much wish for slavery, whether it's racial or not, to come back--so long as they are the slaveholders!

Yep. Explains the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party. For those unfamiliar, it's Millenial political slang for someone who votes in favor of policies that cause harm out of the belief that it won't affect them, hence the party's motto of, "I never thought leopards would eat *my* face!" Examples of polices like this include, but are not limited to,

-working class folks supporting tax breaks for the rich

-supporting high-interest student loans for college, even though it takes years of university to be, say, a doctor

-supporting the abolition of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1980's and wondering how political discourse in the US got so bad

-cheering on bigots because "I agree with them most of the time"

And I also recall Isaac Asimov mentioning slavery and the Original Position Fallacy, "If slavery was legal, we'd be the slaves."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2023 08:04PM by ookami.

I, speaking for myself as well as other right-thinking humans who have renounced our descent from hairy, poo-slinging primates, wish to thank the Tennessee legislation for their enlightened attempts to do what is right and let the consequences follow.

Not only do I approve of ignoring reality, but encourage it.

I now ask them to take up the cause of dexter over sinister!!

I believe it is the sign of the devil to elect to use the left hand rather than the ghawd hand.  It is balderdash to suppose that a loving ghawd would have precious infants (especially the White ones!) be born "left-handed."  Copypock!!  Yes, copypock!!!

Outlaw the evil that is "left-handedness," and preserve us from impure displays and influences, such as Ned Flanders' Leftorium!!

Do it for the Children!!!  

And I can't emphasize it enough: THERE ARE NO LEFT-HANDED PEOPLE IN HEAVEN!!!  The Tennessee Legislature is doing ghawd's damn work!

Hey EOD… are you a lefty by any chance? If so, do you play golf, lefty, or righty? If you are a true lefty and play golf lefty,that’s another thing that we have in common.

I am a RIGHTous golfer, my White twin brother!

Which direction from Nashville? My kid is in Murfreesboro, my friends in Old Hickory and Franklin. Pretty country, pretty slow paced.

The operative word appears to be "public".

and end up marrying the opposite gender, or is that just mormonism? I think most religions shame the gays.

One of the men (who had been my really good friend) who told me to marry my husband as he felt it was the right thing to do and how would I feel if when I met God he asked me why I turned my back on this opportunity to save a soul. He also sent me the poem I think about the violin?

So I was telling my youngest brother, who I am the closest to of my siblings and I took care of him when he was little, so he sees me as a mother figure. So just 2 weeks ago I told my brother this friend said it is my fault my husband cheated and wasn't changed to straight as I didn't meet his sexual needs. I was jut thinkint last night--maybe I should suggest to him "so I should have don this and this and go buy some "toys" and you think that would have pleased him to a point he wouldn't want a man.

But my brother heard that he said that over and over and over to me--my fault. My dad never heard about that. My dad and brothers are TOUGH men and not so short either, 6 foot 4. My brother wants the guys name so he can go teach him a thing or two.

So they want the gays to suffer and then I can suffer? One of the best things I ever did was accept my "husband" as HOMOSEXUAL.

This is absolutely criminal. I found out in 1983 he is gay. And here we are. I don't think much has changed and I also think in some ways, it has gotten worse.

Thank you for saying something. I know it isn't my fault. This man I worked with for years and we were very good friends. I didn't expect this from him.

I've said on this site before that you take some good men and make them bishops and they become jerks. That is what happened to this guy. He told me that he told women in his ward whose husbands had cheated that it was the woman's fault always no matter the circumstances.

He is going through his own hell in his life now in terms of church teachings and things going on with his kids and grandkids. So I assume he'll judge his kids like he judges me.

I did value his friendship a lot so it is a loss, but he isn't worth having in my life.

At least they didn't mention or include Left-handed people
Remember, Left= SINister!!

/s

and declaring themselves to be "Judenfrei."

Same hate, different target.

Ironically, many Nazis were themselves gay.

Ernst Rohm, head of the Storm Troopers, was caught in bed with another man when the SS came to execute him on the Night Of The Long Knives in 1934...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2023 03:41PM by anybody.

I have to laugh at this law. I *tried*, mean really tried to be a good soul during my marriage. I tried to be as straight as possible. It aggravated my ex to such a point, that she left for a while. She ended up at her mom's, and called me at 2am in the morning, asking if she could come home.

I was scrubbing the floor by the fridge in the kitchen. I was mad and sad at the same time. I got a call from my mother, saying that I should let her come home, and that she felt the toxicity was starting to show.

My mom also suggested that counseling might help us. We were only into our marriage 6 or so months. No marriage should have that type of toxicity so early on.

My ex knew I was going to hell, because I would comment about men that were physically attractive. My ex had knew I was bi, but she thought about the sexual aspect of bi-ness in my brain.

I told her I didn't want the sex. That I would rather be held.

I understand the purpose of the law. They want to limit rights... which is odd. Because people don't choose their sexuality. Of course everyone believes that we make the choice. Most of us know that we never did make a conscious choice. It's disheartening.

In the end, I have become a stronger person. My family does not understand what I've become. What would a legislature of fundies do with us that think, feel, and understand each other.

Yes, we are diverse, and there are some that are of one sexuality or another. Maybe that's what they are scared of. Scared of rejecting their very foundations, to allow people to let it be! Whee on earth is 'Agency' is all this?

Fundies are getting more and more dangerous, no matter the fundamentalism.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2023 04:45PM by lousyleper.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2023 10:37PM by anybody.

Trying to convert people to your religion or beliefs, and saying what people are 'sinful' or anything, The vast need to change everything to Christian belief is hypocritical.

Yeah, we were taught that the gospel needs to be preached to the ends of the earth. If teaching the flock doesn't work, what does LDS Inc do?

They send a whole bunch of mishies out to convert people to pad the numbers. To tell them that there will be no link between people in their family, unless they join? What a way to manipulate people. My mind was so blown that I didn't even know what was really being talked about when it came to *my* core beliefs

My opinion, which is only that, is that people need to tolerate each other, no matter what they believe, and not force it on others.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2023 06:40PM by lousyleper.

At least in coed nudist locations (parks, beaches, most clubs), overt sexual conduct is frowned upon & often punished.

We appreciate nudity as a connection with nature (hence naturists) and being with other open-minded, environmentally sensitive people.

Some nudist locations are 'strictly' for gays or lesbians, I have never been to one of those, so IDK what their rules & etiquette are.

Conduct in public areas is & should be a domain that is subject to control & legislation (within the bounds of the U.S. & State Constitutions) including enforcement, I wouldn't wish my children or grands to witness any lewd conduct in a public location or otherwise.

Nude isn't Lewd.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2023 09:46PM by GNPE.

Why do straights cry "protect the children from anything lewd" when LGBTQ+ folks dare to exist? Because I, a horny bisexual, don't think about sex a third as much as straights seem to think I do.

I don't get horny at all.sanity was a good exchange, even though it's bumpy sometimes



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2023 07:50PM by lousyleper.

Fair point. It is a side effect of some medications.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2023 08:28PM by ookami.