A rant buried in the backpages
Posted by Saint on Tue, 06/29/2004 - 2:11pm.
I've been browsing the Stranger's Queer Issue, and it's a disheartening experience. While the media focuses on the war and the national elections and (deity of your choice help us all) Bill Clinton's autobiography, the backlash from the gay marriages is making itself known. Let me sum up (and editorialize), for those who don't feel like hitting the link.

In Michigan, legislators have passed a bill to make it legal for doctors who object to homosexuality to refuse service to gays and lesbians. If you think that's hunky-dory, try putting it in different terms. What if the doctor is a pacifist and objects strongly to war and warriors? Can he then refuse service to veterans, or is that discrimination? Or say the doctor objects to a patient's other lifestyle choices, like drinking or break-dancing or wearing too much perfume. Can a doctor refuse to treat a smoker because smoking is a dirty disgusting habit that the patient could have stopped doing if he just had the willpower?

In Virginia, a law will soon be passed that not only prohibits recognition of gay civil unions or marriages, it also prohibits "any partnership contract or other arrangements that purport to provide the benefits of marriage." So now gays won't be able to leave their property to their lovers or give their lovers the right to make medical decisions in emergencies. People in Virginia can choose to leave their homes and fortunes to a random stranger, but not to their gay lovers. They can give their roommates the right to make medical decisions (so long as their roommates aren't gay and in a relationship with them), but not the loved ones who they truly want to give that power to. Again, if you don't see a problem with this, I ask you to remove the "gay" from the equation, and pay attention to the fact that the government is removing the right of property owners to dispose of their property as they choose, not to mention the right of the individual to designate whoever they choose to have medical power of attorney. I find it honestly horrifying.

And finally, the state of Oklahoma now not only bans gays from adopting kids, it refuses to recognize same-sex parents who adopted their kids elsewhere as being the legal parents of their children. Presumably, then, if a bigoted neighbor (not that there are any of those in OK) called in Child Protective Services, the children would be taken from their "illegal" guardians and launched into the foster care system. Cuz, you know, that totally beats growing up in a loving household if the parents are...*gasp*...queer.

Okay, I think I'm done. For the moment.
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