LGBTQ
Hey guys,
This post is not something I usually post but since it happens to affect me I wanted to put my 2 cents in on it. If you aren't into politics or something like this then please go ahead and click off of this.
So if you are one of my readers then you already know I am happily married to a chick. I refer to my wife a lot since she helps me test some products. I myself do identify as a bisexual since I am attracted to both men and women. This was something I denied and struggled with for years cause I grew up in the bible belt part of Southwest Virginia. Actually up until I fell madly in love with my wife I only dated men. It took me most of my life to realize what I believed in and what I needed to be happy. We will save the religious whatever for another time. Right now I want to talk about the LGTBQ community and why exactly we are up in arms as of late.
Let me start off by spelling out what it means just in case you don't already know.
LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (or queer).
Now lately there have been some shirts and memes popping up with a new meaning of this. I'm not saying this is the 1st time but this is the most recent.
This image is from a post that popped up on my facebook timeline. It was an actual post that I have cropped the person's name out of but their reply to this was literally "Now that's an LGBTQ shirt I can wear" which when I first saw it I thought ok that's cute until I really started looking at it and realized no this is offensive. Now, this is a shirt that is being sold by a BBQ joint in Kentucky which is right over the mountain from where I live. If you aren't sure why this is offense then allow me to explain it to you.
First, let's start with a history lesson on the terms throughout the years.
Homosexual was coined in 1868 by Karl-Maria Kertbeny in a letter.
The terms Gay and Lesbian was termed in the late '60s and early 70s.
LGBT, or GLBT as it was previously known was formed about 1988 when activists began to use the initialism LGBT in the United States the term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which was used to replace the term gay in reference to the LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s. Activists believed that the term gay community did not accurately represent all those to whom it referred. It wasn't until the 1990s that the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people gain equal respect.
The popular variant now which adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual identity; "LGBTQ" has been recorded since 1996. In October of 2016, GLAAD' official added it. LGBTQ is the preferred initialism, being more inclusive of younger members of the communities who embrace queer as a self-descriptor. However, some people still consider queer to be a derogatory term since it came from hate speech and reject it, especially among older members of the community.
If you want a little more info on all this above I found some link that I found handy when working on this.
If you want to know what the Definitions of all the terms check out this NY Times Article
So for decades, the LGBTQ community has had to fight so rights that most people don't worry about. If you are a straight person you don't think about the fear of someone jumping you or throwing hate just cause you love someone of the same sex. You don't have to worry about someone telling you that sorry we can't give you service cause your gay and we don't believe in that. Listen it never crossed my mind when I was still identifying as such. I say that but if you have had this fear no matter what you identify as then I'm sorry cause it truly is awful. I may not have been fighting for this cause as long since it took me forever to realize I was bi, but I have always been an advocate for it. I never thought it was weird, strange, or wrong. My whole point here is LGBTQ people didn't fight for all this time for this acronym to be used in this way.
I have no problem with liberty, guns or bbq. While I don't really believe in the Bible others do and that's fine. You have every right to believe in whatever you want as long as you don't tell me my beliefs are wrong or use it to harm others, I'm cool. In the same sense, I didn't vote for Trump but he is our president and at the end of the day I have a lot of hope that he will do the right thing for everyone as a whole and not just the people he cares about. Honestly, sometimes it doesn't seem like he gives a shit and that's sad. Actually recently it seems to become clear that he does care about this group of people.
This week the government is talking about The Equality Act if you are unsure of what that is all about I stole a definition from Google.
The Equality Act is a bill in the United States Congress, that, if passed, would amend the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, credit, and the jury system.
So the issue we are coming to now is that there are a majority of members of Congress who are prepared to pass into law that the sex individuals are born with—their chromosomal and physical reality—will come second to how those individuals choose to define their own sexual identity.
It's sad to think that if you are in need of help that someone could deny you that help because of your identity. I read one article that stated anyone in the hospital could deny you including the receptionist. Which is crazy to think that it's not just the doctor or nurses or anyone. If you are in the field of serving people you should have to serve them all. Unless it a crazy person who is threatening you or something like that then you should have the option to refuses.
I have been working on this post for weeks making sure I had all the info and honestly it's upset me just writing it. I was going to post it this morning but my head wasn't in finishing it. I'm glad I waited for cause as of just a little bit ago The US House of Representatives passed the Equality Act, which is the bill I mentioned above that will protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in housing, the workplace, public accommodations, and many other settings
The 236–173 vote led by the Democrats. This is a huge step in the right direction for everyone as a whole. I have had nothing but hope that the right things will be done and this definitely gives me more hope of things to come.
