Rainbow Country Closets

(Artist credit:  Christian Lassen)

One of my favorite quotes from e.e. cummings is:

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."

Chely Wright, a country singer, has come out of the closet.  A lot of chatter out there is hateful, cynical, and questioning her motives for doing this now when she is also pushing her autobiography and making the PR rounds.

A country singer coming out of the closet?!  Now that's a big deal.  It shouldn't be, but it is.  The country music industry is well renowned for it's very conservative bent.  And being gay and country is, in certain circles, an abomination.  Which is funny to me, because it's blatantly obvious there are many celebrities in the country music world who do, in fact, support gay rights. 

It's a sad sad world we live in when, instead of celebrating someones courage, someones long fought battle, and someones character; people bad mouth, spew forth opinions laced with hateful arsenic, and start quoting the bible that gay people are going to burn in hell.

I may not believe in religion, but I find it to be the highest mark of hypocrisy when religious people feel the need to preach God and love by day, and hell, damnation, and hatred by night.   Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

e.e. cummings had it right.

Those who say that God loves everyone have it right.

Those who change the rules, make up their own interpretations, and support laws that condone discrimination against people who do not fit into their little narrow minded description of what it means to be a human being, are not, in my opinion, God's faithful servants.

Isn't life a hard enough battle for everyone without all this foaming at the mouth and judging of one another?  Diversity not only gives us more colors in which to see our world, but also challenges us and broadens our very worlds.

We should all take heed of e.e. cummings' very insightful quote ... and celebrate the fact that humanity is not made up of one color, but of multiple ones.  And not just multiple ones, but many different shades of each color.

I don't know about you, but I'd truly be a brain dead zombie long before now if everyone I knew or ever met was an exact cardboard cut out of everyone else.  I love the fact that in my life, I have family and friends of different races, ethnicity, religions, sexual orientations, disabilities, political views, etc etc.  We may not always agree one another, but you can be damn sure that we all care about one another and encourage one another to be who we are without apology or regret.

Kudos to Ms. Chely Wright for having the courage to be herself.  She fought hard for that battle.  It's a battle many of us fight every single day and being who we are and true to that is reason enough to celebrate.

Proposition 8

It's been a long year of politics and the debating of various issues that run the spectrum. No one is more sick of it than I am and relieved that the election is now over.

Obama wasn't my choice. Neither was McCain. But it is what it is and hopefully we'll actually see positive changes instead of more broken promises. I'm cynical though when it comes to our government and the so-called politicians who claim to be listening and looking out for their constituents.

One issue I do want to touch on briefly that has long been a heated battlefield, is Proposition 8 that was just passed out in California.

In a nutshell, Prop. 8 bans same-sex marriage. It's passage overturned the California Supreme Court's decision from last spring to make it legal for gay people to marry, to now no longer allow it. The vote was pretty much almost split down the middle. From what I heard, less than 20,000 votes separated the Yes camp from the No camp.

70% of the African American population that voted on this issue, voted Yes. The Latino community was more evenly split on the issue with the most popular reasoning for voting Yes having to do with "culture."

The Gay Community sees it as a civil rights issue as well as an equality issue.

Many others see it as a religious issue and they say the bible is the word of God, and therefore, it is not looked upon favorably by God.

One article I came upon has a couple of quotes by people I'd like to share.

"God doesn't approve it, so I don't approve it. And I approve of Him."

Pablo Correa said his mind was made up by a TV spot in which a young girl comes home from school and tells her mother she learned how a prince could marry a prince. "I don't discriminate against people," he said, with a wave at the rows of lipstick and makeup. "I have a lot of customers who are homosexuals, transsexuals and bisexuals. I'm not against these people."

Excuse me for saying this, and I mean no offense to anyone, but how the hell does anyone know if God approves or does not approve of people based on their sexuality? Please come up with something better than it being written in the Bible. The Bible is a book, written and created by MAN. And unless someone can prove actual recorded conversations with God personally, to me it's just a creative book that doesn't teach anything new that one can't find in the Self Help section of their favorite bookstore.

As for the second quote stating he does not discriminate against people, this is a hypocritical statement in my opinion. You can't say "No, I will not allow you to be married because I disagree with the kind of love you have for another person." and turn around and say something to the effect that you do not discriminate nor do you judge how others live their life. That's just a bunch of stinky poo.

I'm saddened that this Proposition passed. I know there are a lot of people out there who feel that sexuality is a choice, but it's not. I'm not gay because I choose to be. I'm gay because I just am. I did not choose to feel this way any more than I could choose the color of my skin or the color of my eyes.

And I do not believe for one mili-second that God would reject me for being gay. Christians spout off at the mouth about how God is about Love. Jesus went on his travels reaching a wide cross section of people and talked about nothing but love and peace towards everyone.

Whoever we are and however we live our lives, is our business and our relationship with our Higher Power is between us and our Higher Power.

One last thing and I'll step off my soapbox on this .... I'm sick and tired of reading about the usual ignorant blather out there that lumps the gay community in the same category as people who are polygamists, people who engage in bestiality, or people who are pedophiles. One has nothing to do with the other. In addition, it's a proven fact that most pedophiles are heterosexual. Children do not grow up and learn to be gay, they either are or they are not. They are either gay, bisexual, or straight. Research is also out there that children who grow up with gay parents, do not just become gay. I mean hell, my parents were straight but they have two gay children out of six. Does that mean I should have been raised by gay parents so I'd be straight?

The argument that people use to "protect their children" is just ridiculous. You can not protect your children from who they naturally are. You can brainwash them into believing that if they are anything other than what YOU expect or accept them to be, but then you're only molding a psychologically troubled person who will grow up to have further problems - all thanks to your inability to address and deal with your own prejudices, fears, and ignorance's.

It's BS.

"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." - Nietzsche

"Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or the persecution of others." - JFK

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King Jr.

'Nuf said.

Mahalo,

Dolphin