Georgia Preach

My Tumblr feed has been keeping me updated on queer life in sunny, freedom loving Georgia. The politicians there wanted to protect people’s freedom of religion & their right to obey their religions strictures in their daily lives. If the lifestyles of some people went against those strictures they would be free to refuse to interact with such ‘untouchables.’

They could rightfully refuse service to any lgbtq person – so no apartment rentals if you didn’t want that scum in your apartment building, no blood transfusion if a trans person showed up at your station in the e.r. The right to protect one’s faith was more important than compromising ones religious integrity to accommodate such ‘untouchables’.

After being passed by a substantial majority in the Georgia senate (or whatever that level of state government is called) it scarily became law. It was vetoed by the governor. Why? Because of financial pressure: the NFL, Disney & others big buck corporations threatened to pull all their involvement with a state that wasn’t inclusive for all people.

To me this smacked of ‘gay panic’ as a legitimate defence for murder. The weakness being there was often no proof of the other person’s sexuality, it was enough the that one feared they were queer. So if the Georgia law passed one would only need to suspect the person was queer to deny them their rights. Or in other words it was the perfect excuse to justify bias toward anyone you chose. The ‘religious freedom’ the law protected was Christian, as far as I can tell, and it’s not a big step to using it to deny Muslims, Jewish people, Tibetan Lama’s the right to eat in your ‘Christian’ restaurant.

I also wondered if the reverse would be true – Islamic doctors refusing to take on Christian patients on the basis of religious strictures? Imagine the outcry if that happened. Which could be the case in South Carolina whose Governor didn’t have the sense to veto their freedom to discriminate law. Sadly similar anti-lbgtq laws are on the horizon in several souther state under rather guise of protecting religious freedom. I wonder what innocent, straight, white people will do when someone opts to use the law on them – trust me that will surely happen.

Order

it’s said

man plans

the universe laughs

there is an order

that I am unaware of

like the micro algae in the ocean

my eye can never see

infinite finite placements

the building blocks of life

not blocks – spirals

a geometry that is everywhere

down to our chromosomes

to the speedy disbursements of stars

as the cosmos flies apart

taking us along for the ride

so I line things up order

against this chaos

to enforce some routine

to flow with what flows around me

without being dragged along

kicking and scheming

to make sure it all goes the same way

each and every time

I leave the house

there is a direction

a plan if not goal

but I have to stay open

because the universe

is going to laugh at me

at any given moment

I am ready to hear that laugh

as it gets expressed as

an unexpected thunder storm

a friend I run into

where I least expect to

the opportunity I wasn’t looking for

but the one I’ll take

because my plans aren’t shackles

my disappointments aren’t dead ends

just because the universe laughs

doesn’t mean I make no plans

if I didn’t

even I would have nothing

to laugh at

http://nanowrimo.org/

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