Lesbian School Girl in Mississipi Sues School Over Prom Discrimination

Courtesy of Darkle. Thanks for finding this disturbing bit of news.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lesbian_prom_date

Unbelievable. I forget some times that people are absolutely absurd when it comes to homosexuality. Ignoring the fact that I still maintain its unwarranted discrimination based on sex (yes, you can actually legally discriminate based on gender, but only if it is supported and serves a legitimate secular benefit, like all girl schools so they can focus on their studies, or separate gender bathrooms), the simple fact that people are bothered enough by who other people sleep with enough to make it a law is amazing. What makes this any different from not recognizing relationships between people of different races? More importantly, why is this a concern? Religious nutjobs of course. Guess what, I really don't give a fuck IF the Bible condemns homosexuality. It can condemn it six different ways to Sunday down the glorious road to eternal hellfire, just like those Westboro Baptist ministers say. But the Bible also condemns believing in any God except Yahweh. Funny story. I'm a polytheist.

So, by all means, connect how you're allowed to use the Bible to enforce certain religious beliefs (like homosexuality) but find it reasonable to be tolerant of others (different religions, not keeping Sabbath day holy, etc). "Pick and Choose Believers," as I like to call them, are insanely frustrating.

But it actually gets worse. The comments section isn't any better. Here's a little gem I found.

"Whether or not you approve of the behavior the homosexual couple DID ruin the prom for everyone else. Making a stand is fine until innocent people are harmed and in this case that's what happened."

Oh sure. That makes sense. So anyone here who ever has their rights violated, think of what this will do for everyone else who isn't having their rights violated. Darn slaves! Why'd they have to go demand to be free, their desire to have human rights ruined the South's economy! That's like...infinitely worse than ruining prom, right?! I mean, those poor plantation farmers! They needed money for food! The kind of empowerment that gives to people who want to discriminate is insane. Sure, now they can hold innocents hostage with tactics like the ones this particular school used to force anyone who will ever be discriminated against, and also happens to have a shred of compassion, to comply with their absurd rules and bigoted ignorance.

I wish I could go off on religion in America, ignorance, and how it fosters stupidity, a lack of desire to question, close-minded stupidity, and general lack of common sense. I tend to be more Nietzschian in my views of morality and ethics. I know what works best for what I want. I use common sense and reasoning in situations. I don't randomly beat the shit out of people I don't like. I don't demand the government be sympathetic to my dislikes and do what I feel is right. You might have seen my earlier criticism of pornography in America, and why its worse than video game violence. You might also recall that while I consider it a social ill and damaging to people, I never once said we should ban it or make it illegal. In fact, in that general vein I advocate the legalizing of prostitution because it keeps women who are put in those situations safer than they are now. Well, that and it makes it easier to track certain diseases and whatnot, but that is neither here nor there. The point is, the government is not the moral police. They are the legal police. By extension, public schools are not moralist institutions. Homes, churches, synagogues, the worn-down shack the local crack-dealing cult leader stole from the previous inhabitants he killed, THOSE are institutions of morality. That is where you get your ethics (fucked up as they may be).

But then again, I'm the kind of person who thinks we rely too much on government, and we've grown to see them as this paternal figure not too different from God in some respects. Criminals are treated like dirt in America, prison guards always being portrayed in the media as power hungry monsters who hate the people contained with in, believing them to be nothing but animals. Me, again I'm with Nietzsche on this one.

"Crime belongs to the concept "revolt against the social order." One does not "punish" a rebel; one suppresses him. A rebel can be a miserable and contemptible man; but there is nothing contemptible in a revolt as such--and to be a rebel in view of contemporary society does not in itself lower the value of a man. There are even cases in which one might have to honor a rebel, because he finds something in our society against which war ought to be waged--he awakens us from our slumber.^"

Taken from this well-written essay by a Mr. Travis Denneson of "Infidels.org."

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/travis_denneson/power.html

The point here is that we look at the rule of our governments as absolute except in those areas that are too inconvenient to us, like piracy for example. The laws that people break like murder or theft, those have complex motivations behind them. What if one kills to survive, or to protect someone important to them? The more we see law as static and uncompromising, as the "Word of God incarnate" so to speak, the more we stand to lose of our individuality, the more we lose before our governments. How much longer until we stop questioning anything the government does? We entertain these bizarre notions of what government is supposed to do, and when we do we put less of ourselves into our lives and instead automate and regulate ourselves with government intervention. Me, I don't pirate. Music, video games, what have you. Nor do I buy used. I do this because I want my money to go to the artists, programmers, and developers. When they choose to offer there services free, like Funimation does with several of its anime series, I'll gladly accept the fact that they want it out there for free. And I'll probably end up buying something to support that series anyways. But I certainly don't do it because the Government says I can't.

Well, I've done enough soapboxing for today. Didn't particularly enjoy using the girl's misery as a platform for anarchy/libertarianism, and I hope that the ACLU manages to beat the school into legal submission and force them to host that prom (though they'll probably underfund it or something absurd to get around it).