This definitely falls into the "etc." part because I'm not complaining at all about the fact that this happened today, i.e. that I just got up on a soapbox (actually a park gazebo) and extemporaneously talked to about fifty people. Just going up and giving a speech (entirely on my own decision) does NOT EXIST in any of my prior life experience, at all. I still can't believe I did this.
If it hadn't been for JUB, I would have NEVER known that Georgia tried to make a data base of gay people. The coverage in the media was ZERO. However, that (and the data base on Muslims, which DID get a bit of "press") may be the most insidious and threatening thing I heard from The Trumpside all year.
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Social Justice Solidarity Gathering at Chandler Park in Macomb, Illinois. Late afternoon, 16 November 2016...
Literally this was the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE that I've ever gotten up before a group of people I don't know, to give any kind of speech, and WHAT'S MORE, it was an extemporaneous one. Wow. There were about fifty people there. Now, I KNOW that I can do it.
I started with the Serenity Prayer (for myself AND for the people watching - "Lord, grant me and all the rest of us the serenity..."), then discussed what I fear the most under the New Trump Order. The "Freedom of Religion" laws that some states are passing - such as North Carolina, Indiana, Georgia - scare me. The one in Georgia was indeed passed, but Governor Deal vetoed it because the other two states were getting so much blowback...and, who knows, maybe behind the scenes Coca-Cola got scared or something? (I didn't mention that guess.)
I did mention that Georgia's bill included a STATE DATA BASE OF GAY PEOPLE, something that was barely mentioned anywhere at all, and I rhetorically asked how such a data base could be beneficial. I suggested the data base would surely be open source, so that landlords or employers could see if somebody's name is on there, and use "religion as an excuse" to fire or not hire them, not rent or sell shelter to them or kick them out of apartments, etc. I also made the point that, since there would probably NEVER be any religious test of any kind, even an atheist could claim religious objections.
I said that we must not let this stand.
I forgot - or the words didn't come out due my extraordinarily unusual circumstance of speaking in front of a lot of people - but I also meant to mention that it would presumably allow pharmacists, hospitals, etc. also to claim religious objections.
Earlier, speeches included one from a transgendered person (who, in all characteristics even including his voice, was a man - but who I assume was born with a vagina), and all the while I couldn't help but think that "Some states want to require this person to go into women's bathrooms, even though he could always go into men's rooms as he's done all his lifetime (most likely without consequence)...and, also, wouldn't it freak the women/girls out as well????" And, yes, I am correct in using he/his in this paragraph, because he entirely aligns as a man, despite what parts he was born with (and which may or may not have been repurposed since).
I know and care about some transgendered persons. (I don't know which birth gender is the most common.) In my case so far, I only know women who were born with manparts. Oh yes, these states want to force them into the Men's Room - which also means they must silently shout out loud "HEY, LOOK, I'M A TRANSSEXUAL PERSON!" It is in these types of states where they also happen to be most at danger for being perceived as "freaks" and beaten up - or worse. [Expletive omitted], transgendered people have been using their gender-aligned bathrooms for generations without ANY problems of any kind, ever - can't well enough just be left alone, please?
NOT IN THE SPEECH: As some of us know, these "Freedom of Religion" laws were prescribed to further embed antigay actions...and for NO OTHER REASON. North Carolina's law is clearly targeted at LGBT ONLY, if one considers the circumstances under which it was passed. The NC law also overturns any local ordinances which forbid discrimination, and it was passed almost immediately after Charlotte passed an LGBT nondiscrimination law - in an *EMERGENCY SESSION* of their legislature - and it was very, very quickly signed by Gov. Pat McCrory - it was slammed through, I think, without any debate due to the legislature and Governor all being Republicans.
Are LGBT people in other states with "red capitals" such as Lansing, Madison, Columbus, etc. (not to mention a bunch of "red" governments in capitals in states that don't "swing" at all, such as Texas), under danger of falling under these laws? Will some of these states imitate Georgia and put "state gay data bases" into effect? Will they even possibly share the information between states or amalgamate it all into one massive multi-state database, so that if Arizona passes such a law, even somebody who wants to move there from Winston-Salem will have his/her name come up in any search (on the open-source database) a prospective landlord or doctor wants to do?
Even if states start passing laws saying that people on the gay database cannot vote because religious people shouldn't be ruled by "those heathens and sinners," it doesn't matter that it's unconstitutional and perhaps even Contempt of The Supreme Court and the Fourteenth Amendment. A Supreme Court full of Trump and/or Pence appointees would cheerfully say "GO FOR IT!"