Posted inFundamentalism Gay rights

Conversion therapy shows the danger of trying to be someone other than who you actually are

I don't believe that we humans have an enduring self, or soul. We're too changeable and impermanent for that to be true. However, each of us certainly is something unique, a person unlike any other on this planet. In other words, we possess an individuality without being an Individual -- the capital "I" pointing to an unfounded conception that there is some inner essence within each of us that, if not divine, is our True Self. Narrow-minded people who subscribe to this rigid outmoded view of humanity claim that (1) there are only two sexes, male and female; (2) at…
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Posted inGay rights Religions

Two examples of religious dogmatism from here in Oregon

Today the Portland Oregonian, our state's largest newspaper, had two stories side-by-side about Republican lawmakers acting like the Christian dogmatists that they are. It's amazing, speaking as an atheist, how religious believers can be so hateful and prejudiced toward people who aren't like them. I'd never say that Christians shouldn't serve in an elected office. I'd also never say that an entire group -- in this case the LGBTQ community -- supported child abuse and pedophilia. But that's exactly what the Republican lawmakers said.  That's shameful. Unfortunately, I strongly suspect that enough of their conservative constituencies will like what they…
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Posted inGay rights Morality

The beauty of “We don’t not care” rather than “We don’t care”

Sometimes a television program can get a moral point across in a few minutes of entertainment that is more clear and convincing than a lengthy ethical treatise. That happened to me last night when my wife and I were watching an episode of season 3 of Ted Lasso on AppleTV+. Before I share a clip of that scene, a bit of background.  Colin, one of the soccer (football, to most of the world) players on the professional team Lasso is coaching, inadvertently revealed that he was gay, homosexual, to the team captain, Isaac, when Isaac saw some photos on Colin's…
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Posted inGay rights

Salem Gay Pride speaker has a lesson for atheists

Last Friday my wife and I went to a Pride gathering in Salem's Riverfront Park. I wrote about it in "Scott Hosner speaks at 2021 Salem Gay Pride event."  The seven-minute video I made of Hosner can be viewed below. It's worth watching for several reasons. One is that Hosner's description of what it was like to grow up queer in the last part of the previous century shows how much progress has been made in LGBTQ rights since that time. That's really encouraging given the many social problems we face now. (My daughter graduated from South Salem high school in…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Gay rights

Salem City Council says “NO” to LGBTQ rights

Last Monday night I learned that it isn't only religious fundamentalists who don't care about the rights of LGBTQ people. (Since this blog is read by people all around the world, some of whom may not be familiar with that term, it's an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning.) I was deeply irritated when the Salem City Council voted 6-1 to approve a lease with the Salem Alliance Church for use of a church-owned building as a temporary public library while renovations are being made to the library at the Civic Center. This has been a fascinating issue…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Gay rights

Great that Christians are accepting homosexuality as normal

We've come a long way toward accepting LGBTQ people here in the United States. But there's a lot that still remains to be done, largely because of archaic Christian religious attitudes based on pre-scientific notions thousands of years old, now hugely outdated. An email I got recently gives me hope, though. Read on... Hey Brian, I saw the post about the Salem library wanting to use the church property as a temporary place while renovations take place.  Hmmm… It’s interesting to look back and see how much my values and opinions have changed. Growing up in the heart of the Bible…
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Posted inGay rights

Queen’s Live Aid performance shows power of Freddy Mercury being himself

Last night my wife and I finished watching Bohemian Rhapsody, the movie. It ends with a re-creation of Queen's famous performance at the 1985 Live Aid event at Wembley Stadium in London. A New York Times story about the performance says, "Freddie Mercury’s set in July 1985 is often called one of the greatest live performances of all time." For sure. You can view it via the video below, which has gotten over 211 million views. Mercury performs for about 21 minutes. I found watching him to be both highly entertaining and deeply inspiring. Mercury was a gay man at…
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Posted inFundamentalism Gay rights

Churches shouldn’t be able to discriminate against gays

On one of my other blogs, Salem Political Snark, I wrote a post this afternoon that already is getting a lot of online attention here in semi-sleepy Salem, Oregon -- the state capital that often is referred to (especially by me) as the centerpoint of places in Oregon that people really want to go to: the coast, the Cascade mountains, Portland, and Eugene. Check out "Two reports of how Broadway Coffee House/Commons discriminates against LGBT people." Excerpts: Someone contacted me about a year ago about how the Broadway Coffee House here in Salem refuses to allow gay people to be…
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Posted inGay rights

India legalizes gay rights. Only took 150 years.

Way to go, India. Your Supreme Court has given gays in India the same rights as anyone else. Here's a screenshot of a video on the New York Times story about this that shows people in India celebrating. The New York Times points out, in "India's Gay Sex Ban, a Colonial Vesige, Is Struck Down," that the archaic rule against consensual gay sex was a holdover from the puritanical days of British rule. In a groundbreaking victory for gay rights, India’s Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down one of the world’s oldest bans on consensual gay sex, putting to…
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