Lately, it seems as if horrible news stories have been following me around to the point where I should consider a restraining order. Everywhere I turn, I hear stories or read articles about some hateful person doing or saying something awful to someone else.
Ordinarily, I would string these events together in chronological order and add specially-selected words and phrases to make things flow smoothly, but honestly, I'm too angry to even attempt it. Let me just tell you what has happened lately.
First, Tennessee passed the "Don't Say Gay" bill, prohibiting teachers and guidance counselors from ever having a conversation with a student (from kindergarten - eighth grade) that included any reference to homosexuality. Ridiculous.
To top it off, the state of Tennessee also passed a law that, in a nut shell, makes it impossible for local governments to have non-discrimination policies unless the state has the same one. This was done in an effort to reverse the NDO recently passed in Nashville that added sexual orientation and gender identity/expression to the list of things someone could NOT be fired for.
The state is being mocked internationally, and really, with all this ignorance, who's surprised?
I read an article online that said a sheriff's department employee in Georgia had a lesbian prisoner sent to gay conversion therapy instead of drug rehab against her will, AND he paid for it with government money. I have no proof this actually happened - if the woman is on drugs, there's no telling whether or not she's lying. Still, there is the possibility that it's true, which is sickening.
Psychology Today let one of their people write and post to their website an article with sketchy research that said black women are much less attractive than other women.
Apple is being sued because one of their employees told two African-American men they weren't welcome in the store because of their race.
You may remember hearing about Laura and Carol Ann Stutte, a same-sex couple from Monroe County, Tennessee, in the news late last year after their home was burned down in a blatant hate crime while they were out of town. They are being sued by the American National Property and Casualty Company. These people claim Laura and Carol Ann set fire to their own home - even though they were out of town when this happened and an anti-gay slur was spray-painted on their garage. If this had been a straight couple and their home was burned down - well, let's just say they wouldn't be getting treated this way.
A security camera caught a manager at McDonald's brutally beating an employee early last year, and the young man he beat up is STILL being treated for his injuries. Recently, a judge granted the former manager judicial diversion because dude has a college scholarship and wants to go to dental school. I'm sorry, but why does wanting to fix cavities one day give you the right to beat someone almost to death? If this situation had been reversed and a black manager beat up a white employee, he'd probably go to jail for X number of years, without the judge ever once asking about his college plans.
I don't know what in hell is going on with all this ish, but it has bypassed ridiculous, pathetic, and stupid. Instead, we have landed in a large, ugly place called WTF?!
Aren't we, in 2011, supposed to be smarter than this? I'm asking that question literally. What has happened to us that's causing us to suddenly take a thousand steps backward?
This is so psycho that I cannot wrap my mind around it all. It makes me want to scream and throw the type of fit that only children who are never disciplined throw - all because I just don't understand.
I mean, really, HOW do we let this ish happen?!
