"The black rights you reference have been fought for state by state, over GENERATIONS, to gain the backing and critical mass they needed to become secured in a permanent and enduring basis in our laws up to the federal level. And they are still being firmed up, with much progress left to accomplish. Same as with the rights of the disabled."
Excuse me - but why should I have to fight for my rights? Why should I have to suffer under the scorn of a privileged class? Why should I have to open my ***** wallet and hire an army of lawyers every time I want the same basic rights as everyone else? If you think that this is how it should be then you are grossly mistaken. This is not how it should be, this is not what our forefathers wanted. The constitution gives us rights - it's the individual southern states that try to take them away - I'm SO over it. So if an executive order can ease the suffering of a group of people who have been treated in a most horrific manner then so be it - i'll accept it.
Ethically and ideally you should not have to. Realistically you will or someone else will. Because we are seeing the ugly reality that the executive orders and presidential guidelines aren't permanent. They can be rolled back. Obliterated.
And in this specific case about bathrooms in schools, Trump may not be wrong. Or right...or it is all simply moot and buys only a temporary remedy. It's a Title IX issue that was due to be further adjudicated anyway.
You mistake me. I don't think you should live under any kind of scorn. But what we rightfully should have to do is different from the harsh reality of what we actually have to do to effect change. Lasting change.
I think you need to use the time tested tools that you are scorning to get the enduring results you seek. Nothing is handed to anyone. Not any basic right. Not anything. We have fought wars and sacrificed lives to secure our rights and freedoms and to protect them time and time again.
Now we face other kinds of fights to protect our rights against more Orwellian kinds of threats, but that's the subject of an entirely different discussion. We have the ideal that we are endowed with inalienable rights but the fact is that entropy is always at work in human society as it is in science. Rights don't uphold themselves. We are always fighting. Always vigilant. Or at least we should be.
I've scrapped all my life to live as free as I can from the effects of prejudice. I don't think it's good or right that I've had to, but I am pragmatic and understand the reality into which I was born and so have always been willing to fight. And while it is wearying it is also empowering and educational. I would not trade my struggles for anyone's ease, for that reason.
My generation sadly did not do enough for LGBT rights to help the current generation. But many made a damned good start (thank you Ruth Bader Ginsburg) and it's up to everyone now to finish the job, properly, in a way that will endure.
The court cases and the calls to your legislators and the grassroots fight to be heard will result in laws and court precedents that can't be overturned at the whim of one president or one branch of the government. There are already very powerful legal precedents that will establish the most basic of gay civil rights. (Again thank you RBG--a remarkable woman worth studying). The ones that protect all of us from workplace discrimination and housing discrimination. We need to build on that foundation and secure marriage rights, and other civil rights.
The so-called bathroom laws aren't worked out yet. The fight for LGBT rights is in its early stages compared to other categories of civil rights. I get that you don't want to live under the injustice of it all. Neither did/do the blacks. Neither did/do the women. Neither did my parents. Neither do the Muslims now.
Now...again for the bathroom accommodations...the Title IX battle was/is never going to be enough anyway. It still leaves out the transgendered folks not in schools.
Part of the battle for transgendered people specifically seems to be that the states are all over the place regarding how or if they let people change the necessary legal documents to establish gender. Another part of the battle is we don't seem to legally recognize people who are both genders (or neither) and make room for them in our society. That needs to change and it's a change that will have to be fought for on many fronts on all levels of government. We need to look at historical precedent on how analogous rights were established in other civil rights battles and replicate the approach for the best chance at success. That's logical and reasonable, though not as emotionally appealing as having a President sign an order or a guideline...that can be rolled back by another president.
Now I will say one thing that is technically irrelevant, but I feel needs to be said, because along the way in this thread I've seen the concept of religion get slated a bit. I understand why. I have seen other people interpret the same Bible I read to emphasize guiding principles that are very different from mine. So I will speak up for some religious people who are actually compelled by their religious faith to support LGBT rights. My interpretation of the command of Jesus Christ to love one another as I love myself means I don't stand by and let anyone get marginalized, threatened, harassed and denied their civil rights. Even if they do or believe in something that contradicts something else I believe as a Christian. So I don't even sit here worrying about whether or not homosexuality and transgendering is a sin or not. That's not for me to decide, in my interpretation of my own faith. I'm to use the power of my vote and my freedom of speech to support the change that will end all the horrible things that drive members of the LGBT community to elevated rates of suicide and all the other suffering they have to endure. It is, in my interpretation, a sin to contribute to the suffering of my fellow humans by apathy or indifference. Which is why I have gone against other Christians and taken tremendous criticism and censure to support gay marriage in my state and support initiatives to make it a lasting right nationally. At the same time, I do my best to stand up when I feel fellow Christians are being marginalized, hurt, disrespected just for being Christian. Or Jews for being Jewish. Or Muslims for being Muslims. Atheists for being Atheists, and so forth.
Again, going back to the original article, I don't object to Tim Cook using the power of his voice and vote as a person to effect change, either. Rightly or wrongly, I see problems and unavoidable hypocrisy conflating Apple as a corporate entity into the mix when they can't or won't do anything to take a stand for human rights in the other countries in which they do business. I know that's a distinction that can be confusing to some. I have tried my best to explain it in previous posts and I know it's certainly open to debate. I will think it over and see if even I continue to hold that opinion as time goes on and I gain more perspectives.
By the way, thank you for engaging me in this discussion and reading my posts. I apologize that they are so long.
