Rights

Politics and religion are not something I generally talk about on this blog.  I avoid them for a few reasons.  1) I'll admit I'm not the most knowledgeable person on these subjects.  I follow the news to some extent, and I have a general idea of what's happening in the world, but I don't study each and every subject matter.  2) Those are very volatile subjects right now, and I try to keep things nice.  However, I've heard a few things lately, and I want to address them.

Gay Rights
Let me start by saying I have many homosexual friends.  Here's the thing, though.  I don't call them "my gay friend, so and so."  And when I think of them, I remember the good times we have together.  I do not think of their sexual relations, just like I don't think of my straight friends sexual relations.  Oh, and I don't worry about my female friends hitting on me or falling in love with me.  I wasn't always this way.  I was raised (and still am) Catholic (with a capital C).  I still remember the first time I realized one of my friends was gay.  I'd known him for a few months and harbored quite a strong crush.  I remembered telling him "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."  Homosexuality did not exist in my world, and my world was shattered upon meeting this friend (actually, homosexuality did exist, but I never noticed it).

Over the years, my views on homosexuality have been conflicting.  I was raised that being gay was a sin.  A huge insult was, "That's so gay!"  I wasn't going to change overnight.  I did, however, stop preaching against homosexuality.  I started to friend people even though I knew they were gay, and I stopped saying things like, "Oh so and so, he's gay you know."  A person's sexual preferences didn't matter to me.  I still like to hone my gaydar to some extent (and I'm terrible at it), but I started to realize it didn't matter if the person was gay or not.  I wasn't going to treat that person any differently.

So, when homosexuality comes up in politics, my one thought is, "What business is it of yours?!"  Even if you think homosexuality is evil or disgusting or offensive, what business do you have telling other people how they should feel?  Why do you care if homosexuals get married?  Why do you care if they have the same benefits as married couples?  They're people just like you and me.

Oh and if you truly believe the phrase I learned growing up (and hate now), "Love the sinner, hate the sin" then you'd love those people entirely.  You wouldn't condemn them to hell (who gave you that power anyway?)  You wouldn't murder them, and you certainly wouldn't treat them so poorly that many are driven to commit suicide.  That is not love by any means.  Get over your God-complex, and start treating these people as your equals.

Women's Rights
This one is a bit trickier.  I abhor abortion.  I do view a fetus as a life.  I do view abortion as murder.  I do feel that no woman should ever have an abortion, and I feel that way even if that woman was raped, or if the child is deformed, or if the pregnancy is risky.  Abortion is wrong.  Period.

Here's where it gets confusing, though.  I don't think abortion should be made illegal.  Making it illegal will not change how other women feel about abortions, nor will it stop abortions.  Rather, it will only make abortions riskier and more women will be made ill or killed simply because they had to hide hat they were doing (watch Revolutionary Road for an idea of what I'm talking about).    I think abortions should be harder to get.  I think more should be done to teach women about alternate options and contraception to avoid the problem in the first place.  If I could, I'd change every woman's mind about abortion, but I can't, and I recognize that the laws can't either.

Contraception, on the other hand, I whole-heartedly believe in.  I've learned about Natural Family Planning from the Catholic Church, but I also spent my entire youth hearing about the multiple different ways in which a woman can get pregnant.  I've heard everything short of "kissing will get you pregnant," and now they want me to believe I can have sex unprotected and I'm fine!?  Yeah, I'm not buying it.  So, I have two options.  I can either tell my loving husband of 5 years that we are not going to have marital relations until we are ready to conceive a child, or I can buy birth control.  Guess which one I'm going with?  Anyone who disagrees with this is an idiot, in my opinion.

Economics
I know nothing about economics, it's true.  I have my opinions on economics, but I am not even going to get into what those opinions are except to say one thing.

While discussing the issues of the upcoming election, most of what I've heard from the people closest to me has been solely about the economy.  After getting sick of discussions of economics, I ask people their opinions on gay rights and women's rights.  From many people, I've heard similar viewpoints to mine (basically, they'd vote in favor of gay rights and women rights).  Then I ask the question of how they can be thinking about a certain candidate if they feel this way.  The answer I get is always the same: The economy is more important.  And this is where I get angry.

I don't care how bad the economy is.  Money is NEVER more important than basic human rights (or animal rights for that matter).  Maybe if these two issues weren't such a hot topic right now, I could understand, but that's not the case.  Homosexuality, women, and money are all that's being discussed right now.  Money will never trump the first two.

Well, there you have it.  If you disagree, feel free to let me know, but I had to put this out there.  Thanks for reading!