Exercises in Religious Freedom

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Wed, 2015-05-06 09:59

abnormal

This one is too good to ignore (BTW, the lawsuit is handwritten):

Quote:
[b]Nebraska woman files lawsuit against all the homosexuals for being gay[/b]

[i]She heard "the boasting of the Defendant Homosexuals on the world news" and couldn't help herself[/i]

A Nebraska woman filed a handwritten lawsuit against homosexuals — all of them — in the U.S. District Court of Omaha last week, the Lincoln Journal Star’s Lori Pilger reports.

Sylvia Driskell — acting on behalf of her plaintiffs God, and His Son, Jesus Christ — listed as the defendants anyone who is a homosexual or goes by the alias of “gay.” While it is clear that Driskell considers homosexuals to be abominations who shouldn’t be allowed to marry, it’s not clear what she expects the Omaha district court to do about it.

The 66-year-old asks “to be heard in the matter of homosexuality, is homosexuality a sin, or is it not?” In her careful cursive script, Driskell cites the favored biblical passages of bigots — Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1:26 — before complaining that she’s heard “the boasting of the Defendant Homosexuals on the world news; from the Young to the Old; to the rich an [sic] famous, and to the not so rich an [sic] famous. How they were tired of hiding in the closet and how glad they were to be coming out of the closet.”

She continued, saying that even homosexuals know “it is a sin to live a life of homosexuality. Why else would they have been hiding in a closet?”

After citing what every high school student mistakenly believes to be the world’s most authoritative dictionary — Webster’s — as to the definitions of “sin” and “parent,” Driskell used her idiosyncratic prose to remind the court of the fate that befell Sodom and Gomorrah, “two city because of the same immmoral behavior that present in Our Nation, in Out States, and Our Cities, God destroy them.”

“Why are judges passing laws so sinners can break religious and moral laws,” she asked sans punctuation. “Will all the judges of this Nation, judge God to be a lier [sic].”

Driskell’s entire handwritten lawsuit can be read here.

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/06/nebraska_woman_files_lawsuit_against_all...

Wed, 2015-05-06 10:15

#53

Slumberjack

‘Multicultural’ nation goes too far'

Quote:
As for the suggestion that we must follow our Supreme Court overlords, I don’t remember voting any of them in. How sad that this “multicultural” nation bends over backwards to accommodate everybody except the culture that built such a wonderful, prosperous land in the first place.

So sayeth Stuart MacLeod, Deacon, Sydney Pentecostal Church, and the local paper prints this shit up. This was to do with the Supreme Court decision against prayers being said in municipal council meetings.

Wed, 2015-05-06 10:28

#54

Unionist

Slumberjack wrote:

So sayeth Stuart MacLeod, Deacon, Sydney Pentecostal Church, and the local paper prints this shit up. This was to do with the Supreme Court decision against prayers being said in municipal council meetings.

Well, at least he seems to be succeeding in converting people - to the other side - here's a comment by John on the above article:

Quote:

I did not agree with the supreme court decision, but as I read dissenting letters since this decision, I'm taken aback at how the proponents of prayer remaining have put together their rationale for the supreme court decision. I'm proud that we are a multicultural society and the people who come here have shaped this country just as much as the traditional 'culture' alluded to by the author. And I like the shape of our country for the most part, and how various cultures have added to it.

Wed, 2015-05-06 10:37

#55

Slumberjack

Yes that was a nice antidote to the nausea that the letter brought on this morning.

Thu, 2015-05-14 12:19

#56

Slumberjack

Edmonton Catholic school bans transgender child, 7, from girls' washroom

Quote:
An Edmonton mother has filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission after the Catholic school district refused to let her transgender child, born a male, use the girls' washroom.

Thu, 2015-05-14 13:54

#57

Timebandit Timebandit's picture

It irritates the heck out of me that there is still such a thing as a "Catholic school district". Want selective ignorance in your education? The Catholic church has you covered!

Sun, 2015-05-17 07:34

#58

Slumberjack

Homophobic jewelry store sign prompts same-sex couple to ask for refund

Quote:
A same-sex couple from St. John's is upset after discovering the jewelry store that sold them their engagement rings has posted a sign that opposes same-sex marriage — but one of the store's owners says he's allowed to post his religious beliefs.

Sun, 2015-05-17 08:31

#59

lagatta

Timebandit, I've written about the (successful) fight to eliminate religion-based school boards here in Québec in the 1990s; the boards are now language-based.

As for Esau Jardon, I guess he takes the bigoted arstle award for the week. I don't even know how to react to that degree of bigotry and stupidity. Redecorating the shopfront in a nice rainbow-colours theme?

Tue, 2015-05-19 05:03

#60

jas

Slumberjack wrote:

Edmonton Catholic school bans transgender child, 7, from girls' washroom

So a transgender child — physically male, identifying as female — seeks to transition in her Catholic school. I am utterly in sympathy with her situation: I was such a child once myself. Unlike what probably would have occurred in my time, the school didn’t expel her, nor denied her a right to socially and medically transition; in fact, they made appropriate adjustments and welcomed her back. In the regulation blouse and skirt. With long hair and being called ‘she’.

However, on the difficult question of sexed differentiation, the transgirl should use a gender neutral space for her personal needs. This was an arrangement that recognizes the transgirl is not a “boy” yet also is mindful of female students, their female bodies, and the privacy from males to which they’re entitled. Young female humans have rights as well.

However, this wasn’t enough. It was “bigotry”. Why? ...

http://aoifeschatology.com/2015/05/15/lessons-in-war-from-a-transgender-...

Tue, 2015-05-19 06:01

#61

Slumberjack

Quote:
However, on the difficult question of sexed differentiation, the transgirl should use a gender neutral space for her personal needs. This was an arrangement that recognizes the transgirl is not a “boy” yet also is mindful of female students, their female bodies, and the privacy from males to which they’re entitled.

There it is, the disconnect is right there in one sentence, as if it were nothing.

Tue, 2015-05-19 07:53

#62

abnormal

Slumberjack wrote:

Quote:
However, on the difficult question of sexed differentiation, the transgirl should use a gender neutral space for her personal needs. This was an arrangement that recognizes the transgirl is not a “boy” yet also is mindful of female students, their female bodies, and the privacy from males to which they’re entitled.

There it is, the disconnect is right there in one sentence, as if it were nothing.

Exactly. To quote DW, a transgendered young lady in the US on the topic of gender neutral washrooms

Quote:
"“It’s not okay,” DW says. “A unisex bathroom is just segregation. It’s completely away from the other girls. It’s challenging my personhood and it’s challenging my rights as an American, and I have every right to use the girls’ bathroom… I just don’t feel right about a unisex or genderless bathroom. I have a gender, I am a girl, you know? It’s important to me as a girl to be able to use the girl’s bathroom. Otherwise I’m being segregated.”"

And, surprisingly the US seems to be ahead of Canada on this one

Quote:
“The US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has instructed schools nationwide that sex-discrimination prohibitions in federal law include protections for gender identity. As such, under federal civil rights law, the district is required to provide access to public facilities consistent with the student’s gender identity.”"

Quote:
" In 2013, the family of transgender girl Coy Mathis successfully won the right for their daughter to use the girls’ bathroom at her school in Colorado. Similarly, Nicole Maines won a lawsuit against her school just last year where they school district had to pay her and her family $75,000 because she was forced to use a unisex bathroom instead of the girl’s room at her school. "

But back to DW - when she was called (along with her father) to a meeting with the school district on this topic she expected the worst. But that's when the school district made the point re protections for gender identity and the fact that she could use the washroom that's consistent with her gender (i.e., the GIRLS' washroom). But what did the other students think of this?

Quote:
Even though DW had the backing of the school on the issue, she still left the situation feeling shaken. That is, until she arrived at school the next morning. “I walked into my school and it was nine o’clock and I was greeted by hundreds of students,” she remembers. “They all had their hands out to me, ready to give me a hug. They were all wearing stickers, that said, “I Am DW.” They were handing out sheets to sign that they don’t mind that a transgender girl was sharing a bathroom with them… All these people, people that I didn’t even know, people were coming up to me saying, you’re beautiful, stay strong, all throughout the day. There were even lots of teachers that were wearing the “I Am DW” stickers.:

These students, many whom she had thought weren’t her friends and didn’t accept her were now standing firmly in solidarity with her. Students and staff from across the school were letting her know that they weren’t just accepting her, they were fighting alongside her. “It was so amazing,” she recalls. “This isn’t even doing it justice. This was so amazing. I just felt endless support of love and thankful for the hugs and I felt sorry for the uneducated parents that took their children out of school because of it.”

http://www.autostraddle.com/dw-trantham-courageous-trans-teen-stands-up-for-her-bathroom-rights-and-finds-community-support-282854/

Tue, 2015-05-19 12:59

#63

jas

From the same article linked above:

...[A]s a transsexual, I cannot — nor can any transwoman — dismiss that it is women and girls — females — who are, once again, bearing the brunt of sacrifice in attending to a male’s requests and requirements. A male who was unwilling to make the smallest compromise. Now that’s privilege. (And it’s not an accident that it’s transgirls whom we most often [hear] about running to the media in these instances of sexed space invasions.)

Wed, 2015-05-20 09:01

#64

abnormal

bagkitty wrote:

When I was a wee bagkitten, the nuns at the school I attended tried to teach us about Christian Charity. I am not sure this is quite what they meant.

Don't think they meant this either.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/girl-who-battled-cancer-is-dismissed-for-mis...

The expulsion has been reversed but only after the whole thing went viral.

Thu, 2015-07-30 16:00

#65

bagkitty

Meanwhile, in the "Holy" Land, a bipedal piece of excrement attacks people at a Pride March with a knife, stabbing six. The said piece of excrement is THE SAME ONE who attacked and stabbed four at the same locale in 2005. He had recently been released from prison, yet the police couldn't be arsed to keep an eye on him leading up to this year's Pride March.

I do not know if the Israeli justice system has a provision to designate someone a "dangerous offender" as exists in Canada - obviously they need one.

[ETA: Updated information available from Haaretz. The comments are particularly worth reading, especially those inquiring as to when the suspect's home is going to blown up by the IDF]

Thu, 2015-07-30 17:06

#66

Mr. Magoo

Surely they'll watch him the next time they set him loose.

Thu, 2015-07-30 22:44

#67

NDPP

Why don't they just put him in the IDF and let him loose on Palestinians where his violent Abrahamic tribal urges can be put to use?

Sun, 2015-08-02 11:47

#68

bagkitty

One of the victims of Thursday's attack by a knife-wielding religious fanatic at Jerusalem pride march has died from her injuries.

Tue, 2016-04-05 13:42

#69

Slumberjack

Mississippi Burning Again

Quote:
Mississippi's governor has signed a law that allows public and private businesses to refuse service to gay couples based on the employers' religious beliefs.

Pressure should now be brought to bear on corporate production and head office facilities to divest of this State. Pressure should be put on Canadian businesses to stop doing business with that sorry state.

Exercises in Religious Freedom

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