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Mary Griggs

~ The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Mary Griggs

Tag Archives: Rant

Et Tu, Karl?

28 Saturday Apr 2018

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

FanFic, Femslash, Mary Griggs, Publishing, Rant

Another week, another need to rant about something someone has said. This time, it was  fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld who came out trashing the #MeToo movement in his recent interview. Luckily, I’m a writer and the best revenge I can have is to put them in my writing.

Madame Coco Chanel Karl Lagerfeld Art Fashion Luxury Satire Cartoon Illustration Critic Portrait Painting Sketch Humor Chic by aleXsandro Palombo

Chanel’s head designer Karl Lagerfeld said in 2013 he thinks the founder of the iconic French fashion house would have “hated” him if they had ever met.

This time, I’m having Miranda Priestly, the fictional editor in chief of Runway magazine do the ranting for me.

If you’d like to read some of my other Devil Wears Prada fanfiction, several of which are fairly political, go to that section of my works on Archive of Our Own.

For now, though, enjoy this bit of femslash.

Title: Et tu, Karl?

Author: Mary Griggs
Fandom: DWP
Characters: Emily, Miranda, Andy
Pairing: Miranda/Andy
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1900

Summary: Emily and Miranda have a moment in the copy room.

Author’s Notes: Lauren Weisberger and 20th Century Fox are the owners; I’m just letting the ladies play in my sandbox for a while.

This piece is in response to Karl Lagerfeld’s remarks on #MeToo (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/karl-lagerfeld-slams-the-me-too-movement-models-that-complain-about-being-groped_us_5ad49b6ae4b0edca2cbbfedd) and how I think Miranda would respond.

***

Emily entered the darkened Runway anteroom and felt her shoulders settle. Every morning as she got dressed and ready for work, she was consumed by a fear of being late or, worse, not making it to work at all. Getting into her space and knowing that she, Emily Charlton, really had the job a million girls would kill for, was actually pretty relaxing.

Well, she mused to herself, it was relaxing for the two hours before Miranda’s scheduled arrival.

Flipping on the light, she gave a small purr of satisfaction to see the space as neat as a pin and that the junior assistant’s desk was clean and tidy. It had only taken a day’s training to instill a sense of decorum in the newest hire. Unlike the weeks it had taken to convince the fashion disaster that was Andy Sachs that pictures of her parents and furry little boy toy no more belonged in public view than those hideous clothes she wore.

After Emily hung up her coat in the closet, she moved the sturdy wooden hanger for Miranda’s to the center of the rod for easy access. Pivoting on her heel, she smiled at the Jimmy Choos she had snagged from the closet. Without Nigel poaching things for his own personal Galatea, she was finally getting the good stuff first.

She rotated her neck and shook out her arms as she tried to shake off thoughts of that brunette traitor. It wouldn’t do to harsh her morning mellow with thoughts of past failures. There was a small voice in her head which kept harping on Andy being Miranda’s favorite. It didn’t help that she had seen Andy’s byline in this morning’s newspaper. She fumed anew that she had never gotten to blacklist the deserter.

Powering up her computer, she glanced into Miranda’s office. The fabric samples from yesterday’s editorial meeting were still on her desk, so those would need to be moved to the credenza but the rest of the space looked clear enough for her to be able to check her emails and fine tune the day’s schedule first.

She sank into her Houzz ergonomic chair and slid her hands along the armrests. After allowing herself a small swivel of satisfaction, she pushed her keyboard an inch to the left. She tweaked the position of her pen holder and used a soft chamois cloth to wipe off a few fingerprints along the edge of her glass topped desk. Emily couldn’t help the smile as she looked around her space.

Senior assistant to the Editor in Chief of an internationally recognized fashion magazine. She mentally buffed her nails as she murmured, “Not bad for a girl from Wandsworth.”

Emily loved this time alone in the office. For these precious moments, she had all the power. She could make or break careers by how she allocated the minutes of Miranda’s day. She skimmed over the subject lines of her email inbox as the schedule program booted up and knew that it was her will alone that kept the entire production running as smoothly as it did.

The silence of the office was broken by a noise from the copy room. Immediately, thoughts of corporate espionage ran through her head. Had someone come in early to make reproductions of the exclusive fashion spreads or to copy confidential information from their files?

Emily dithered for only a moment before rising to her feet. Hefting one of the many heavy, lucite Draper Fashion Publication Awards from the bookcase behind her desk, she took it and crept down the hall. Or as close an approximation as one could creep on five-inch heels. Raising the award over her head, she stepped boldly into the copy room.

“What?!” she screeched.

Miranda turned from the copy machine and her reading glasses slipped down her nose. “Good morning to you, too, Emily.” She blinked. “Is that the 2010 or 2015 award?”

Emily just stared at Miranda. She had never seen the woman in jeans but here she was. The black True Religion denim clung to the curves of her body like it was painted on. The effect was augmented by the asymmetrical white button-down Michael Kors shirt Miranda wore on top. Emily’s jaw dropped when she saw Miranda was wearing sneakers. White Tiger Ace sneakers from Gucci but still, sneakers!

“Emily?”

Shaking her head, Emily stood silently in shock. Questions flew through her mind but she gritted her teeth and repeated to herself, “Never ask Miranda anything.”

Miranda shrugged and went back to what she had been doing. She punched a few more buttons on the copier and tapped her fingernails on the plastic cover while waiting for the machine to work. She pulled the resulting sheet out of the tray and held it against her phone case. She made a face and slid the page into the shredder before returning to the copier to punch more buttons.

Miranda smiled in satisfaction at the latest version the machine spat out. She pulled out a pair of shears and cut out the small area of printing before moving to the equipment along the back wall of the room. Miranda deftly ran the miniaturized copy through the laminator and held the hot plastic by the edge while it cooled.

Her mantra failing her, Emily finally asked, “What are you doing?”

“The original is still in the machine,” Miranda responded.

On automatic, Emily lifted the top of the copier and pulled out a sheet of lined paper. It was a list written in Miranda’s neat scrawl. She noted a photographer, a stylist and several fashion designers on it. The last name on the list was Karl Lagerfeld. Holding it out, she said, “I don’t understand.”

Miranda was in the process of affixing the laminated list to the inside of her phone’s case. Absently, she spoke, “It is my personal list of those you will never see in my magazines again.”

“Karl?”

“He seems to believe that groping is the price models pay for working. Anyone who doesn’t want to be sexual harassed should become a nun.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. For him there is no middle ground. And no acknowledgement of the power imbalance that might keep young, vulnerable women who are desperate for work silent for years about their traumatic experiences.” She rather viciously slammed the scissors back into their holder and then swept the trimmings into the trash. “I know we’re in a business that is built in a large part on women’s insecurities but that is no excuse for victim shaming those who dare to speak out against sexual misconduct in our industry.”

“What was he thinking?”

“No idea. It was just another example of Karl spouting off. This latest interview in Numero, as you might have guessed, is causing quite a stir on social media.”

“How is Chanel handling it?”

“So far, they aren’t.” Miranda snapped the case back on her phone. “Which is why I need my own method of accountability.” She slid the phone into her purse. “For too long, there hasn’t been any discussion about sexual harassment or a way to deal with allegations of abuse.”

Miranda glanced at her senior assistant. “I know you’ve experienced it.”

Emily went cold. “Mir…Miranda?”

One perfect eyebrow raised. “Don’t deny it. I will allow you to not confirm it but don’t make the mistake of lying to yourself that it didn’t happen.” Her voice softened. “I buried my experiences and carried on with a stiff upper lip, too, you know. It led to my success but also to years where I couldn’t meet my own eyes in the mirror. Especially after learning that someone else endured the same thing because I never spoke out.”

Emily nodded. The icy fingers down her spine were being banished by a feeling of warmth spreading from her chest. She never knew that Miranda had been aware of the pinch or proposition. She had just been grateful without questioning when other people had been sent to deal with the designer instead.

“We’re facing a seismic shift in the way our society and our industry is responding to these allegations. It helps that we are finally breaking the silence but it won’t be enough until everyone is treated with dignity and respect on the job.”

Emily scoffed. “How do we get there?”

“Women like you ensuring the end of the reign of the dinosaurs.” She waved a hand at herself. “That includes collaborators and supporters and all who had the power but did and said nothing.”

“But you’re doing something.” Emily paused. “Right?”

“I’m trying. I’m supporting efforts to offer comprehensive training about workplace sexual harassment for models and I’m advocating putting in place some sort of complaint mechanism and, maybe even, creating an independent monitor to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse.” She sighed. “However, beyond meaningful remedies for victims there need be real consequences for those who abuse their power and positions.”

“And not letting them get away with it because they are free spirited creatives,” Emily whispered.

“Indeed.” Miranda crossed her arms. “We’re finally having the conversations we need to have. Until the breadth and impact of sexual violence was brought into the mainstream, it was ignored and survivors were alone. With the work of Tarana Burke, among others and the growing, global Me-Too movement, we are creating solutions.”

Emily was about to reply when another voice intruded on their moment.

“Hey, Mir? Did you see what I found in the closet?”

Emily turned in shock as Andy Sachs came around the corner, a pair of pink furred handcuffs dangling from her index finger.

“Oh, hey, Em. You’re looking smart,” Andy said with a smile.

Emily bit back her planned snark and bared her teeth in a simulation of a smile at the reminder that she was wearing one of the skirts Andy had given her after the Paris debacle. “You, too,” she managed to force out.

And, unfortunately, that was the truth. Andy was wearing fitted Bill Blass khaki trousers and a baby blue silk tank top. A top Emily had coveted but missed when it disappeared from the closet.

“Oh, this?” Andy twirled. “Just some old thing I had lying around.”

There was a clearing of a throat.

Andy blushed. “Okay, something Miranda had chosen specially and set aside for me.”

Emily gaped as Andy turned her brilliant smile onto the Queen of Fashion. Miranda simpered. Honest to god, simpered and smiled back!

Her brain spinning, Emily concentrated on not speculating on what the two of them together at this hour and in those casual clothes could mean. Doing so had the added benefit of helping keep her head from exploding.

Miranda patted her on the shoulder as she walked past. “Move my nine o’clock to this afternoon. I will be in late as we’re celebrating Andrea’s first front page scoop.”

Grinding her teeth, Emily said, “Yes, Miranda.”

Her boss turned to the other woman in the room. “Andrea, you should know by now I have better restraints at home. Those were only good for a fashion shoot.”

“Shall I put them back?”

“Well, since you have them, we might make the drive to the Water Club for breakfast a little more interesting.”

Andy bounced a little as she reached out and slapped Miranda’s ass. “My turn on top!”

“As you wish,” Miranda replied.

As they walked away, they heard a faint chanting from behind them.

Emily stood alone in the copy room, repeating to herself, “I love my job. I love my job. I love my job.”

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Taking a Knee

25 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

1st Amendment, Politics, Rant

Sunday’s football games were eagerly anticipated by just as many people who don’t give a rat’s ass for the sport as by those who were fanatics. All across the nation (and especially in the White House), people’s heads were exploding over what football players were doing (or not doing) during the national anthem. These are the same folks, mind you, who just a few short months ago were going completely insane over the removal of monuments dedicated to people who fought a war to destroy our country.

Let me begin by making one thing clear: I am an army brat. I am from a family with a long and proud history of service in the military. I was raised on bases where everything, including traffic, stopped each night when the flag came down. I was taught respect for our nation’s flag and the proper etiquette on handling it – and that includes not wearing the flag as clothing or using it in advertising.

The national anthem has its own protocol , which I was taught to follow. We were to stand, put our hand over our heart and face the flag. Every movie I watched as a kid on base started with the national anthem and we all stood in silence. I’ve watched grown men cry to hear it and I’ve gotten pretty angry at people I saw laughing and talking during the playing of it.

But #TakeAKnee is not and never has been about the anthem or the flag. It is about the unjust treatment of minorities in a nation that claims to be equal and tolerant. It is about protesting systemic racism and the extrajudicial killings of black people by police.

Our political leaders and the media were full-throated in denouncing the riots that followed the funerals of African-American men killed by police and the violent clashes after the acquittals of those police officers. Those protests were decried as uncivil and counter productive. Of course, the media ignored that many of the people who took to the streets had been peacefully advocating for better treatment for YEARS, without ever changing the inequitable conditions they experienced as Africans-Americans.

Now come sports figures, including at least 100 football players, who use the stage they’ve been given as professional athletes to protest against suffering and oppression by taking a knee or sitting during the national anthem. Because their act of free speech doesn’t match the mainstream American understanding of civil disobedience, this too has been censured and discredited by many, including the current occupant of the White House.

I may not know much but I do know that every time those in power refuse to acknowledge the grievances of the oppressed because those grievances are not framed in a manner considered ‘civil,’ what really happens is that we avoid addressing the oppression.

Diverse expressions of dissent are required to generate meaningful change. A full range of constructive political tactics has always been deployed to liberate us from our oppression. We just can’t fight white supremacy, misogyny, heteropatriarchy and state-sponsored terror without offending/inconveniencing somebody.

Instead of getting caught up in a perception of disrespect or a sense of discomfort, please listen to what these protesters are trying to draw our attention to – that the police are regularly killing unarmed people. Disquiet at the method of protest is not as pressing as the need to address the reality of police brutality and racial bias.

Because if we learned nothing else from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, we learned that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

And sometimes those demands come on bended knee.

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It is not enough to not be a raging racist asshole

13 Sunday Aug 2017

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

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Tags

Politics, Racial Justice, Rant

The disgusting outpouring of racist fury at the University of Virginia over the weekend is the culmination of our indulging in 160 years of Confederate nostalgia. I’m a southerner and I’ve participated in it firsthand but it is time to face facts – those who created the Confederate power structure and waged war against the United States of America were traitors.

Surviving white separatists and their fellow travelers didn’t take losing the Civil War lying down. They have gone on to scream and rail against every advancement of the American dream to people of color by any means necessary. They are domestic terrorists who bomb churches, shoot up nightclubs and plow vehicles into crowds of their opponents.

It is a false narative that supporters of statues honoring figures of the Confederacy simply want to see history represented fairly and truthfully. No one forgets history simply because there isn’t a statue of it. Also, keep in mind, most of the statues were installed following two waves of reactionary racism – the first at the end of Reconstruction and the rest when the fight to end desegregation began. Furthermore, if merely remembering the past was their goal, they sure as shit wouldn’t be celebrating Nazism.

Glorifying hatred, bigotry, and racism is wrong. It must be resisted and rejected at every turn.

uva charlotsville pic

In the already infamous photo of torch-carrying white racists surrounding a statue of Thomas Jefferson, we see buried in the image 3 brave UVA students, terrified, but holding strong behind a hand-painted sign reading “UVA Students Against White Supremacy”, backs up against the statue, surrounded by white thugs. Let them be our guides. – Sarah Schulman

This is not a matter on which reasonable people can disagree. Those we saw carrying Tiki torches in Charlottesville are despicable human beings who espouse an indefensible belief in racial and cultural superiority.

Racism must be combatted everyday by every one of us. White people cannot stand on the sideline, saying and doing nothing. Please – this is the moment where our silence puts us on the side of hate. This is the time when we have to decide which side we stand on and whether we are going to take this nation forward or backward.

Let us prove that this is not who we are as Americans.

I stand against racism. I stand against hate. I stand against bigotry.

I stand for equality. I stand for racial justice.

I stand because #BlackLivesMatter.

 

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She Persisted

08 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

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Tags

Mary Griggs, Politics, Rant

It is all around the web today, how Mitch McConnell, using a Senate rule (the 1836-44 gag rule) designed to forbid any consideration of abolition to silence Elizabeth Warren during her testimony against the nomination of Jeff Sessions for Attorney General of the United States.

img_20170208_094753

Here is Coretta Scott King’s 1986 statement and testimony on Jeff Sessions’s U.S. District Court nomination in Alabama. As she wrote then:

Based on his record, I believe his confirmation would have a devastating effect on not only the judicial system in Alabama, but also on the progress we have made everywhere toward fulfilling my husband’s dream that he envisioned over twenty years ago.

Contact your elected representatives to OPPOSE Jeff Sessions’ nomination for Attorney General of the United States.

Find them HERE

Be like Liz – Persist!

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Entertaining Angels

14 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

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Tags

Faith, Rant

I’ve got to admit that I don’t understand the anger and controversy over wishing someone happy holidays. As someone who works part-time in retail, I can report that it has gotten pretty tense out there in the greetings department.

I usually respond with whatever the person says to me. If I’m initiating the good wishes, I say Happy Holidays. I’m not trying to take Christ out of Christmas by doing so. I’m simply recognizing that there are other celebrations during December and I don’t want to assume that everyone I interact with is a practicing Christian.

Here are a few of the other December holidays:

  • Bodhi Day: December 8 – Buddhist Day of Enlightenment
  • Chalica: first week of December – celebrated by some Unitarian Universalists.
  • Festivus: December 23 (popularized by Seinfeld)
  • Hanukkah or Chanukah: the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December.
  • Kwanzaa: December 26 through January 1 – Pan-African festival
  • Milad un Nabi: December 12 or 17 –  Commemorating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. It is celebrated in the third month of the Islamic calendar with the Shias celebrating it on the 17th of December and the Sunnis celebrating on the 12th.
  • Newtonmas: December 25 – Some atheists and skeptics celebrate December 25 due to it being Isaac Newton’s birthday.
  • Omisoka: December 31 – Japanese New Year takes place on the last day of the year
  • Pancha Ganapati: December 21–25 – Hindu five-day festival in honor of Lord Ganesha
  • Saturnalia: December 17-23 – A Roman winter solstice festival
  • Yalda: December 21 – is an Iranian festival celebrating the victory of light and goodness over darkness and evil.
  • Yule: Pagan winter festival that is celebrated from late December to early January.

Heck, if we took out all the Jews, Arabs and Africans from the birth of Christ, it would look like this:

 

nativity-scene-without-arabs-jews-and-illegal-immigrants-imgur

Nativity scene without Arabs, Jews, Africans and refugees

To those that say this is a Christian nation and we shouldn’t worry about being politically correct, I respond that the Christian thing to do is respect the Other among us.

The bible is filled with passages about being welcoming to strangers (Genesis 19, Leviticus 19:34). Jesus himself was pretty clear about it, too. Give a reread to Matthew 25:31-45:

31 When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels are with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be assembled in front of him, and he will cull them out, one from another, like a shepherd separates sheep from goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right but the goats on his left.

34 Then the king will say to those on his right, “Come, you who have been blessed by my Father! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, 35 because I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. 36 I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you took care of me. I was in prison, and you visited me.”

37 Then the righteous will say to him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you something to eat, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or see you naked and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison, and visit you?”

40 The king will answer them, “I tell all of you with certainty, since you did it for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.”

41 Then he will say to those on his left, “Get away from me, you who are accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the Devil and his angels! 42 Here’s why: I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t welcome me. I was naked, and you didn’t clothe me. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.”

44 Then they will reply, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or as a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and didn’t help you?”

45 Then he will say to them, “I tell all of you with certainty, since you didn’t do it for one of the least important of these, you didn’t do it for me.”

If you want to do the Christian thing, just be kind to everyone.

And, please, please, don’t be mean to those minimum wage employees in the stores and restaurants you frequent. Most of them are required by their employers to use specific greetings. Instead of reacting badly to either Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas, put a smile on your lips and in your heart and return their good wishes.

That is the true spirit of the season.

 

The title of this piece comes from Hebrews 13:2 – “Forget not to show love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

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Just Little Bits of History Repeating

17 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

1st Amendment, Rant

Two of HWWNBN’s* surrogates have spoken to the media about ways to implement his “extreme vetting” of some Muslim immigrants.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach first said there could be a reinstatement of a national registry of immigrants and visitors. He helped design the original program, known as the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), while serving in George W. Bush’s Department of Justice after September 11.

NSEERS was abandoned in 2011 after much criticism by civil rights groups for unfairly targeting immigrants from Muslim majority nations but only after the Department of Homeland Security declared it redundant.

Then, Carl Higbie, a spokesman for the Great America PAC, appeared on Fox News’ “The Kelly File” said about precedents: “We’ve done it based on race, we’ve done it based on religion, we’ve done it based on region,” he said. “We’ve done it with Iran back — back a while ago. We did it during World War II with [the] Japanese.”

Seriously? A solution for anything is to bring back internment camps?

A registry is wrong. Singling out people of one religion for special scrutiny is unconstitutional and violates the 1st Amendment protections for religious liberty.

Additionally, the idea of collective guilt based on religious affiliation goes against basic legal principles. Guilt is personal and based on behavior. Surveillance and other kinds of investigations must be triggered by conduct, not religious, racial, or ethnic classifications.

Furthermore, setting apart any single group, whether it be for a crescent they must sew onto their clothes or registration in digital databases, provides a basis for the brutalization of that group.

Think I’m over exaggerating? There have been many acts of bullying and harassment across the nation since the election (149 at last count). Our leadership should be acting to reduce hate crimes, not stoking the fires that could burn us all.

Combating racism and bigotry will take action from us all. We must protest against such plans – either in the streets, working with allies like The Council on American-Islamic Relations or by contacting our elected representatives (here is a phone script with several advocacy issues).

We must intervene when we witness harassment or intimidation. Here are a couple of things you can do if you witness such attacks:

Be prepared to keep calm

In advance, think about a situation in which a person is threatened, harassed or attacked. Imagine how you would feel and what you could do to help. Think of things you can say to support the victim. Then, when you witness such a thing, concentrate on what you imagined. Don’t let fear or anger distract you.

Direct, Distract, Delegate

React quickly and don’t wait until other people help. The longer you hesitate, the more difficult it becomes. You can directly intervene (say “Hey, that’s not cool. Please stop”), distract either party by beginning a new conversation (“Want to see pictures of the world’s cutest dog?”) and/or delegate to involve other bystanders (“You there in the blue jacket, please get the manager.”).

The Southern Poverty Law Center has a useful guide on Speaking-Up to Everyday Bigotry: https://www.splcenter.org/20150126/speak-responding-everyday-bigotry

Because if we stay silent, there is one thing I know for sure: we will be next.

The title is from History Repeating by the Propellorheads featuring Shirley Bassey – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzLT6_TQmq8

*HWWNBN means He Who Will Not Be Named. It worked for those fighting Voldemort and it works here!

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Not Going Any Damn Where!

09 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Elections, Louisiana, Mary Griggs, Rant

As results started to come in last night indicating that Donald Trump was on his way to becoming the next president of the United States, the Canadian immigration website crashed.

So many searches…so many, in fact, that the iconic photograph from the fall of Saigon came to mind.

I understand where those folks are coming from – the frustration at seeing that bloviating orange nightmare winning precinct after precinct churned my stomach. It was very personal and emotional to me because I live in New Orleans, an island of blue afloat in the sea of red which is the great state of Louisiana.

I have been told more times than I can count that I should just move. Some are from friends who live in more welcoming places – places where I couldn’t be fired from my job for being a lesbian or kicked out of a restaurant for public displays of affection with my girlfriend or evicted from my home because the landlord has a moral objection to someone being gender non-conforming.

Some of those who say it are just plain mean – these are the people who snarl out that I should like it or leave it.

The hell I will! Not only is this my home, they need me here.

And we need you here, too!

We need you to stay and do the work to keep this country moving forward. We need ALL of you to help make it better.

As Margaret Mead so eloquently said:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

If not you and me, then who?

Here in Louisiana 779,535 votes went for Hillary Clinton. Those voters are my natural allies. The task I choose to accept is to join up with those hundreds of thousands of other people who are also fighting for tomorrow.

I’m a progressive, lesbian, feminist, Democrat living in New Orleans. And I am not alone.

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Drenched in Blood

04 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

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2nd Amendment, Rant, Violence

When I was in junior high I won a shooting competition and the prize included a membership in the National Rifle Association. At the time, the majority of members of the organization were shooting enthusiasts like me or hunters and firearm collectors.

Not so today.

stop-nra-180

The National Rifle Association’s primary interest is in the bottom line of gun manufacturers. Selling guns and ammo is big money – in fact, Black Friday gun sales increased about 5% in 2015.

The NRA’s revenues are intrinsically linked to the success of the gun business. Read Blood Money and Blood Money II for a detailed financial breakdown of the National Rifle Association and the millions of dollars firearm companies donate to the NRA sponsor program called the Ring of Freedom.

What’s more, they’re profiting on suicide (the data indicates that the biggest number of gun deaths are suicides) by blocking efforts since 1996 to even study gun violence. The ban on the CDC was extended just weeks after the Charleston, SC church shooting.

It is clear the NRA doesn’t want an end to the mass shootings. And they have enough lawmakers in their pocket to stop any sane efforts toward gun safety. The only call those politicians make will be for prayers after the next mass shooting.

And the next after that.

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Time to Weed

29 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

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Rant, Women's Rights

Black Friday was black indeed for the Colorado Planned Parenthood office and for the agency of women everywhere. At the end of the 5 hour siege, one police officer and two civilians were dead and two other officers and seven other civilians were wounded. Luckily, none of the staff of the clinic were harmed.

Robert Lewis Dear was motivated by opposition to safe and legal abortion, saying “no more baby parts” to law enforcement officials.

It is the latest in a long line of terrorist attacks on Planned Parenthood facilities, fueled in part by the poisonous rhetoric of ideologically driven extremists.

Their inflammatory allegations have real world consequences. The increase in vandalism and body counts, the harmful legislation (closing, defunding, restricting access) and even the rise in sexually transmitted diseases are just some of the results.

Lizz Winstead posted:

What I will say again is that these hatemongers are allowed to breed when no one weeds the garden of bad ideas.

What are you going to do? Become a gardener? Or stand by and watch the bad ideas fester?

Willie Parker posted:

We who understand the need for abortion availability can no longer sympathetically stand with Planned Parenthood or any other facility that finds itself in the crosshairs of abortion extremism, we must act on behalf of women and reproductive rights. We must make sure that every political engagement we consider is filtered through our concern about impact on reproductive rights. We must, if we have to, vote primarily in the context of this issue alone. We cannot allow major political candidates to accept endorsement from abortion terrorists without penalty. The stark contrast between abortion extremism and democratic political change can only be made when in every way we engage the political system.

We must act and vote in defense of reproductive rights. We can’t sit idly by while pstand planned quoteoliticians seize on lies and smears to shut down health centers, push abortion bans, defund Planned Parenthood, and deny women access to care.

Ten hours after the shooting not a single one of the 14 Republican presidential candidates had stated any condolences, concerns, or thoughts of solidarity with the victims of the Planned Parenthood shooting. We cannot be silent nor allow the silence of others to put more women at risk.

No one should ever fear for their life while seeking health care. No caregivers should have to wear bullet proof vests to work in order to get people the care they need.

And, no-one who is against abortion because of a reverence for life should ever tolerate murder done by those who agree with them.

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No Such Thing As Not Voting

17 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Elections, LGBT Equality, Louisiana, Rant, Voting, Women's Rights

If there is anyone who still does not believe there is a war on women or who doesn’t understand the animus the LGBTQ community is facing, please read the candidate questionnaire of the Louisiana Family Forum (and check out those candidates who submitted answers).

Balancing the state budget, higher education, job creation, coastal restoration — none of these matter to those yahoos and their ilk.

The questions they are asking candidates for the October 24th election illustrate just how focused they are in taking away women’s reproductive choices and limiting the equal rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. They do have other hateful agenda items, too but women, queers and gender non-conformists are their main targets.

Want a sample?

Candidates could support or oppose or offer an explanation. Here is question 1:

question 1

Question 2:

question 2

Question 3:

question 3

Question 4:

question 4

Question 7:

question 7

Gambling, gun control, immigration, repealing the Affordable Care Act, pledging not to raise taxes, attacking Common Core, bankrupting TOPS and removing references to God and the Ten Commandments from public property make up the other 10 remaining questions. Click above to read the rest.

There is not a single item which will make Louisiana a more fair and equitable place to live. Nothing to improve the standard of living of Louisiana’s hungry, thirsty, sick or naked (Mathew 25:36-37) which you might expect from an organization whose mission is “to persuasively present biblical principles in the centers of influence.” They aren’t too welcoming of the stranger either – see question 6.

voteordieIt is vitally important that we not let them have the last word on election day. We can make a difference in the business as usual, modus operandi in Louisiana if we vote and we make sure we get as many other people to the polls as well.

Polls open on Saturday, October 24th at 7 am and close at 8 pm. Anyone in line at 8 pm will be allowed to vote. Here is the link for election information from the LA Secretary of State.

If you want more information on the candidates, check out the following:

  • Independent Women’s Organization Endorsements
  • Forum for Equality PAC Endorsements
  • Public Affairs Research Council (PAR) guide to the 2015 constitutional amendments
  • The League of Women Voters information on statewide candidates and constitutional amendments

Please #GeauxVote!

The title of this post comes from a quote from David Foster Wallace:

By all means stay home if you want, but don’t bullshit yourself that you’re not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard’s vote.

 

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Anti-LGBTQ Jim Crow

26 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

LGBT Equality, Mary Griggs, Rant

by Mary Griggs

lunch counter takai

First, Kansas. Then Arizona. Now Mississippi, Missouri and Georgia are trying to enshrine LGBTQ discrimination in state laws.

Have we forgotten our history? Is there anyone who thinks reviving Jim Crow laws are a good idea?

Jim Crow was a an exaggerated, highly stereotypical black character created by a white actor in blackface in the late 1820’s. The success he had with his song and dance routine ensured the name entering into the lexicon as a collective racial epithet for blacks.

Moving from the minstrel circuit to the public square, Jim Crow laws helped enforce a racial caste system in the Southern states that lasted until the 1960’s and the Civil Rights Movement. These laws enforced segregration and kept people from consorting with other races in everything from barbers to movie theaters, from toilets and drinking fountains to buses and taxis. Worse, they included hospitals, schools, restaurants, apartments and hotels.

They also criminalized those who went so far as to co-habitate or marry someone of another race. A sample of the laws on intermarriage are below:

  • Arizona: The marriage of a person of Caucasian blood with a Negro, Mongolian, Malay, or Hindu shall be null and void.
  • Florida: All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited.
  • Georgia: It shall be unlawful for a white person to marry anyone except a white person. Any marriage in violation of this section shall be void.
  • Mississippi: The marriage of a white person with a negro or mulatto or person who shall have one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be unlawful and void.
  • Maryland: All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent, to the third generation, inclusive, or between a white person and a member of the Malay race; or between the negro a nd a member of the Malay race; or between a person of Negro descent, to the third generation, inclusive, and a member of the Malay race, are forever prohibited, and shall be void.
  • Missouri: All marriages between…white persons and negroes or white persons and Mongolians…are prohibited and declared absolutely void…No person having one-eighth part or more of negro blood shall be permitted to marry any white person, nor shall any white person be permitted to marry any negro or person having one-eighth part or more of negro blood.

Horrible, weren’t they?

Pulled from the trash can of history, the new anti-LGBTQ Jim Crow laws will allow any individual, group, or private business to refuse to serve gay couples if “it would be contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs.” Private employers can fire transgender employees on account of their gender identity or expression. Stores may deny lesbian couples goods and services. Hotels can eject gay couples or deny them entry in the first place. Businesses that provide public accommodations—movie theaters, restaurants—can turn away same-sex couples at the door.

These bills are written in such a way that could allow many forms of discrimination against LGBTQ people – and in some cases anyone – as long as an individual feels that they are following the tenets of their religion.

Who will be targeted next? Unwed mothers? Interracial couples? Jewish couples?

Government-sanctioned discrimination, regardless of why, is a step in the wrong direction.

As Rabbi Stephen Kahn, of Scottsdale’s Congregation Beth Israel wrote:

As an American, I will always fully support the constitutionally protected rights of every citizen; the right of free expression of their own religious beliefs and convictions whether or not I personally/theologically agree with their beliefs or practices. However, as an American, a Jew and a Rabbi, I know that religious freedom does not permit me the right to oppress or discriminate against others because I think their theology or way of life is wrong. This is the antithesis of constitutional freedoms and the foundation of our country. The potential – both implicitly and explicitly – of legalizing a person or person’s right to persecute and discriminate against others under the guise of religious freedom is both intellectually objectionable and theologically corrupt of any scriptural justification I know of, especially in a free society.

Are we going to allow such corruption to become law?

I say no. We must defeat them. And we must not only fight these bad bills but we must unite at the ballot box to defeat any politicians who would pervert the constitution to justify their bigotry.

It is time to show them they’re on the wrong side of history. Again.

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ENDA and Lifestyle Based Conduct

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ENDA, LGBT Equality, Mary Griggs, Rant

glaad endaI was interviewed on Monday in regards to the historic vote in the Senate on an inclusive ENDA bill which moved forward with strong bi-partisan support (although every single vote against it was Republican).

The resulting article has just a single phrase from my discussion with the reporter from the Times-Picayune (read it here: Bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation appears headed for Senate OK) so I figured I’d expound on my thoughts for those who care. If you’re really interested, you can also read my  full testimony before the Louisiana legislature on House Bill 85 (the Louisiana Fair Employment Act) from earlier this year at the Forum’s blog: http://forumforequality.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/testimony-from-mary-griggs-to-the-house-and-governmental-affairs-committee/.

In short, I believe that qualified, hard-working employees should be recruited and retained based on their skills, qualifications, and capacity to contribute. Employment evaluations should be based on work performance not sexual orientation or gender identity.

No one should live in fear that they can be fired for reasons that have nothing to do with their job performance nor should LGBT workers face discrimination in employment that goes beyond being fired to also include being denied promotions and experiencing harassment on the job.

Like many people I contacted my state senators in advance of the vote. Mary Landrieu had already signed up as a sponsor over the summer, so I just gave her an atta-girl!

And, in the other corner, here is Senator David Vitter’s response:

Thank you for contacting me in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.  I appreciate knowing your views on this issue.

As you may know, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act would prohibit discrimination against employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity.  This legislation is directed specifically at providing federal legal protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees.

While I strictly oppose discrimination in all forms, I do not believe that expanding federal civil rights protections to include lifestyle-based conduct is a prudent course of action.  Despite this legislation’s well-intentioned attempt to address workplace discrimination, vague terminology and overly broad definitions could lead to serious and divisive legal issues, leaving the judiciary to interpret Congress’ intent.

I believe that Congress has an important role in the fight against discrimination and in protecting our constitutional civil rights. Please rest assured that I will continue to work to protect the civil rights of all citizens and will keep your thoughts in mind if this or similar legislation is debated by the U.S. Senate.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me.  Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about issues of concern to you or your family.

Sincerely,
Senator David Vitter
United States Senator

It is hard to get my mind around the fact that Diaper Dave is lecturing anyone about the prudency of protecting ‘lifestyle-based conduct.’

I found his letter disrespectful and offensive. If nothing else, it renewed my commitment to re-electing Mary Landrieu.

Much better are the words from President Barack Obama on his opinion piece on ENDA:

In America of all places, people should be judged on the merits: on the contributions they make in their workplaces and communities, and on what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the content of their character.” That’s what ENDA helps us do. When Congress passes it, I will sign it into law, and our nation will be fairer and stronger for generations to come.

Here’s hoping that House Speaker John Boehner gives our elected representatives a chance to vote on the bill and for a fairer United States of America.

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Enders Game and Pride

20 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Boycott Orson Scott Card, LGBT Equality, Mary Griggs, Rant, Skip Enders Game

orson scott cardI read Enders Game when it came out during high school and really enjoyed it. I mean, what young person wouldn’t – it is the story of a kid, selected from everyone else for specialized training because he was smart, who survives school bullying and goes on to save the planet! All the special little snowflakes who didn’t really fit in at school, found a bit of wish fulfillment in those pages that we, too, would be plucked from obscurity and become someone who can make a difference to the world.

Before I could get hooked on any of Orson Scott Card’s other books, though, he started making offensive remarks about people like me. Here is one of the first I ever heard:

Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society’s regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.” — Orson Scott Card, “The Hypocrites of Homosexuality,” Sunstone Magazine, Feb 1990

Not cool and completely unexpected. It was unfathomable to me that the author of such sweeping, speculative fiction could spout such things.

I was working at Borders Books in Rockville, Maryland at the time and I remember our discussions around the register and info desk about whether the personal lives and/or politics of an artist should have any impact on the art itself. I had a hard time making a dispassionate argument about Orson Scott Card because I had skin in the game. He was talking about me – telling me that I could not be permitted to be an equal citizen.

As time went on, he continued to make homophobic remarks (Buzzfeed and GLAAD have compiled some of his most egregious) and even went so far as to advocate overthrowing the government on the issue on marriage equality in 2008. About then is when he joined the board of the National Organization for Marriage, which has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Orson Scott Card got a bit of a wake up call on how it feels to be stigmatized when he was contracted to pen a Superman story. There was an uproar from fans of the comic book hero that ended only once the artist and then the publisher pulled out of the project.

That contremps was a mere tempest in a teapot compared to what he is facing by bringing his book to the big screen. Fearing that his history of bigotry might further affect his earnings, he has released a statement that we should see his movie:

Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984.

With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot. The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state.

Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.

Tolerance.

That’s a fine word. Too fine for people like Orson Scott Card to try and wield like a weapon.

See, the nation has always tolerated people like Card. We even tolerate folks like Ray Green over in Lafayette, Louisiana who complained very loudly upon seeing a rainbow flag flying over a Pride event at Girard Park earlier this year.

A Korean War vet, he stated “I did not go overseas and fight for our country so that we could come back and be subject to something like that.”

Um, actually he kinda, sorta did. That whole ‘created equal’ part isn’t just for people who look, talk or think exactly like the Cards or the Greens. It is for everyone. In fact, our governmental system is predicated on tolerance.

The Founders built protections for minority rights into the constitution. The first ten amendments enumerate rights that may not be violated by the government, safeguarding the rights of the minority against the tyranny from majority rule.

I support First Amendment protections, even for those whose views I find repugnant. A person of faith has every right to believe that my expression of love is a sin and I wouldn’t want the government to do anything to prevent them from holding such views. What the government can (and should) do is ensure that they don’t engage in discriminatory business practices on the basis of them.

That is at the heart of New Mexico’s highest court ruling that the owners of an Albuquerque wedding photography company violated state law when they turned away a lesbian couple who wanted to hire them to take pictures of their ceremony.

Photographers Jonathan and Elaine Huguenin “are free to think, to say, to believe, as they wish,” Justice Richard C. Bosson noted in his opinion. But despite personal objections to gay marriage, the owners “must compromise, if only a little, to accommodate the contrasting values of others.” This, Bosson says, is “the price of citizenship.”

In the “world of the marketplace, of commerce, of public accommodation, the Huguenins have to channel their conduct, not their beliefs, so as to leave space for other Americans who believe something different,” he writes. “A multicultural, pluralistic society, one of our nation’s strengths, demands no less.”

Exactly.

Further, my voting with my pocketbook is neither oppression nor censorship. It is the free market in action.

That is why I won’t let a single dime of mine enrich Orsen Scott Card, especially when Enders Game opens in theaters on November 1st. I hope other good people decide to not give him any funds he can use to funnel into political causes whose ultimate purpose is to make people like me a second class citizen.

I’m going to be standing with a lot of other LGBT geeks and our allies who will be skipping the Enders Game movie and any merchandizing thereof. Go to Skip Enders Game to learn more.

I hope you join me.

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This Fight is About More Than Marriage!

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

LGBT Equality, Marriage Equality, Mary Griggs, Rant

by Mary Griggs

rainbow scalesWe are fighting for more than marriage. We are fighting for our right to love.

Marriage equality opponents would condemn us to live without it. Denying us marriage is just the latest sortie from people who want to forbid people of the same sex the most fundamental of human rights.

And they intend to continue their fight beyond any Supreme Court ruling. Gary Glenn of the American Family Association called on Christians and the governors of the states which have outlawed gay marriage to ignore any ruling that might strike down those laws.

They speak of sin and temptation but, in their hearts, they believe that being lesbian, gay or bisexual means that you aren’t entitled to give or receive love.

Just listen to the words of our opponents.

Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said in an interview with the Baptist Press news service, “The Christian church has always maintained that sexual expression is directed only toward the one-flesh union of male and female in marriage. Anything else is to be turned away from, regardless of how difficult that is.”

The Catholic bishops couldn’t be more plain in their notes on Human Sexuality #55 (and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2357-8):

“(W)e believe that it is only within a heterosexual marital relationship that genital sexual activity is morally acceptable. Only within marriage does sexual intercourse fully symbolize the Creator’s dual design, as an act of covenant love, with the potential of co-creating new human life. Therefore, homosexual genital activity is considered immoral.

Therefore, the Church calls all homosexual persons, like their single heterosexual counterparts, to be chaste, that is, sexually appropriate for their uncommitted, unmarried state in life. Various Church documents acknowledge that this may be a difficult challenge, even a lifelong cross to carry. This is particularly true since heterosexual couples may anticipate marriage-to-come, while for gay or lesbian couples such a future sacramental union is not available.”

When they aren’t calling for perpetual celibacy our opponents are advocating for us to choose loveless unions, regardless of the pain that may cause our partner.

For example, Michelle Bachman and Jason Lewis are just two of the many who argue that bans on same-sex marriage don’t discriminate against gays or lesbians because we have an equal right to marry someone of the opposite sex. Michelle was talking to high school students when she famously said, “We all have the same civil rights…They (same-sex couples) can get married but they abide by the same law as everyone else. They can marry a man if they’re a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they’re a man.”

They fear a slippery slope that Justice Scalia articulated in his dissent on Lawrence v Texas:

Today’s opinion dismantles the structure of constitutional law that has permitted a distinction to be made between heterosexual and homosexual unions, insofar as formal recognition in marriage is concerned,” Scalia wrote. “If moral disapprobation of homosexual conduct is ‘no legitimate state interest’ for purposes of proscribing that conduct … what justification could there possibly be for denying the benefits of marriage to homosexual couples exercising ‘(t)he liberty protected by the Constitution’?

So true – marriage equality is inevitable to anyone with eyes to see and hearts that feel. It might not come today but it is coming.

Marriage equality opponents, blinded by planks in their eyes and with their hearts of stone, demand for us to spend our lives cut off from love or any physically intimate relationships.

We are never to know the joy of minds and bodies connecting. Never to feel the empowerment that comes from sharing our lives with our love or participating in the fulfillment of our essential nature.

These so-called Christians completely disregard their faith’s teachings about love. Those red letter words in the New Testatment should take precedence over the law – Jesus said it himself:

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-31)

Love – it is worth fighting for!

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Confessions of a Reluctant Marriage Equality Advocate

24 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by marygriggs in Uncategorized

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

LGBT Equality, Marriage Equality, Mary Griggs, Rant

by Mary Griggs

marriageequality_300I’m probably committing heresy but I’ve got a confession to make.

I’m not a supporter of marriage. Whether it be opposite sex or same sex, I’ve never been a fan.

Historically, marriage has been a hetero-patriarchal institution oppressive to women. Despite the many legal and social changes that have taken place in the last century, marriage has been shown to offer men a better, longer, healthier life with greater freedom and more power, while it has the opposite effect on women, limiting them and, in many cases, providing a context that leaves them vulnerable to spousal abuse.

I am also wary of marriage equality being the LGBT community’s primary issue when so many of us lack basic laws to protect us from employment, housing, and accommodations discrimination.

My stance on marriage isn’t a new thing. My family laughs about the six year old me who declared to her grandmother’s intrusive questions that she was NEVER getting married or about my coming home from vacation bible school incensed about the 10th commandment putting wives among possessions one is not supposed to covet. Both the list and the order (house, wife, slave, ox, donkey) infuriated my nascent feminist consciousness.

When I heard the Mae West quote (“marriage is a fine institution but I’m not ready for an institution”), it became my mantra for a number of years. However, my personal views kept colliding with the issue advocacy I was doing for the LGBT community.

From Prop 8 rallies to DOMA repeals and adjudication, I’ve been put in the position of campaigning for the right to enter a social structure of which I am highly critical. However, I don’t have to believe marriage is, in itself, a social good because equality is the social good towards which I am working.

Feminist Hulk captures my dilemma perfectly:

feminist hulk marriageSo I join my brothers and sisters in the fight for marriage equality because restricting marriage only to same-sex couples is discriminatory, segregationist and is clear evidence of homophobia in legislation.

Remember Homer Plessy? He was a “colored” man who was kicked out of the white car and made to sit in the “colored” car. He sued, seeking to have the state law on separate railroad cars struck down under the “equal protection” clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the Louisiana law under the argument that it treated whites and blacks equally, even if it required that they be separated. After all, whites had no more right to sit in the “coloreds-only” car than “coloreds” had to sit in the whites-only car.

For 60 years that decision stood until the Supreme Court, in Brown vs. the Board of Education, held that separate was inherently unequal.

Let’s hope this Supreme Court still believes.

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