As expected, Annise Parker is the new Mayor of Houston. Our second gay mayor. Her sexual inclination didn't amount to a hill of beans, nor should it. Now, can we move on?
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12 comments:
As usual, the only group to honestly take offense at someone else's sexual orientation are the old folks, who complain about any post-1950 societal change.
The "greatest generation" (pfft) is actually the last truly bigoted generation. We can only "move on" once these dinosaurs are pushing up daisies.
Why should we care if a lesbian is elected mayor?
Care? It is uncaring people who drive the trend of ever more tolerance of once unacceptable behaviors.
Call it tolerance by default. Call it the selfish generation of “I don’t want to get involved” and “if it doesn’t affect me directly, then why should I care what they do?”
The once unacceptable lesbian and gay behavior is now “tolerated”, in fact approved, by the selfish generation.
So what currently unacceptable behaviors will become tolerated in 10, 20, 30 years by the ever more tolerant generations?
• “Open marriages” since hey, they’ll probably cheat anyway? This behavior is somewhat in the “closet” now … but is emerging.
• Euthanasia of people for increasingly less serious health problems. Euthanasia for terminal cancer, leading to what? … euthanasia for kidney dialysis because it’s too expensive to treat?
• Paying poor people for transplant body organs because they are desperate and uneducated? Happens now … but in the darkest “closet”.
• Child pornography? “Traditional” pornography is practically mainstream entertainment now, but it used not to be tolerated (at least not in public). The thought sickens me.
• Genocide of a race or religious group for various obscure reasons?
Where would YOU (3rd person) draw the line on increasingly tolerated behaviors?
Wherever your "line" is, you might be out-voted by a segment of society that you do not tolerate.
Beware of what you ask for ... you might just get it.
I was actually working on her campaign and I can tell you for sure that no one on her campaign ever brought up her sexuality as a political point. In fact, everyone would simply nod if you pointed out that she was a lesbian, shift a little uncomfortably in the way that I imagine that we'd shift if someone pointed out that Locke enjoyed having sex with women, and changed the subject. Yet, it was the first thing everyone else wanted to talk about in a very specific way. She was a symbol, even though I got the distinct impression that she didn't want that particularly. She was no more overt about her sexuality than a hetero person who wears a wedding ring, yanno?
Of course, this is all coming from the volunteer who recommended that in response to the opposition campaign sending out fliers that said "Annise Parker is a Lesbian", we send out fliers that said, in large bold letters, "Locke has a Penis."
This is why I'm not a campaign manager.
Another thought:
To "Anonymous" ... You wishing death to anyone that disagrees with your opinion is pretty extreme.
You're right up there with the Muslim extremists.
I wish my property rights, the half of my laboring days, in the winter, the summer sun, were as politically untouchable as our brave new world gayness is.
I gladly, even defend gayness, gays, what ever, if only I was left alone, but no. An actual, physical productive person, that can look back every day, and physically point out true, physical product, usually lasting with minimum of maintenance for hundreds of years...no, I'm assaulted, thefted, each and every day, because I'm fortunate enough to swing a hammer, lift pallets of plywood, acres of asphalt shingles, miles of trimboards each and every day.
It's so high tech, privileged, white, misogynist, Anglo Saxon elitists don't cha'know. Yes sir. Work from Jan 1, to June. And, not just 'go to work', or 'be at work', but work work as in lift, tote, cut, drill, hammer, hold, dig. Just like Egyptian slaves.
Yeah. I'm real happy. Great progress. Fan freek'n fantastic.
Of course I see that the half of my days, forced to hand over to the state and it's minions, it's agents and academics so that they and theirs can live lives of leisure, are not enough. No sir. Bush, Paulson, Obama, Congress, each and every town/county/state paper shuffler is telling me my kids have won the Perpetual High Tax and Now Debt Serf Lottery.
Great. Houston has a gal that likes gals. Must be a Texas thing, here in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts we've had Gerry "Take A Page To Portagal" Studds, and from New Jersey via Harvard Barney "Hot Bottom, Is That Pot?" Frank and a legion of other gay,trans, whatever incompetent over educated symbol manipulating hacks for deacedes, if not more.
TCN, I am not sure why you equate homosexuals with the heinous acts you mentioned.
Let her be judged on her merits and actions.
I am not equating her with those heinous acts.
I'm pointing out how society is becoming more "tolerant" of things that were not acceptable in the past. Not so very long ago, homosexuality was considered heinous (ok, just disgusting) by most of mainstream society.
So where do you draw the line?
What is too much, too disgusting in society for you?
Just remember, wherever you do draw that line, that threshold for unacceptable behavior ... there are societal changelings saying "We can only move on once these dinosaurs are pushing up daisies".
Also, consider this.
The increasing "tolerance" by society of formerly unacceptable behaviors is directly proportional to the increasing rate of societal (and family) decay ... and the host of other problems that comes with along because of it.
So the very people who were not offended by the once unacceptable behaviors become victims of the tolerated (at some point in time).
Lot's to think about and it's never just as simple as she likes her or he likes him. Where does the decay end?
Serioulsy, we have way more important things to consider than sexual orientation.
TCN states: "The increasing "tolerance" by society of formerly unacceptable behaviors is directly proportional to the increasing rate of societal (and family) decay ..."
Utter bollocks. In your demented view when families were more "intact", the follow was "tolerated: Lynchings, school segregation, police beatings, subjugation of women, child labor, etc etc etc.
The good old days, they were horrible.
I could care less what kind of sex the woman likes. I watched an interview with her on a local TV station this morning. She said one of her first priorities would be to work on the fire department's problems. I though surely she would say something about catching the arsonist in The Heights... nope, not one word about fires. The problems she sees in the fire department are racial and gender equality.
Lou, you describe Parker as the second gay mayor in Houston. Who was the first, as far as you know? Remember, the media has tagged Parker as the first "openly" gay mayor of a large city. Any of Houston's preceding mayors who were gay were not open about it, even when Houston was a lot smaller (as far as I know). So there may have been one more or ten more. How would you know? Not that it matters--just curious how you know Parker is only the second and, if so, who the first one was. Whitmire? Hofheinz? Certainly not Welch... well, I guess you never know.
Just saw your earlier post with Whitmire's picture, which answers the question about who you think Houston's first gay mayor was. Her husband died a few years before she decided to run for mayor. The support she received from Houston's gay community is the likely source of that notion you alluded to.
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