The Wheel and Axle

Once again, the Damasos speak.

In what has to be the most irony-laden stand in the history of idiocy, the Creepy Busybodies’ Coalition of the Philippines (CBCP) is targeting the anti-discrimination bill currently being reviewed by the Senate. The mission? To eliminate provisions around LGBT rights.

One Busybody Lawyer claims that the Church of the Busybody would be punished for not officiating same-sex marriages should the bill become law, conveniently forgetting that the bill in essence would also protect religious freedom, and should same-sex marriage become a reality, it will not be one of religious matters but rather of civil matters. Besides, what same-sex couple would want to be married within a church that despises them, anyway?

“It might change society,” Busybody Lawyer #1 says, to which I let out a big duuuh. Of course it will change our society – by stopping bigots in their tracks. Busybody bigots, for one.

Another Busybody Lawyer concurs that this bill will violate religious freedom by potentially punishing the Church of the Busybody if it chose to exclude people from Church responsibilities due to homosexuality.

Oh, please. Gays already hold powerful responsibilities within the Church; just read any Church-related scandal in the last ten years, and one will know that a good number of priests are sexually-active closet cases already practicing homosexuality. Not to mention practicing criminal acts like, you know, sexual harassment and child abuse.

Of course, the best argument is Busybody Lawyer #2’s statement that LGBT folks should not be considered the same as the elderly, the handicapped, and the poor because the other groups are disadvantaged not by their own choice, while LGBT’s supposedly chose what they are. The implication is that they deserve no protection from discrimination.

This is just wrong on so many levels I want to offer the Busybody Lawyer #2 some water to wash down her foot, then I will take out a sharp axe and hurl it at her.

For one thing, using the poor as an example is just plain ignorance. Not all poor people are disadvantaged because of non-choice, i.e. because they were born poor. There are also poor people who are disadvantaged because of choices they made that caused them to be poor. You know, like gambling their savings away or investing in illegal scams. This doesn’t mean we get to discriminate against them.

For another thing, discrimination is not a matter of “disadvantage” due to “non-choice.” Discrimination is a matter of social norms about what is supposedly superior and inferior. Black people and other ethnic minorities in the USA, for example, technically have no “real” disadvantage if you think about it – skin color does not offer any “true” disadvantage in the same way that disability or age would. And yet, racial discrimination exists nonetheless. Why? Because society incorrectly views them as inferior. The same applies to the LGBT community. Or for any religious community, for that matter.

And most interestingly, if we follow Busybody Lawyer #2’s logic, then religion should be removed from the bill as well – for people who practice any religion do it by their own choice. In fact, while nature vs. nurture / inborn vs. choice is still an open debate around sexuality, the practice of a religion is a clear-cut choice. Thus, if choice is the determining factor on whether a group should be given protection from discrimination or not, then religion should be the first group that gets the boot in the anti-discrimination bill. Which, of course, should also not be, even if there are a lot of idiotic religious leaders blabbing their way to attention.

At the end of the day, the biggest irony at the heart of it is that the Creepy Busybodies’ Coalition of the Philippines is pushing for an anti-discrimination bill to become discriminating. How’s that for bigotry?

If they do not see the hypocrisy in this, then they have no right to be praying to a Messiah who preferred to spend His time with the victims of discrimination instead of rubbing elbows with hateful religious leaders.