Although I am not very political by nature there are a few things that will make me stand up and shout out about man’s inhumanity to man.  In my mind’s eye, there are a few things that shouldn’t even be on anybody’s political agenda because they are basic human rights. Just like the “black movement” shouldn’t have HAD to have been an issue back in the 60’s (and still exists), the “gay movement” shouldn’t HAVE to be an issue today.  These things are just basic rights afforded to everyone:  white, black, yellow, gay, straight, fat, skinny and all creeds.

Yesterday, I published the picture at the top of this post to my facebook account. Believe it or not, there was a person who was equally shocked by both pictures.  I was shocked that she was shocked.  I see a huge difference in children starving to death and two people expressing their love for one another.  In a world filled with hate and inequality on all levels, I find it sad that anyone can find both pictures equally shocking.  Even though her opinion differs from mine, it is still her basic right to express it.

In the not so distant past, it was considered a sin to marry someone outside of your religious faith.  A Catholic marrying a Jew was about as controversial as one could get.  People quoted the Bible by saying “God doesn’t want us to be unevenly yoked.”  When the religious issue calmed down a little the marriage scene was scandalized once again.  Oh my goodness, white people were marrying black people!  How could we have gone so far down the social scale?  Heaven forbid, God would never approve of this!  It’s an abomination unto man!  Whites cannot marry blacks, it says so in the Bible.  “God doesn’t want us to be unevenly yoked.”

Once again, we have a marriage issue on the rise.  Unlike the minor issues of murder, rape, hunger, war, child abuse, elderly abuse and the like, gay issues are of paramount importance and should be a major political agenda for everyone.  Stopping gay people from holding hands in public, kissing in public, getting married in public and having sex in private is an issue all us of should be concerned with.  World peace will follow once we eradicate the gays from having any rights.  Hitler must have been right when he wanted to abolish the people that he found offensive and take away their rights.  Is that not what we are doing on a smaller scale when we take away basic human rights from those whose ideals do not conform to ours, whose color is not the same as ours, whose religious belief is not the same as ours, or whose sexual preference is not the same as ours?

The Bible is being quoted once again.  The “unevenly yoked” comment isn’t being spoken very loudly this time (I wonder if it’s because you can’t get to much more equal than the same sex), but Sodom and Gomorrah has reared it’s ugly head.  What I remember from Sodom and Gomorrah is that Lot (a righteous man before God) offered up his daughters to the people of Sodom to have sex with (which was a sin because women were stoned to death for having sex out of marriage) so they would not rape (violently engage in sex with) the visitors that God had sent him.  The men who wanted to have sex with Lot’s male visitors may have been homosexuals but above that they were rapist.  To some, that is a small distinction; to me it is huge.

Don’t get confused now.  I do not mean to imply that homosexuals are rapists, in fact more heterosexual males are rapist than homosexual males.  I guess that fact could be a clear cut reason to abolish homosexual males which would then cut down on raping.  Oh dear, the vicious cycle goes on and on.

Whenever I see inequality anywhere I hope I am strong enough to always speak out.  May I never be the only one left standing.  Pastor Martin Niemoller spoke these words for ALL mankind — those that conform to our ideas as well as those who do not.

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.