“Let Us Not be a Community Who Says, ‘We got ours so fuck you.'”

Gregory Gadow gave me his kind permission to repost his very incisive Facebook post here. This is so important.

A friend of mine made a very good point. Thanks, Calvin Hipps!

Dan White murdered San Francisco mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk on November 27, 1978. Charged with two counts of first degree murder, he was eventually convicted on two counts of “voluntary manslaughter,” the lightest possible sentence given the evidence. It was later shown that the jury gave him that sentence because A) White had been a SF police officer, and thus jurors presumed that he was acting against evil-doers, and B) because Supervisor Milk was an openly gay man.

When the verdict was handed down on the afternoon of May 21, 1979, the gay community went ballistic. San Francisco’s gay community had long been a target of SFPD’s bigotry, and many saw this verdict as police literally getting away with murdering community members. What originally started as an angry but peaceful protest quickly changed when the police tried to stop the demonstration. Police were attacked, and damage was done to SF government buildings. After several hours, the rioting subsided.

Black and white image shows a ghostly building with high windows and balconies in the background. There is a line of skinny trees whose trunks end in a puff of branches. Below the trees is a line of silhouetted figures standing in a line. The scene is lit by a streetlamp whose light seems to be diffused by smoke or mist.
Rioters outside San Francisco City Hall the evening of May 21, 1979, reacting to the voluntary manslaughter verdict for Dan White, that ensured White would serve only five years for the double murders of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. Image and caption courtesy Daniel Nicoletta (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Then the police staged a massive round of retaliatory raids in the Castro District. Cops in riot gear swarmed into gay bars and assaulted patrons, without even a pretext of claiming the mantle of law.

Sound like anything in recent events? Continue reading ““Let Us Not be a Community Who Says, ‘We got ours so fuck you.’””

“Let Us Not be a Community Who Says, ‘We got ours so fuck you.'”
{advertisement}

(Repost) “The Gravity Keeping My World In Place Was Gone” – Escape Chapter 7: Marriage

All of the content warnings, people. Have your emergency kitten on standby. In the final pages of this chapter of Escape, we get a first-hand look at what a forced polygamous marriage looks like.

Two days ago, the Prophet announced Carolyn could go to college – but she has to marry virtual stranger and terrible human Merril Jessop first. Now, Carolyn, her dad, and her two moms arrive in Salt Lake City for her wedding to a man 32 years her senior. She hasn’t spoken with him. She doesn’t even want him to touch her. But when her father only gets two hotel rooms, she realizes she’s going to be forced to sleep with Merril. As her mothers get her dressed and coiffed for the ceremony, she feels like she’s “being prepared for a ritual sacrifice.” Continue reading “(Repost) “The Gravity Keeping My World In Place Was Gone” – Escape Chapter 7: Marriage”

(Repost) “The Gravity Keeping My World In Place Was Gone” – Escape Chapter 7: Marriage

Supernatural S1 E10 Summary: “Asylum”

We start at a creepy old gothic-looking abandoned asylum at night. You know nothing good can come of this. Someone cuts through some serious chains on the doors. All we see is their shadows stepping through the door. Then there are two cops coming after them. This is for the sake of exposition: Older Cop tells Younger Not-Local Cop the legend of the asylum. It’s your stock haunted-by-spirits-of-patients-who-will-drive-you-insane-if-you-spend-the-night story. The cops go in to fetch the kids out, and unwisely split up. Younger Cop goes through a steel door with a radiation symbol on it.

Screenshot shows a white cop with a hat with a badge on it. He's going through a dirty old metal door with a small rectangular grate near the top. Just beneath the grate is a painted red radiation symbol.
Never do this. Continue reading “Supernatural S1 E10 Summary: “Asylum””

Supernatural S1 E10 Summary: “Asylum”

(Repost) Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education IIb-1: In Which I Advise You to Buy Shares in Columbia Valley Vineyards

What could be worse than ACE, amirite? After that fuckery, BJU’s Earth Science Fourth Edition will be a breath of fresh air. I mean, A Beka’s Science of the Physical Creation wasn’t unmitigated horror, and Bob Jones University’s history books aren’t as frothing fundie as them, so this might not be utterly awful. One may even begin to believe this can be got through without undue damage to the liver.

Until we open to the first chapter.

And begin to wonder if the products of one vineyard will be enough. Continue reading “(Repost) Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education IIb-1: In Which I Advise You to Buy Shares in Columbia Valley Vineyards”

(Repost) Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education IIb-1: In Which I Advise You to Buy Shares in Columbia Valley Vineyards

Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education XXX: Wherein A Poorly-Interpreted Bible Story is Claimed to be Science

Have I mentioned lately the BJU folks who wrote Earth Science 4th Edition don’t like other Christians? They really don’t. It’s obvious throughout this, erm, “science” textbook that they believe there’s only One Real Way to Christian, and everyone who doesn’t Christian that way are substandard Christians who probably aren’t Christians at all. Certainly, they’re all wrong about the Bible, because the Only True Way to read and understand it is the Bob Jones Way.

So, before they tell us How God Did It, and after they finish trashing How [they think] Secular Scientists Believe It Happened But Of Course They’re Wrong Because God Did It!, they take another swipe at Christians Who Are Wrong Because We Said So. This time, they’re sniping at framework hypothesis Christians, because seeing Genesis 1 as “a descriptive pattern or framework of creative acts” is just soooo not True Christian. I know nothing about folks who interpret Genesis 1 through this framework hypothesis thingy, but after seeing how carefully the BJU writers distorted the secular scientists’ ideas on how our solar system formed, I’m fairly comfortable saying we shouldn’t trust their description to be true an accurate in every particular.

Anyway, it seems the framework folks aren’t interested in a literal interpretation of a literary work. They look at Genesis as more of a narrative that speaks deep truths, sort of like poetry, only more meaningful. And of course it’s in a genre of its own. Meanwhile, the BJU folks treat it as an encyclopedia entry. Continue reading “Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education XXX: Wherein A Poorly-Interpreted Bible Story is Claimed to be Science”

Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education XXX: Wherein A Poorly-Interpreted Bible Story is Claimed to be Science

What We Must Do

It’s been a horrific week for police violence. Alton Sterling was murdered for the “crime” of selling CDs. Philando Castile was murdered for the “crime” of exercising his Second Amendment rights and driving while black. Castile’s slaughter was so egregious that even many of the white folk who typically find some infinitesimal fault on the part of the black man that excuses his extrajudicial execution have to admit this one was pure, undeserved slaughter. Not that they haven’t tried. They always try. It can never be the police who are to blame.

And as protestors peacefully gathered, a sniper in Dallas shot down cops and protestors alike, in a city that was trying to get it right. This will be all the excuse some people need to declare war upon people of color in this country. Not that a clandestine war wasn’t already being waged. Black folk in this country might as well be living in a war zone, see. They’re certainly dying as if they are.

And you may be feeling helpless right now. You may have no idea what to do with your rage and sorrow and pain. If, like me, you’re white, you may not know what do to with the power invested in you by the color of your skin.

Are you ready to listen? Because people of color are telling us what they need. This is what we must do. Continue reading “What We Must Do”

What We Must Do

(Repost) “My Future Had Just Vanished” – Escape Chapter 7: Marriage

This chapter of Escape is going to infuriate you. I would advise you to have some time set aside for self-care afterward. Find something you can hurl, and something to hurl it at that won’t break. Maybe get a stick to bite down on, or a pillow you can scream into, if you’re reading this while others are trying to sleep.

Content Note for forced marriage, child marriage, sexual abuse, and misogynistic assholes.

Carolyn is still intent on becoming a pediatrician. She’s just graduated high school and worked the following year as a teacher’s assistant while attending community college. She knows she’ll need to attend a good four-year college in order to pursue her dream. For most of us, the biggest problem would be money. As long as we’d worked our academic asses off like Carolyn did, we’d have no trouble getting in to at least one excellent school. And our parents would be 100% behind having a doctor in the family. They’d move heaven and earth to help us fulfill our dream.

Carolyn can’t even tell her dad she wants to be a doctor. The most she risks telling him is that she wants to go to college. Just stop here a moment and picture that. Imagine having a parent with the power to keep you home, one who may destroy your dream in a heartbeat, just because he may decide your only possible use as a human being will be as an incubator. Continue reading “(Repost) “My Future Had Just Vanished” – Escape Chapter 7: Marriage”

(Repost) “My Future Had Just Vanished” – Escape Chapter 7: Marriage

The Geology of Fireworks

America is about to blow up a bunch of stuff for its 240th birthday. I love it! Who doesn’t love fireworks? Well, aside from animals like my childhood dog, who invariably hid under the bed in cowering terror. And people who have had enough of explosions to last them a lifetime. People who are triggered or kept awake by loud bangs. People who are phobic about fire. All right, so there’s a long list of people and other animals who don’t like fireworks. But hopefully, even if you can’t stand ’em, you’ll be able to enjoy the geology, chemistry, and physics of them. Continue reading “The Geology of Fireworks”

The Geology of Fireworks