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Hello. This is a special guest post from Patrick the Nowhere Man. While exploring the wonders of the American countryside, I wandered into a magical place in Petersburg, Kentucky, known as the Creation Museum. The Czech requested a firsthand account, via photo blog, of my experiences there, so here it is.
This is what confronts you upon entering the Creation Museum, post ticket purchase. You see a young woman dressed in simple clothes… right next to a dinosaur. No conflict, just peaceful cohabitation, as was originally intended in God’s plan. Opposite this life-sized display is a movie theater, complete with three large screens and little things to spray water on the viewers, and the single video shown there playfully conjures up stereotypes of high school science teachers to illustrate that scientific theory of evolution and the explanation of the universe developing over a period of 12-15 billion years are wrought with fallacies. The video informs the viewer that unquestioning faith in Biblical history provides a more accurate picture of the universe. This is known as Young-Earth Creationism, which claims the universe began in 4004 BC.
This display looks impressive as is, but what’s missing from my photo is the life-size dinosaur looming just behind Adam. Eve is nonplussed by this in her wonderment at her sudden creation and the first sight of her husband. The museum asserts that humanity began with just these two people. Later, a display asks what is already on everyone’s mind: “What about incest? Who did Cain marry?” The plaque answers that incest at that time was not against God’s will – it was only later that he instituted that law. Thank you Bible science!
This appears fairly early in the museum. It is located in a room that contains several videos of young people in difficult situations. In one, a young woman calls a pregnancy hotline because she is debating an abortion. In another, a teenage boy appears to be viewing internet porn and rolling a joint against the wishes of a friend. No commentary for these videos was provided, but the comments from a group of young boys watching the latter video were interesting enough. The boys were dragged to the museum against their will, as many child museum-goers are, and they used several homophobic and similarly offensive terms to describe the on-screen males.
An exhibit near the end of the museum was dedicated specifically to dinosaurs. It asked, “Did humans and dinosaurs coexist at the same time?” The display indicated the answer is clearly described in the Bible: humans and animals were created on the same day, therefore yes. This picture shows additional proof. My favorite evidence is that medieval stories of dragons, such as the story of St. George, are really stories about the last few remaining dinosaurs. A ten-minute video clarified this in greater detail. The other three items of evidence are, on closer inspection, essentially pseudoscience or just invalid, such as that alligators are simply “modern day dinosaurs.”
Based on the smirks and giggles, I suspect that I was not the only non-believer in the museum. This picture, in front of an actual museum placard, accurately depicts just how affected I was by my Creation Museum visit. I can only wonder if my surprisingly numerous fellow attendees responded like me or if they are true believers.
The words of God do not justify cruelty to women
“Discrimination and abuse wrongly backed by doctrine are damaging society, argues the former US president”
Yay! From the Examiner:
Activists and family supporters cheered the July 17 verdict in the trial of Dwight DeLee, accused of murdering Lateisha Green, a 22-year-old African American trans woman of Syracuse, New York.
DeLee was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime in Green’s murder. Although Green was transgendered (born male with a female gender identity), the hate-crimes finding was based on anti-gay bias, indicating the DeLee saw Green as a gay man. New York has no hate-crimes statute that covers gender identity or transgender status.
See the Trans Legal Defense and Education Fund press release.
The Justice for Teish Facebook page.
See the kinda weird AP article.
The news that 65 black and hispanic youth campers were denied entrance to Valley Club’s pool, which is used by whites, even though they had already paid for membership, has spread quite a bit already.
H/t Feministe
I have only two things to add.
First, if you read the story, it seems pretty cut and dried. The Club sold the camp memberships unaware that they were for (gasp!) black children (the horror!), the Club quickly realized upon the children’s first vist that they were black (and hispanic), and the Club revoked their membership.
Then add this:
“When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool,” Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. “The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately.”
And this:
“There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club,” John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.
And this:
“I heard this lady, she was like, ‘Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?’ She’s like, ‘I’m scared they might do something to my child,’” said camper Dymire Baylor.
And the Valley Club website, which used to be here but seems to have been removed in the last couple days, previously showed a variety of photos of happy white people and white children enjoying the Club’s facilities, including the swimming pool. I was unable to find a single person of color in any photo.
Racism, right?
Well, over at NBC they aren’t so sure. They inserted this statement into their story on the matter: “Campers remain unsure why they’re no longer welcome.”
What The Hell. Is it too political to name racism when it is found? Using even the most basic and simplistic definition of racism, this incident would still fit the term. The children were denied entrance because of their race. Racism. How could that possibly be so controversial that NBC wouldn’t even feel comfortable printing the word? Oh, because some whites may be offended. Well excuse me.
So there’s that. And then there’s how you can take action. You can sign the petition at Color of Change! Or write your own note and send it to P.O. Box 134, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 or info@thevalleyclub.com.
Tell ‘em what’s UP. Without making threats or terroristic statements. Duh.
It’s been known for a couple years now that in Miami, laws regarding the residence of released sex offenders are so restrictive that there is literally nowhere legal for them to live. So it has become de facto policy in Miami-Dade County to tell the released sex offenders to live under a bridge.
The sex offenders committed a crime, in most cases a despicable one, that violated the bodily autonomy and rights of another person (or several).
The communities reaction should not be to further violate the perpetrator’s rights after they have done their time. That doesn’t make a right.
But what do you do when the whole community supports the violation of a basic right for a whole group of people?
“These laws are always universally popular,” [Corey Rayburn Yung, an expert in sex-offender law] said. “The public loves it.” (From the NYT)
I’ll tell you what. Forcing a group of people who are in recovery from a terrible behavioral problem into homelessness is not a solution here. This is not the American Way, this is not lawful, this is not moral, and it is not right.
Law-breakers who are released from prison must be reintegrated into society. Period. Continuing their punishment by denying them a basic human right and necessity takes us in the opposite direction from healthy reintegration. Someone who is put into a pariah state in this way has little incentive to remain law-abiding. I doubt creating a tent criminal colony on the edge of town is actually a proven and effective way of preventing crime. Just a guess.
So Miami, cut it out. I’m sure you feel smug and morally superior because of the out-sized extra post-prison punishment you put on your sex offenders. But a rights violation for a rights violation does not set the moral order back in balance.
Last Thursday, at a licensing rules hearing for Nebraska psychologists, the topic of debate between the Nebraska Psychology Association and the Nebraska Catholic Conference was a “convictions of conscience” rule that would allow psychologists (and possibly counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists) to “refuse to treat — and refuse to refer clients — because of religious or moral convictions.”
At Amplify via Evil Slutopia
Nebraska, we need to have a talk. For starters, WTF!!?? Why is the Nebraska Catholic Conference even attending Nebraska Psychology Association hearings? I don’t recall them being a medical organization or an authority on the field of psychology.
And also, where will this “conscientious clause” stuff stop? I don’t normally head down the slippery slopes, but come on, at this point we’re getting a little crazy. First some doctors don’t want to perform the medical procedure known as abortion. Ok, fine, give them a choice to opt out. Then religious hospitals don’t want abortions occurring anywhere in their facilities, even when medically necessary… getting away from the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath there. Then some pharmacies don’t want to carry emergency contraception, because they misunderstand the science behind it and consider it abortion. Uh, we tried to compromise on that one, but they weren’t hearing it. Problematic. Then certain pharmacists didn’t want to dispense ANY contraception because they decided it was all immoral/secretly abortifacient. Here we are fully detached from reality, and now the somewhat kooky “morality” of certain pharmacists may be codified to trump the morality of patients in every case. Flat out objectionable.
We move from these mounting “conscientious objections” that just so happen to only effect sexually active women (how random and coincidental!) to Bush’s move to allow any person, even remotely involved in healthcare, to refuse to treat and refuse to refer any patient for any reason so long as that reason is based in religious belief. Of course, women and queers were the intended victims of this creepy bit of federal rule-making. Obama did away with this rule.
But this is all why I’m freaking out and thinking that maybe this time we ARE headed down that slope.
Because now, it seems, Nebraska Catholic leaders would like to extend the creeping fog of healthcare refusals to psychologists and possibly other types of counselors. Awesome… they must be thinking, “Guys, I’ve got a great idea. Let’s create a rule, you see, so that when people are seeking mental healthcare services, if their concerns have anything, you know, to do with female ‘troubles’ or homosexuality, the practitioner can legally discriminate against them. To protect the psychologists’ conscience and save them from going to hell for helping out a fellow human being. It’ll be great! That’ll learn those harlots and homos! What’d ya say?”
Not cool. Nebraska, you gotta do the right thing here. At this point, the matter is merely up for discussion. But your Catholic Conference would like to actually change the psychologists’ code of ethics to perversely make it “ethical” to discriminate in this way.
It’s got to stop. Now.
Consider yourself warned.
From the Seattle Times: Judges strike broad ban on Wash. Plan B rules . Holla! An injunction against a Washington Pharmacy Board regulation mandating that all pharmacies dispense Plan B has been overturned. Yay. This is, of course, only a battle in the larger war for Plan B access. H/t Chloë.
Via Bilerico, I learned of Gena Edvalson, a mother in Utah who has been denied visitation rights to her child because she was the non-bio lesbian mother. The biological mother, Jana Dickson, broke up with Gena, married a man, and decided she was going to use homophobic laws and judges to prevent Gena from seeing her child again. FUCKED UP. Read the story at the link.
Here’s some reading for ya!
BBC: Saddam’s rule ‘better’ for gay Iraqis
All the LGBT Iraqis interviewed for Gay Life After Saddam maintained that life was easier for them when Saddam Hussein was in power, from 1979 to 2003.
Some spoke fondly of an underground gay culture that flourished before the war in Baghdad.
Seattle Times: Israel deports activists detained going to Gaza
Israel on Monday deported a former U.S. congresswoman, a Nobel peace prize laureate and other activists who were arrested and jailed after trying to break the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli navy commandeered their boat last week as it tried to sail from Cyprus to Gaza.
…There were 21 passengers and three tons of medical aid on board, and most of the activists were quickly expelled. But Nobel laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire and former U.S. congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, along with six other activists, remained in Israeli custody while the government arranged flights for them…
BBC: Egypt mourns ‘headscarf martyr’
Marwa Sherbini, 31, was stabbed 18 times by Axel W, who is now under arrest in Dresden for suspected murder.
…Ms Sherbini had sued her killer after he called her a “terrorist” because of her headscarf.
…Medics were unable to save Ms Sherbini who was three months pregnant with her second child.
More on death in US immigration detention. New York Times: Piecing Together an Immigrant’s Life the U.S. Refused to See
Tanveer Ahmad, it turns out, was a longtime New York City cabdriver who had paid thousands of dollars in taxes and immigration application fees… His only trouble with the law was a $200 fine for disorderly conduct in 1997: While working at a Houston gas station, he had displayed the business’s unlicensed gun to stop a robbery.
It would come back to haunt him.
And now, a Day Brightener after all this shitty news:
What, NO TIME!? Yes, it is true. It all went down at the University of Vermont in Burlington.
Prosecutors said [Christopher] Duncan, head of the Lambda Iota fraternity during the 2006-2007 school year, allowed drugs, drug paraphernalia and money to be stored in a safe in his fraternity house bedroom, helped broker drug deals and drove to Connecticut to buy cocaine later sold by Duncan and co-defendant Bent Cardan.
…U.S. District Judge William Sessions III said a prison term wasn’t appropriate…
The judge called him “stupid”, “naive and a bit player”.
WHAT!?
From the University of Vermont student newspaper
Duncan told police that he “estimated the total he sold for Cardan between February and April 2007 was 8 to 10 ounces,” according to the affidavit. That is equal to approximately $16,000.00 at the price he was selling at.
Bit player indeed. How much time do you think he would do if he were poor and black or Latino?
The blog World Class Stupid frames it nicely:
One day our court system will realize that rich white college students are just as smart as poor black high-school dropouts.
Do you think Duncan’s status as a fraternity president, as the son of an attorney, as a suburban white kid, had any effect on the incredible leniency shown to him after months of using his frat house as the center of a coke ring?
There are no pics of Duncan online, but here is a photo of Lambda Iota.
When I saw that headline the other day, I thought, ethno-centeredly: oh, that must be a story from Saudi Arabia, or Uganda, you know, one of those countries.
Of course, reality quickly slapped me in the face as I realized that no, this human rights violation was happening in my own country.
Dan Choi stood trial this week before a military panel for the offense of being a gay person. The Arabic translator and Iraq War veteran already knew his fate, as he had publicly announced his sexual orientation in protest of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
“It’s an immoral code that goes against every single thing we were ever taught at West Point with our honour code,” he said, adding that it amounted to firing him “for nothing more than telling the truth about who I am”.
Fortunately, Dan has one of the most renowned human rights advocates on his side. Tila Tequila. Tila says, “Dan Choi is considered a hero to many of us in the human rights movement.” Well, I sure am proud to be part of your movement, Miss Tequila.
Yay! Great news. Read about it here.
How did it get banned in the first place?
Homosexuality has been illegal in India since 1860 under a statute introduced by British colonial rulers that banned “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.” Conviction carried a fine and maximum 10-year jail sentence.
That begs the question whether gay sex would ever have been illegal if homophobic British colonists hadn’t decided the matter for India.
But yay, now those days are past!
“We are all very thrilled and happy,” said Anjali Gopalan, executive director of the Naz Foundation, a gay advocacy group that had petitioned the court to overturn the statute.
“This is just the beginning. The battle will continue till every member of this community gets all the rights that an ordinary citizen has,” Gopalan told reporters.
I’m glad to see that gay Indians have such a great advocate in their community. Learn more about the Naz Foundation.
For those of you not familiar with the terms “cisgender” or “cissexual”, here is a reference.
Check out this post at Questioning Transphobia. The post addresses a piece written by a cisgendered gay man who claims the term cisgender (i.e. non-trans) is offensive. A popular blog that I usually enjoy, Pam’s House Blend, has decided to bow to these claims and ban the words cisgender and cissexual, as well as any comment that supports their use.
Cis is not an offensive prefix, nor an insult.
There is a subset of white, well-off gay men who want the LGBT movement to reflect their needs and desires, their rage at being one privilege short of absolute privilege, and who despise the fact that the LGBT movement wants them to make space for the different needs of trans folks, bisexuals, gay men of color, poor gay men, lesbians, and other queers. They don’t want to be saddled by the greater struggles these other groups face. They want to leap that one hurdle that separates them from joining the most privileged group in the world, and the rest of us hold them back. So a small group of white gay men are pushing back against inclusiveness, against the idea of having our own house in order, and against trans respect and equality.
I know most of you gay white men out there are not like this. Those who are, are not part of my community.
Thanks to Shagufta Pasta at Terry* for this rad post: Telling Other People Exactly what You Think: A Tip Sheet to Make Your Online Commentary Really Count.
It’s about the recent discussions surrounding French President Sarkozy’s call to “eliminate the burqa”.
A quote:
These are scary times. Without asking your permission, Muslims are daring to write articles, create films, develop radio programs, and produce art that unabashedly celebrates the complex and textured role Islam plays in their lives. They say Islamic feminism is alive and well; that they’re perfectly capable of saving themselves thank you very much, that they aren’t a monolithic lot, and their identity as Muslims isn’t their only influencer. Concerned? Enjoy the tip sheet below and tell those people exactly what you think. After all, who needs thoughtful, community building dialogue anyway?
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