“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all white men were created equal then some of them got land because we they are so fucking awesome and as such are obviously now superior and should run everything and not have to listen to anyone else, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are holding their opinion equal to or superior to anyone else’s expertise, taking up as much space as possible on park benches or public conveyances…”
The US Declaration of Independence, first draft (probably)
OMG you make a variation of this argument on every similar topic.
The difference is easy to tell: is the symbol/message punching up or punching down? If punching up, it is not political, it is basic survival and representation. If punching down, it’s a political dick move by crybabies. Please understand the difference. It is not hard.
Human rights. People being able to live as they wish, marry who they wish, live their lives as they wish, should not be political that some bigots can vote away on a fucking whim. It should be a basic human right that we all acknowledge. Period. End of story.
He is in a party that is on a near genocidal warpath against the LGBQT+ community. So no. He is not. He’s a bigoted piece of shit.
Which is pure, unfettered bullshit, since there are plenty of religious groups who are pro-LGBQT+.
Much the same in Australia. My wife grew up poor here, and was grateful for school uniforms. She shudders at the thought of how much worse high school would’ve been if she was even more visibly poor.
It pretty much is. This is a public school so they need a policy, and…
and yeah, that’s not what a policy looks like. You may feel that way but others disagree with you. A school official can’t prove what’s the real meaning behind gay pride, straight pride, or any other messages like that. What about Muslim pride? Israeli pride? Christian pride? People could have strong disagreements about what those really mean, depending on context, the person wearing it, on and on… and school officials have no way of sorting this out in a fair, impartial way.
The ACLU has a convenient page on this. They can prohibit all messages, or they can allow all, unless the message is “disruptive”. They don’t give a clear definition of “disruptive” but “messages I strongly disagree with” certainly isn’t it. They specifically give an example that a school can’t selectively ban LGBTQ messages, or NRA messages.
Public schools, the first amendment means school officials don’t get to be selective about what students are expressing.
Any policy that abridges people’s rights should not be legal. Period. End of subject. This is not difficult. Human rights apply to all people every where, and are something that others can abridge or vote away.
If someone can tell you what to do in your personal life, that’s not a free country.
You ARE aware that people can and should be able to express their faith, as long as it doesn’t abridge on the rights of others, right? So - wearing a cross, star of david, hijab, fine - a shirt that attacks others, not fine. White supremacists symbols, for example attacks others, because white people in America have enjoyed centuries of white supremacists rule and privileges. Black power, by way of contrast, is an expression of people who have literally been enslaved and still suffer under a system that treats them as less than human. So, very different things.
This isn’t difficult. It’s as basic as the golden rule.
It wouldn’t even be political in the first place if one political party did not make it their defining mission to deny the LGBTQIA+ Community their basic human rights. FFS
I think it’s political either way; it’s just that some political things are good or neutral (like Pride flags) , while others are bad (like bigotry). We can’t escape politics as long as we live as part of a society anyway.
Forced expression is still expression. It just values the government’s expression over yours.
And LGBT pride isn’t advocating the elimination of and disenfranchisement of straight people- which is happening across the country right now for LGBT people.
That’s what I said in another comment. The school board is wrong because it wants to place a human and universal right as a particular political position. When I say that I am in favor of LGBTQ+ policies, I am referring to public policies that improve the lives of these people, such as combating homophobia.
Things like “these people should be allowed to exist” or “those people are equal to these people” are only political in the presence of arguments against them - in other words, Pride and BLM are only “political” in the presence of fascists. The problem isn’t the message, it’s the fascism. Schools should ban the fascism, not the message of Pride.
