By: Deja Nicole Greenlaw*/TRT Columnist–
Congratulations to President Obama, a true American!
President Barack Obama has come out in support of same-sex marriage. This is wonderful news and it shows that the president is an honest man who did the right thing. Yes, he will lose some support from some of his backers, but he did what he knew was right and I applaud him for it. He will go down in history as the U.S. president who stood up for this long-awaited human right!
I love his comment about people fighting for their rights “from Selma to Stonewall.” This is true, as people in both of these historical incidents were standing up for themselves. They just couldn’t take it anymore and they demanded change. These were Americans fighting for their rights.
Evolution
Why did it take so long for a U.S. president to come out and do this? I heard Obama’s explanation of “evolving” to finally agree with this right, but why did it take so long? As in earlier history with any Americans fighting for their rights, there was always religious opposition trying to prevent other Americans from having rights. Why is that?
Religion, but nothing written by God
The religious folk will usually say that it’s God’s will or God’s law. They may quote passages from the Bible and claim that it’s God’s word. I’m not so convinced that the Bible is God’s word. I look at the Bible and I see entries by the Corinthians, the Romans, and Leviticus, etc., but I have yet to see a single entry written by God.
Men, not women, wrote the Bible
The reason is that God did not write the Bible. Man did. In reality, the Bible was written by men, not women, but men a couple of thousand years ago, yet many people take these words to be God’s words. I guess it’s just a matter of what you believe.
I recently saw a quote by former President Jimmy Carter who pointed out LGBT people have been around since the beginning of man, that they were definitely around during the time that Jesus lived. Carter also said that Jesus never said anything bad about LGBT folk. Really! If you take all of the quotes attributed to Jesus in his preaching you will find that not a single one said anything negative about gays, lesbians, bisexual, nor transgender people. Not a one! Now where did all of this anti-LGBT rhetoric come from? Could it be that these words and thoughts came not from God, but from man himself?
Misinterpreting the Bible is convenient for some
There are a number of religious folks who may say that these anti-LGBT words from the Bible are actually misinterpretations of what was really meant. But we all know that there are religious folks who strongly believe in these anti-LGBT sentiments.
Why would some people agree with negative things about LGBT people? Maybe they don’t like the LGBT community? Maybe they fear them? Maybe they want to control them? Maybe they believe that God says so?
Opposition = Religious people
I saw it for myself last year in the Connecticut Legislative Office building when we were fighting for our transgender rights. Who was our opposition? Who else? That’s right, the religious element!
History shows discrimination against many
In American history, there has always been religious opposition for rights for other Americans. Besides LGBT people, religion has been opposed to non-whites and women having rights. It’s rather sad, really, that people who view themselves as good and religious are actually trying to prevent other Americans from having rights. I don’t think they realize just how un-American they are.
Let’s face it, if you are against other Americans having rights, then you are un-American.
Once more, I applaud President Obama for doing the right thing in supporting same-sex in the U.S., for he is a true American.
*Deja Nicole Greenlaw is a local transwoman who has three grown children and works at a local Fortune 500 company. She can be contacted at dejavudeja@sbcglobal.net.
