Diana’s Little Corner in the Nutmeg State: A Slap In The Face

Sunday, July 07, 2013

A Slap In The Face

Last weekend’s San Francisco Pride for the first time had military recruiters at the pride.

Military recruiters to attend SF Pride for first time
SFGate
Posted By: Justin Berton
June 25, 2013

Organizers of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade throw a party where everyone is welcome.
Now, for the first time, military recruiters are joining the crowd.
The California National Guard will set up two recruiting booths at this weekend’s event, which organizers predict will draw 1 million people to the city.
The arrival of the uniformed recruiters marks the first time the U.S. military has officially participated in the city’s largest gay-rights celebration, and since the Obama administration repealed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in 2011.

However, when the Pride organizers were asked by trans-activists not to have military recruiters because trans-people still cannot serve in the military the organizers when ahead and allowed the recruiters.

The Transgender Law Center issued the following statement about SF Pride…

Transgender Law Center is disappointed in San Francisco Pride’s decision to welcome, for the first time ever, military recruiters to the city’s annual celebration. While great progress has been made for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, transgender people are still not permitted to serve openly in the military. Transgender people are routinely discharged from service simply for being their authentic selves. We simply cannot be silent when an avowedly discriminatory organization is invited to be a part of an event that is intended to be inclusive and celebratory of everyone in our community. Transgender Law Center is proud to regularly support many transgender veterans through our legal and advocacy work, and by working hard to ensure we all have fair access to quality health care, housing, and employment, and are able to live authentically, free from discrimination.

This comes on the heels of SLDN/OutServe firing of Allyson Robinrson as Executive Director. Ms. Robinson was asked for her resignation as a result most of the senior staff also resigned over her firing. It is not known what the SLDN/OutServe will do about trans-servemember exclusion from the military will they continue their policy of working towards trans inclusion? Or will they now work on other gay and lesbian issues in the military?

In allowing the military recruiters at SF Pride “Gay Inc.” once again thumbs their nose at the trans-community

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Quotes

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.

A right delayed is a right denied.Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
Martin Luther King Jr.

No one is born hating another person… People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Nelson Mandela

We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist
James Baldwin

There is a fine line between free speech and hate speech. Free speech encourages debate whereas hate speech incites violence.
Newton Lee

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.
Albert Einstein

"The point is that there are always obstacles, whether they seem insurmountable or merely bothersome. The question is not how difficult the path, but whether in your heart, you wish to undertake the journey."
Zandru's Forge

Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.
Mahatma Gandhi

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

You've Got To Be Carefully Taught
You've got to be taught
To hate
And fear
You've got to be taught
From year
To year
Its got to
Be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to
Be carefully
Taught
You've got to be taught
To be
Afraid
Of people
Who's eyes are oddly made
And people who's skin is a different shade

South Pacific
Songwriters: Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rogers

Sunday, July 07, 2013

A Slap In The Face

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