and the hate parade marches on...

I've been following the ENDA debate for a while now, and getting the thoughts of all sides has been an interesting experience. However, I am constantly dissapointed and shocked by the large number of self-proclaimed christian organizations which have been so aggressively and openly against the bill. The reasoning they give, that this would somehow give trans or gay people "special priviledges" -- as if the right to work, to make a living despite people's predetermined hatred for something you are, was some sort of privilege that the rest of us don't already have and experience as an inalienable right. As if they don't claim that privilege every day of their lives. As if they don't seek to claim it again, doubly for themselves and none for the LGBT community as it were, when they oppose ENDA as somehow burdening their "religious freedom" in employment practices. I've yet to hear how an employer's discomfort with the sexual orientation or gender expression of an employee might burden the employer's free exercise of religion, and maybe someone can explain that to my satisfaction but somehow I doubt it.

The sad fact is, this isn't at all an issue of freedom of religion. Its about freedom to discriminate, and to pretend otherwise is nonsense. The part that really turns my stomach though, is the way Christianity, supposedly a religion of love, is used to justify and validate this unconscionable hate-mongering. I am not personally a Christian, but there are elements of Christianity that I genuinely respect. I don't think intolerance was something Jesus preached, but hey, what do I know?