Black Oppression and the LGBTQ community.

Oppression towards a minority. Denied freedom and rights. "Unnatural, inhuman." 

Both things to describe the treatment of the African Americans for so many years, and things that describe the rising awareness and continuing disapproval of the LGBTQ community.

The actions that the powerful white man made out of fear resemble the actions that are taken against the LGBTQ community by the fearful heterosexual homophobic men and women of America, and the world. 

Denied rights to vote? Denied rights to marriage? How is it so hard to see that the mistakes we made before, are being made again, but to a different group of people? Even though both are in the past, the scars from those cuts remain and wait still to be fully healed. 

After years of discrimination and hate, we realized that the black community was as equal to all of the others. Did their skin determine who they where as a whole? No. We realized they were people too, and that they had always been. No man should should be ashamed of their skin colour. It seems so obvious now. But why isn't it just as obvious that a man who loves a man is still human, still equal? 

We're repeating the past. The mistakes we are making now are the same ones we're embarrassed about from back then. We're all human. Men, women, gay, straight, white, black... We're all equal.

The names we call them. The "n word" that is frowned upon now, is equivalent to calling someone a "faggot". It's unnacceptable.

It's inhumane.  

We are all people. We all rely on the same things to feel complete. Love and acceptance. Don't we all deserve it? 

If you don't approve of it, that's your respected opinion. But being civil isn't hard to do. When you have a coworker you don't agree with, you aren't openly rude to them. You should be kind and respectful always. 

The new law letting same sex couples marry each other is a leap in the right direction. We have made so many of those leaps for African American equality in the past and even currently. Let's continue leaping. 

"Just because a law has been passed doesn't mean the issue is settled. Let's face it, blacks were freed from slavery and granted full citizenship a long time ago, but did that end discrimination?"

                         -Ryan Trimble

The Heathen: After I Left

Heathen: a person who does not belong to a widely held religion- as regarded by those who do.

A derogatory term. A familiar one. 

I've previously talked about my experience and process of leaving the LDS church. Slow, as well as relieving. As if an unexplainable weight was lifted off of my back. No longer should I feel ashamed in Sunday School where I knew not who Moses was, or why Joseph Smith need have so many wives. These were things I did not understand like the others did. 

What seemed to be over, was really just the beginning. The beginning of self discovery as well as hope. And while these were all good things to look forward to, I was not so naïve as to forget the stress and judgment to come.

My parents have often said the reason they didn't leave the church earlier is because they feared of what it could mean for my sister and I. They thought that we would constantly be scrutinized by our peers, unaccepted. Social outcasts in the tightly knit religious community. And while that is not completely false, it is not the whole story.

I still have friends. Great ones. Ones that love and accept that of me. I have never been directly bullied about it. Regardless, I've seen my share of insults and disgust. The only one that has stuck with me was a friend of mine casually nick-naming me "heathen" and letting my know I would surely end up in hell fire. Which you'd think wouldn't hurt because I don't believe in a hell. But they did, and they were certain that was what would happen to me. Which pinched a little.

Nonetheless, most people really are amazing. While they do not agree with my beliefs, they generally respect them, and if not that, they just disregard them.

We all find comfort in believing in different things. Whether it's Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bahá'í Faith, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Slavic neopaganism, Celtic polytheism, Hellenism, or yes, Atheism, we are all just people searching for meaning in life. Not the meaning of  life. The meaning in it. 

"Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning."

-Joseph Campbell