Your Bigotry Is Showing, Salt Lake City

Boy am I glad I have the Mormon Church screening prime-time tv for me. Otherwise, I might think gay people were "OK" or "normal."

It has been reported that the LDS Church-owned KSL-TV (NBC affiliate) in Salt Lake City will not be airing NBC''s new sitcom, The New Normal this fall because the management found it unsuitable for family entertainment. Well, for whose family? And who are they to make that determination?

We have a whole federal agency assigned to rate and label shows to let viewers know what to expect. We don't need the owners of stations deciding what is suitable for us, do we?

The show is about a gay couple in LA who are using a surrogate to have a child. And the LDS Church-owned station KSL-TV thinks this is not OK for families to see.

I haven't seen the show. And since I live in Utah, I guess I won' get to. Because, you know, as a grown woman with a bachelor's and a law degree, I'm not capable of making that determination for myself.

Will & Grace was OK with KSL-TV, and anyone who saw it knows it was rife with sexual inuendo. My parents even commented at times that it was "raunchy" because of the lines Karen had. But both Jack and Will were mostly "safe" gays. They were single, alone, funny, and asexual. I'm guessing Mr. and Mr. Normal are going to have a NORMAL relationship. And that includes S - E - X.

I live here, and I have no particular problem with Mormons or any other person of any other faith so long as it is not being imposed on me.  In fact, when a recent incident occurred in Provo (a Dept of Transportation construction sign was altered to say "God Hates Gays) I did not make a stink or write a blog because there are idiots everywhere. I wrote an email to the state DOT about it and got a really nice response apologizing, explaining that the workers forgot to secure the sign and it was altered during the night, letting me know it was removed, and assuring me a police report was filed. I knew it would be handled that way. People here in Utah, as a rule, are respectful, kind, honest and caring, in part because of their faith. But what KSL-TV is doing is the very definition of imposition.

Younger Mormons (and that includes some my age, too) are not as homophobic as the church leadership and some have expressed to me their embarrassment and/or confusion at the LDS Church's leadership's attitude towards gay people. There's even a gay student club at BYU (the club is "active" but the students, not so much). So, I expect the passing of time will bring change. But spending $20 million in California to make sure gay people cannot get married is more than a passing interest. It's a campaign. This censorship is another part of that campaign.

I grew up in the south attending a pentecostal church. Although it was before my time, white southern churches were pretty notorious for advocating segregation, a shameful mark against them looking back. The racists endorsing segregation were not afraid of black people. They were afraid that black people being elevated to equality would diminish them, remove their position of authority.

Likewise, it's not that the KSL guys (and the LDS church leadership) fear gay people, per se. They fear that society will start to view gay as "OK" or "normal," and as that happens, their position as a moral authority will be diminished.

Ironically, the thing that diminishes the moral authority of a church is not the embracing of those who are different by society, but the exclusion and demeaning of them by that church. You'd think, after so many lessons from history, these guys could Get Above Their Raisin' and actually be moral leaders instead of the guardians of bigotry.

Legitimate Apes

I wish I could accuse Rep. Akin of being "fringey" or out of step. But he's not. America and the Republican Party are full of people who "believe" the same way he does. They do not "think" the same way, because there is little or no "thinking" involved. Thinking requires use of a muscle that is sadly atrophied in this link in human evolution.

And then there's Rep. Akin's spiritual brother in Idaho, state Rep. Winder, who thinks women just aren't sure if they know when they are raped. And, he's got a bill that will apparently take care of that by forcing women who choose to have a legal abortion to undergo not ONE but TWO medically unnecessary ultrasounds.

I can't ID all the individuals. Let's cut to it: The GOP platform opposes abortion in every case, with no exceptions. It'll be voted on in a few days and it'll pass. It has every year since at least 1976.

Don't act shocked at their lack of information. They are not interested in information, especially information about (A) sex and/or (B) women. Science is a threat to their faith and sex is a dirty thing that slutty women tempt men with to steal their souls. (Until they get married, then sex is their right as husbands.)

Pregnancy is what women deserve for having sex, which is convenient because that also means they can oppose any insurance coverage for birth control. To these neanderthals, women aren't allowed to have sex unless they are making children, and a woman exercising sexual freedom is more offensive than a Mapplethorpe photo expo.

Have you ever noticed that condoms can be bought over the counter, but there is not one form of female birth control that is available without a prescription? Not one.

Their attitude toward women is steeped in the objectification and hatred of women that is more cultural than theological, but it is justified by scripture. Since those bearded guys put quill to paper and decided to blame the fall of man on that amoral sex-kitten Eve, it has been this way. Women are talked about and subjected to male authority as if they are morally weak, untrustworthy temptresses that are determined to ruin well-meaning men who are just trying to get through the day without slipping and having their sacred penises accidentally fall into some cleverly positioned whores.

When one of these low-brows gets married, his wife is elevated from slutty temptress to useful tool and vessel. She is sex, socks and succotash. A uterus (and a vagina) that does the laundry and cooks the food. "Thag hungry. Thag horny. Thag want sons." (No way these knuckle-draggers are getting Above their Raisin' in this lifetime.)

Am I being too personal in my criticism? Is name-calling childish? Maybe. But it's infuriating to be talked about like I'm not in the room by men who (1) are completely full of crap, (2) genuinely believe these idiotic, mythological things about lady-parts, and (3) are also convinced that they have the microphone in their hands (not a euphemism) because God put it there. They believe they have moral authority because God placed them in leadership.

If you are reading this and thinking that I've gone too far, ask yourself this: IF THESE MEN THINK THAT WOMEN ARE MORE THAN AMORAL, UNINTELLIGENT VESSELS FOR SEX AND BREEDING, THEN WHY CAN'T WE BE TRUSTED TO MAKE MEDICAL DECISIONS ABOUT OUR OWN BODIES?

If you are reading this and you (mostly) agree with me, then get out and vote in November, and show these Legitimate Apes where government authority comes from in a free democratic republic. It's not from God. It's from the majority.

In this country, that's a 51% majority of really pissed off sluts!

PS Based on comments, let me clarify that I do not think all Rupublican men are equal to these bafoons featured in this article. I assumed people would realize that.  Not everyone did. Nevertheless, a patriarchal policy that demeans women by controlling their bodies? Kinda cavemanish IMO.