Idiot Spreading Idiocy

I had a whole other post about stigma planned, but this really pissed me off. Now I am no fan of Donald Trump, and I have largely looked upon his campaign as entertainment, but the comments that were referred to in the article really got to me. To perpetuate the idea that mental illness is synonymous with violent crime is to perpetuate the stigma that affects those with mental illness. The truth of the matter is a large percentage of those living with mental illness are not violent. According to this article by the American Psychological Association most offenders with mental illness do not offend because of their mental illness.

Now one might try to argue that the simple fact of being homicidal is a mental illness, but that is not necessarily true. People who are completely sane commit murder on a regular basis. Lumping homicidal tendencies in with mental illness does a disservice to those with mental illness. Enforcing a stigma that all mentally ill people are murderers can make it so millions of people don’t get the help they need. This line of thinking that mental illness somehow makes you dangerous is archaic, we’re in the year 2015, and we have made advancements in psychology, and psychiatry. We have a better understanding of mental illness and the people that are afflicted with it. The time for mass generalizations, and archaic assumptions is over.

The shooting of the two journalists in Virginia is a tragedy, and yes the person responsible for that crime may have suffered from a mental illness, but that doesn’t mean that all people with mental illnesses are dangerous. I mean just because some men are tall, and some men are doctors, doesn’t make all doctors tall. If I am to listen to Donald Trump every person with a mental illness should be institutionalized, and my dear readers we know that’s not true. We know that most people with a mental illness are high functioning, can hold down jobs, relationships, and are productive members of society. So let’s stand tall against the stigma, and show that living with a mental illness doesn’t make you dangerous, it merely makes you human.

Dear Gay People

Dear Gay People,

To my people I stand before you with a message: Stop asking Christians to make your shit. Stop asking them to make your cakes, host your weddings, or do anything for you. Let them be bigoted, and unhappy off in their little Christian corners, and we can be happy in the rest of the world. Now I am probably in the minority here, but I would rather someone put a sign on their front window that says “No Gays Allowed” than frequent an establishment of someone who doesn’t want me there.

Now you may think that this is wrong to say and that I am discouraging equal rights, no I want equal rights, but I also think that I want to know when someone doesn’t want me in their establishment. I also don’t want to give my money to someone who could potentially use it to further their bigotry. In a perfect world I wouldn’t need the Supreme Court to tell me it’s okay to get married or laws protecting me from getting fired from my job just because of who I fall in love with. In a perfect world Christians would see that Jesus would love all people and would jumping up and down to embrace the LGBT community. This however this is not a perfect world, we did need the Supreme Court in order to get married, and we do need laws so we don’t get fired from our jobs because of who we love.

I know that some of us may want to fly our flags, and proudly chant “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” but the reality of the situation is no matter how loudly we chant, no matter how many laws we pass, no matter how many Supreme Court rulings we get a large majority of Christians are never going to accept us. I mean even with the Supreme Court ruling we can’t even get them to hand us a piece of paper, and if we can’t ask them as civil servants to hand you a piece of paper across a desk how we can ask them to bake a cake? Now I’m not taking their side in all of this, I’m just looking at this situation rationally. A leopard can’t change its spots. These people have been indoctrinated their entire lives to believe something is wrong, a law, a ruling, or a court order isn’t likely to change their minds so we are essentially in a staring contest where no one’s going to blink. So why not let them go off to their own little corner and let them hate us. We can flock to Bakers, florist, or hardware stores that actually want us there.

Just as an establishment may decide to hang a rainbow flag in their window to show that they are at LGBT friendly let the Christians find their own symbol to hang in their windows to show they are just the opposite, call it freedom of religion or expression. Let them lose the business of us and our allies, let their little symbol become a symbol of hate, of bigotry. Let this theoretical symbol come to stand for a person who doesn’t understand something as simple as love, and the fact that you don’t get to choose who you love. Whether this symbol will be a flag or a simple sign that says “no gays allowed” it will come to stand for ignorance, it will come to stand for hatred. So let them stand out in a crowd as ignorant, as “haters”, and as the misinformed.

                                                                                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                                                      Raven

A Grain of Salt

Take everything I say with a grain of salt, because they are just my opinions. Sometimes they are informed well researched opinions, and sometimes they are just wild off the top of my head opinions. Just remember that they are only the opinions of a 34 year old lesbian pagan who fancies herself a writer, and has a lot of free time on her hands.