All for one and one for all – fuck just being a feminist!

"Just Married" Flip Flops.  They belong on anyone's feet...
Image by Mensatic via morgueFile

I always call myself a feminist, and this is my crazy ass feminist blog, but sometimes we need to realize that there is more than just feminism.  Yes, there are problems that exist just for women, but there are plenty of other groups out there who suffer assumptions and assholes.  And apparently, Kansas has just enough assumptions and assholes to make it on my list of things that need a blog.

In Kansas, the House just passed HB2453, which “explicitly protects religious individuals, groups, and business that refuse service to same-sex couples, particularly those trying to tie the knot.”  (The bill now moves to the Senate…)

What the fuck, Kansas?  And what the fuck, America in general?

Where and when are we that we find it okay to make laws that specifically allow you to discriminate?  Jim Crow laws were wrong, and this is just a rehash of those!  What’s going to happen next?  I can say it’s just a slippery slope when I suggest that if this passes, next up will be laws required separate but equal drinking fountains, bathrooms, and schools, but we’ve done it before in our history, and while we claim to have learned from it, we sure aren’t treating everyone equally yet, so maybe it’s not that far-fetched.  Are we really living in a world that thinks it’s okay to take away rights from individuals?

To counter my own argument – people can and should have the right to refuse service to anyone.  If someone is rude, if someone is violent, if someone is just…well, you don’t like them!...you shouldn’t be forced to do business with them.  You can always take a job or not, based on your feelings.  Don’t agree with animal testing – that’s cool, don’t work for them.  Don’t like companies that use GMO – fine, don’t work for them either.  And feel free to refuse to purchase goods from those companies, too.  But when it comes down to stripping someone of their rights because you have passed judgment on them…that’s different.

You can’t refuse to serve someone in a wheelchair. You can’t refuse to serve someone who is a different race than you.  You can’t refuse to serve a women.  At least, you can’t refuse to serve them because of who they are.  That person in a wheelchair a total dick?  Don’t do business with him.  The person of another race calls you insulting names?  Fine, don’t do business with them, either.  The women throws something at you? Well, call the cops and then refuse to do business with her.  But you can’t say, “You’re a woman – no business for you!”

Why, then, is it okay to do that to a same-sex couple? 

Time for a radical thought.  Are you ready?

We’re all equals when it comes to protection under the law.

Notice I didn’t say we’re all the same or all equal in every way. Because, let’s face it, we’re not.  I can’t play basketball, no matter how much I’d like to.  I will probably never be a race car driver.  I may not turn out to be a bouncer at a bar.  Chances are good that I won’t make a new scientific discovery.  But that’s okay.  I don’t have to do or be any of those things to still be me and to still be considered a full individual who is protected by, instead of restricted by, laws. 

If this bill passes the Senate in Kansas, I think I may have to just go open up a business and then try to pass a new law – one that allows me to refuse service to all the assholes who voted for this one.