Finally... a Conservative Unitarian Universalist Member Blogging As You Asked! After so many years of singing around the campfire, the call has been answered!
Saturday, June 05, 2010
"I've got something to tell you"
UU parents- would you be understanding if these were your kids?
if my kid were a republican, fine, we'd talk about it. but the commercial is problematic b/c it subtly reinforces the idea that being gay, bi, lesbian, trans is a choice--just like being a republican. It just ain't so and I don't like the coopting of "coming out" that is yet another way of belittling it.
If they're along the lines of David Brooks or William Weld, I'm sure we'd be agreeing more than disagreeing. It's the Two Pats (Robertson and Buchanan) I'd worry about.
As for the "I'm always going to be that way..." Wait ten, fifteen, twenty years. Voice of experience, your political beliefs can and do change over time.
Party platforms are too often made by interest groups with sufficient numbers or clout pushing various planks into place, even when they contradict one another.
I'd tell my kids: "Whatever political group you sign up with, remember that you are not their property. You are a stakeholder, and your most important contribution is neither money nor volunteer labor. It's your conscience, ideas and voice. And if those are no longer appreciated or wanted, then they no longer deserve anything you have to offer."
What CC said. "Republican" in itself has very little meaning.
Are you a Lincoln Republican? An Eisenhower Republican? A Pat Buchanan Republican? An Ann Coulter Republican? A Rush Limbaugh Republican?
Can't respond, because the question--and video--is just bait.
But I'm with Anonymous. The "commercial" is wretched. It offers a deceptive head fake, setting the presumption that political outlook is all/mostly hardwired, like sexual orientation is. My sister was a Republican, and married a Limbaugh-listening Republican. She's not a Republican now, and while he remains more conservative than she is, the last time I got to chat with him, he was telling *me* about the need for a living wage and for universal health care in this country. I've no idea if he's still a registered Republican.
I don't care what label my kids choose. I care what they do, and why. I've told them both that once upon a time--back well before I was born--I might have been a Republican, and that two of their great-grandparents were... long enough to be mortified and ashamed of their association.
Now, if one of them told me that this was "just the way he was" and that he'd "always be this way," I'd laugh. I've seen lots of people change their views.
"if my kid were a republican, fine, we'd talk about it. but the commercial is problematic b/c it subtly reinforces the idea that being gay, bi, lesbian, trans is a choice--just like being a republican. It just ain't so and I don't like the coopting of "coming out" that is yet another way of belittling it"
I don't know if this ad belittles "coming out." I think the point is not that being gay, bi, lesbian, trans is a choice, but that being a republican is more than a choice. obviously one is more hardwired than the other, but your political and philosophical beliefs are certainly more deeply rooted and less capricious than mere "choice."
5 comments:
Have an awesome discussion, I assume. UUs generally like to debate things.
if my kid were a republican, fine, we'd talk about it.
but the commercial is problematic b/c it subtly reinforces the idea that being gay, bi, lesbian, trans is a choice--just like being a republican. It just ain't so and I don't like the coopting of "coming out" that is yet another way of belittling it.
I'd be asking: "What kind of Republican?"
If they're along the lines of David Brooks or William Weld, I'm sure we'd be agreeing more than disagreeing. It's the Two Pats (Robertson and Buchanan) I'd worry about.
As for the "I'm always going to be that way..." Wait ten, fifteen, twenty years. Voice of experience, your political beliefs can and do change over time.
Party platforms are too often made by interest groups with sufficient numbers or clout pushing various planks into place, even when they contradict one another.
I'd tell my kids: "Whatever political group you sign up with, remember that you are not their property. You are a stakeholder, and your most important contribution is neither money nor volunteer labor. It's your conscience, ideas and voice. And if those are no longer appreciated or wanted, then they no longer deserve anything you have to offer."
What CC said. "Republican" in itself has very little meaning.
Are you a Lincoln Republican? An Eisenhower Republican? A Pat Buchanan Republican? An Ann Coulter Republican? A Rush Limbaugh Republican?
Can't respond, because the question--and video--is just bait.
But I'm with Anonymous. The "commercial" is wretched. It offers a deceptive head fake, setting the presumption that political outlook is all/mostly hardwired, like sexual orientation is. My sister was a Republican, and married a Limbaugh-listening Republican. She's not a Republican now, and while he remains more conservative than she is, the last time I got to chat with him, he was telling *me* about the need for a living wage and for universal health care in this country. I've no idea if he's still a registered Republican.
I don't care what label my kids choose. I care what they do, and why. I've told them both that once upon a time--back well before I was born--I might have been a Republican, and that two of their great-grandparents were... long enough to be mortified and ashamed of their association.
Now, if one of them told me that this was "just the way he was" and that he'd "always be this way," I'd laugh. I've seen lots of people change their views.
"if my kid were a republican, fine, we'd talk about it.
but the commercial is problematic b/c it subtly reinforces the idea that being gay, bi, lesbian, trans is a choice--just like being a republican. It just ain't so and I don't like the coopting of "coming out" that is yet another way of belittling it"
I don't know if this ad belittles "coming out." I think the point is not that being gay, bi, lesbian, trans is a choice, but that being a republican is more than a choice. obviously one is more hardwired than the other, but your political and philosophical beliefs are certainly more deeply rooted and less capricious than mere "choice."
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