Pope Francis XVII
Amid the attacks on our community in 2023, we had to take what good we could find. But this coming year could change our world
With 2023 finally over, we can count on Congressional Republicans to be doing the important work of the American people. Ha! Just kidding! They are currently focused on … impeaching President Joe Biden based on zero evidence. All they actually have are conspiracy theories, wishful thinking and a desire to avenge Donald Trump’s TWO impeachments for very real and actual crimes.
There are certainly things not to like about Biden and his administration, but “I just don’t like the guy” isn’t a great basis for impeachment. It’s bullshit like this that drowns out legitimate concerns about Biden as president, which prevents any productive dialog about what the United States wants in a leader.
In other words: Same shit, different day!
Democrats have recently been taking to calling Republicans “unserious.” Granted, it’s largely true. Republicans have shown over and over again they aren’t interested in governing and DGAF about the vast majority of Americans. But I don’t think it’s the sick burn Democrats want it to be.
Because when it comes to the things that Republicans are serious about, they are very serious! I mean, maybe their nationwide crusade to ban books about racism and LGBTQ issues is some kind of big joke that
I’m just too dense to understand, but I don’t think so.
Same with their laser focus on dehumanizing transgender people, banning abortion, rolling back voting rights, advancing authoritarianism and making the rich richer.
If what Democrats mean is that Republicans are hateful creeps with fascist aspirations then they should say as much. “Unserious” just doesn’t convey how extreme and dangerous the Republican Party is right now.
In other news, Pope Francis XVII has given the go-ahead for priests to bless same-sex unions. That may sound like progress, but here’s the kicker: Those blessings are allowed “so long as the blessing does not resemble a wedding.” So, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, same-sex marriage is still a sin, but also priests should be nicer to same-sex couples.
It’s a lose-win, as they say.
According to the Associated Press, “[B]lessings in question must not be tied to any specific Catho-lic celebration or religious service” and “cannot use set rituals or even involve the clothing and ges-tures that belong in a wedding.”
The whole point, you see, is that “people seeking a transcendent relationship with God and looking for his love and mercy shouldn’t be held up to an impossible moral standard to receive it.”
I know that for some people this feels like progress, but really it just seems like we’re Pope-washing making LGBTQ people second-class citizens.
As the AP puts it, “The Vatican holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman. As a result, it has long opposed same-sex marriage and considers homosexual acts to be ‘intrinsically disordered.’ Nothing [has changed] that teaching.”
Still, in a year that has had a lot of bad LGBTQ news, I suppose we have to take what we can get. Especially since 2024 is a presidential election year, and you can bet your copy of Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer (which is a really good book, by the way, and is making conservative heads ex-plode all over the country. All the more reason to buy a copy) that
LGBTQ issues and people will be used extensively as political cannon fodder.
It’s time to put on your mental/emotional armor to protect yourself from the coming onslaught. Surround yourself with a healing ring of light, even if that means you have to take the string of lights off the Christmas tree as you put it away and wrap yourself in those. Whatever it takes to make it through.
We’re definitely at a precipice in American politics. What happens in 2024 could well define what happens for the rest of our lives should the Republican Party re-take the White House, win a ma-jority in the U.S. Senate and widen their majority in the House.
So no matter what, you have to get involved somehow. Whether that’s just voting (the bare mini-mum, but a very important thing!), donating to a candidate you believe in, volunteering for a cam-paign to make phone calls or knock on doors, organizing voters or all of the above, there is some-thing all of us can do to save democracy.
Granted the system we have is imperfect — very much so! — but Republicans aren’t proposing something better. They’re proposing that they get to throw away the rules and seize power. And that does not bode well for the future of LGBTQ+ people and allies in this country.
D’Anne Witkowski is a writer living in Michigan with her wife and son. She has been writing about LGBTQ+ politics for nearly two decades. Follow her on Twitter @MamaDWitkowski.
“No evidence”. I don’t know whether to laugh or kill myself. Leftist thinking is beyond repair. Do readers understand that you are paid to gaslight people?
The sad part, is that you probably believe your own delusions. By the way, everything the gay community might face in the coming year is their own damn fault. Instead of speaking out against insane ideology, you double down on it. Don’t be surprised when gay people are no longer allowed to work in any profession that might put them within 100 feet of a child. Pretty soon, public outrage will send us all back to the 1950s. You’ve been used as pawns in a socio-political agenda and are too stupid to figure it out. Anyone actually believing opinion pieces like this, gets what they deserve.
I’m just curious how D’Anne can defend a man who threatens other people’s jobs and careers for investigating his son.
Zero evidence. I’m curious, does the author believe that an illegitimate US president should have the mental capacity to read and understand and speak English? Because he doesn’t.
D’Anne, if any piece of writing could make me pray for an aneurysm, it’d be this one. This whole childish, narcissistic mentality is just so tiresome.