Queer Baiting

Let's all go Bill Fristing down memory lane. For the next three weeks, while our democracy is challenged from all sides and both borders, our eminent Senator/Doctor has determined the schedule for topics of debate in the Senate; a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a bill, approved by the ruthlessly ambitious Hillary Clinton, criminalizing flag burning, and the repeal of the estate tax, also known in the Orwellian world of Karl Rove as the "death tax." Does Frist know how to do the bidding of his masters, or what? If this guy thinks he's going to be President, he is even more deluded than I imagined.

Frist has not only been a failure as an effective representative, he has failed himself as a human being. As a surgeon, Frist took the Hippocratic Oath, "First, Do No Harm." As a Senator, he took the Hypocrite's Oath, "First, do no harm to conservative, wealthy Republicans." Here is a scion from a family who's fortune comes from the broken and derelict health management industry, who gave up a career as a healer to become one of the most mean-spirited, lock-step lackeys in government. He was, and is, a political novice who never held elected office, spending millions in both personal and public dollars to win a Senate seat from a conscientious legislator like Jim Sasser to fuel his misguided fantasy of being President of the United States. It will never happen.

The utter collapse of the "gay marriage amendment" should be an embarrassment for conservatives enlightened enough to tell when they are being used like a strap-on, yet Frist promises to bring the issue back up in a matter of months. It's ironic that this hate screed against homosexuality is called, "energizing your base," but let's be honest. Homosexuality is the tip of the iceberg for this gang of moral absolutists. It is sexuality itself that makes them uneasy. The "faith-based conservatives" are opposed to any sort of sexuality beyond the bonds of matrimony, and even then, the preferred manner is under the covers and in the dark and never in an upright position, lest they be accused of dancing. There is even a lunatic fringe that believe a "homonucleus" exists in every sperm cell. Is it that far of a stretch to imagine an attempt to pass a bill criminalizing Onanism? After all, if a little man lives in each sperm cell, then masturbation must surely lead to serial murder.

And this Doctor, like Mengele, will do anything to further his party's cause, even if it means misdiagnosing a brain dead woman by videotape as a viable member of society. This man of medicine was one of the architects of the pharmaceutical friendly Plan B for Medicare. Yet he doesn't want the Plan B contraceptive to be readily available for women, even though the FDA finds no reason why it should not. Nor does he favor sex education, legal and safe abortion procedures, universal health care, or same sex partnerships, even though the retiring Archbishop of Chicago said he could "live with the concept of civil unions." In this devastating age of AIDS, wouldn't you expect a doctor to see the value of committed relationships to our society regardless of the genders involved? But Frist prefers the "slippery slope" argument that gay and lesbian unions will naturally lead to inter-species unions.

So let's stop playing semantics. Stop persecuting people for the way they were born into this world and we'll reach a compromise. Conservative Christians can call their bonds "marriage," and same gender partnerships can call their bonds "civil unions." It's not the label, but the bonds that matter. Grant the same rights to all and cease this cruel stigmatization of gays and lesbians as evil. The evil is in the persecution. I understand the biblical reference of man not "lying with a man as a woman." Does that mean lesbianism passes muster, or was that covered by something Saint Paul said to the Corinthians?

There are thousands of Holy Scriptures in this world. Hinduism teaches that every soul is bestowed with a spark of life by it's Creator that is the equal to every other soul. By persecuting someone for their transient sexual nature in this corporal realm is a sacrilege against one of the world's major faiths. To intentionally harm anyone is an affront to God. And need we be reminded of the words of two other world religions; "Love Ye One Another," and "Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself." The oldest faiths teach service to all mankind as akin to being service to God. This hysterical tormenting of individuals that mean no harm to you, or your marriage, is evil, plain and simple.

When Frist brings up the "death tax" he isn't talking about you. This is in the interests of families that have amassed great wealth and wish to pass it along to their heirs "en toto," without feeling a need to chop anyone's estate up to feed the needy. This only exacerbates the already disparate chasm between the rich and the poor, and leads to the sort of class society that brought about the French and British Revolutions. Don't be concerned. Frist and friends are ready to trickle down on you. As for Frist's bosses in the Party of Hate, this attempt to create discriminatory law is a violation of that oath that promises to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

I would suggest that Bill Frist forget about politics and return to the nobility of his former profession. I understand that he was an excellent surgeon. What a sin to trade healing men's hearts to hurting men's souls. And as for Frist's pandering to the evangelical Christian wing of the Republican party to curry favor for his intended run for the nation's highest office, he would do better to ask them to pray for his soul. In terms of Eastern religion, he has a lot of bad karma to resolve.