Your Religion SUCKS!

Note: This was originally written in the aftermath of 9/11. I've updated it periodically over the years with relevant current events, but the basic messege below remains as pressing as ever.

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Don’t get me wrong… I’m all for religious diversity. The U.S. Constitution brilliantly gives all Americans the freedom to practice any religion we choose, while at the same time guaranteeing us the right to be free from religion if we desire. Religion can be a good thing if it leads you to benefit humanity with self-evident acts of love, courage, and justice. But if your religion leads you to evil – murder, hatred, divisiveness, discrimination – then your religion SUCKS! 

If your religion causes you to believe that you have a place reserved for you in heaven if you hijack a plane and fly it into a skyscraper, killing thousands of innocent people, then your religion SUCKS! 

If your religion issues a fatwa requiring all its followers to engage in a “holy war”, then your religion SUCKS! No war is holy. 

If your religion leads you to believe that “pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and the lesbians, and the ACLU” have made God angry and vengeful towards America, and thus are to blame for the bombing of the World Trade Center, as Christian clerics Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson decreed on national television after 9/11, then your religion not only SUCKS, it’s STUPID because it pits people AGAINST each other with bigotry instead of bringing them together in love! 

If your religion causes you to believe, each time you sing that god-damned song, that America is a nation favored by God, more blessed than any other country, then your religion SUCKS! God is not a nationalist. 

If your religion causes you to denigrate women in any way, whether by denying them the right to vote, forcing them to cover nearly every square inch of their bodies, making them walk 10 paces behind you, refusing to ordain them as priests, taking away their right to do as they choose with their own bodies, or believing it’s “God’s Plan” that a woman’s place is in the home, then your religion SUCKS! 

If you’re obsessed with controlling the behavior of people who don’t believe in your religion, your religion SUCKS! Focus on your own damn family! (One of my favorite bumper stickers: “If you don’t believe in abortion, don’t have one!”) 

If your religion teaches that the Bible is “God’s Word” and every word of it is literally true, then your religion is directly responsible for the person who reads Leviticus 20:10-16 and decides to go out and murder some faggots in Jesus’ name (which has happened again and again and again and again). And that makes your religion SUCK! 

Remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees: “Your religion SUCKS!” 

If your religion causes you to believe that two people of the same sex who love each other and want to commit their lives to each other should not have the same civil right to marry as you have, then your religion SUCKS! Jesus’ one and only commandment was to love one another, and God knows that ALL love is beautiful, good and holy. Not to mention that unequal treatment in the eyes of the law is morally wrong and violates the U. S. Constitution. 

And if you happen to be a U.S. Supreme Court nominee, if your religious beliefs prohibit you from reasonably interpreting the Constitution and applying the law equally and fairly to all citizens, your religion SUCKS and automatically disqualifies you for the job, not because of your religious beliefs per se, but because the effect they have on your ability to do the job.

People have been doing evil in the name of religion throughout history. Stop tolerating it! We’ve become too unwilling to criticize people’s religious beliefs, even when logic, reason and democracy demand that we must. People can be judged by their actions, and the role that religion plays in creating bigotry and divisiveness must be exposed and condemned. Don’t just “not say anything” out of political correctness when you hear people cloak their ignorance, bigotry and hatred in their seemingly unassailable religion. Call them on their crap! 

“LGBTQ Community”

Even though the phrase is very common and I even occasionally use it myself, I’m not a big fan of the phrase “LGBTQ community”. It makes it sound like we all live in the same part of town or something! More importantly its abstraction also blurs the point that we’re talking about individual people.

 

Sometimes, students tell me they are "a part of the LGBTQ community" but I have no idea what that means, to be honest! Can you be more specific, please? On the other hand, the first time a student introduced themself to me as a "gray-asexual" or a "demisexual", I had to say, "Wow! What is that?" It seems to me that young people these days are either very vague or very specific when describing their sexual orientation and/or gender identities. So when in doubt, it's OK to ask (with respect)!

 

Soon you will begin reading about the language used (by themselves and by others) to describe LGBTQ people. Here's a very brief history: Once upon a time we were all homosexuals. But once “gay” became synonymous with homosexual post WWII, we called ourselves gay men and gay women. But in the 1970’s, many gay women wanted to emphasize their political identity as separate from gay men and began to adopt the word “lesbian” (although the terms “Gay Pride” and “Gay Rights” were used well into the 1980’s). So we were then known as the “Gay and Lesbian” community for a while, until bisexuals received a seat at the socio-political table, thus creating the “GLB” community (whose members were still operating within a gender binary of men and women.) Adding the “T” to the political acronym in the 1990's was the biggest change of all. Up till then, political activism and social change had focused on issues of sexual orientation, whereas taking up the Transgender Flag introduced issues of gender identity into the social/political mix (which, while sharing some similarities, are unique and distinct from issues of sexual orientation). At this time, most trans people were still presenting within the gender binary, but sometime in the 2000’s, the binaries of gender and sexual orientation began to break down, led by the emerging academic field of Queer Studies. Many activists (including myself) began to use the term “queer" (meaning not heterosexual and/or not gender-normative) as a broad umbrella term to include EVERYONE in the queer community. (See how I did that?) It also avoids the ridiculous acronyms that go on forever, like LGBTQIAAI2S#LMNOP!

(At some point the “G” and “L” got switched as the preferred order, so unfortunately the letters are no longer in chronological order.)

 

You can see why I still prefer “Queer” as a political term! But as a personal descriptor, “queer” isn’t much better than “a member of the LGBTQ community”. So, to be precise, I am a gay, cisgender man.

 

Just in case you've forgotten my original point after all that: Avoid using the phrase "LGBTQ Community" in a vague, abstract way. Try to be more specific, when possible. Try "LGBTQ people" if you want to stay broad and all-inclusive.

 

OK. You may now resume your regular programming.

 

-- Professor Matthews

Doing Drugs

I wrote an essay when I was in grad school, which I now have my students read in my LGBTQ Studies class. In this essay, while describing one of my first adult love relationships, I mention that this relationship involved "lots of intellectual discourse, emotional baring of souls, and mind-altering drugs!" This often leads to my students asking about my recreational drug use. In response, I've penned this full confessional blog.

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I was indeed referring to LSD and mushrooms in my essay. I only did acid for about a two-year period in my 20's. I took it maybe 20 times total, and I too found it useful for "expanding my consciousness", to use a cliche. I did eventually have a "bad trip" which signaled to me that enough is enough. 

I still, on rare occasions, enjoy a mild dose of mushrooms. They make special events like Gay Pride even more "sparkly"!

I've never really enjoyed the physical effects of alcohol, and other than some peyote and cocaine in the 80's, that's pretty much it for my drug use. 

A lot of drugs came around in the 1990's (Extacy, GHB, MDA, etc.) but by then my recreational drug use had very much diminished as I was a full-time professor!

About five or so years ago, a friend of mine tempted me to take a pipe hit of Salvia Divinorum. It produced an extremely intense visionary state which was not exactly pleasant. Fortunately it was also very short-lived. Once was enough for THAT!

Pot has always been and remains my drug of choice.

Having said all this, let me also point out that while I did do drugs when I was in college, I was also always a very responsible student. I only did drugs when I'd have a reasonable recovery period -- no sooner than after my last class on Friday and no later than midnight on Saturday. Sundays were reserved for a drug-free day of "post-psychedelia melancholia" recovery, as I came to call it. 

When school was in session, I didn't even smoke pot during the week! I also made sure to do drugs in a ritualized, thoughtful manner, carefully selecting the time, place, and music, so that I'd not have to drive, move, or interact with anyone other than my drugmates.

While drugs do enhance your senses when you're on them, they also dull your thinking when you come down. Pot does make you lazy and stupid when smoked in excess, not good qualities for a student. Wait for school breaks to go on extended binges!

So, obviously, I'm not a DON'T DO DRUGS sort of guy. I'm more like DO DRUGS RESPONSIBLY! 

"That's So Gay" is NOT OK!

Whether intended or not, the term "gay" can not be used to mean “stupid” without being read as homophobic.

That usage reinforces negative connotations of the word, making it synonymous with something inferior and deficient, therefore suggesting that gay people are inferior and deficient.

I was already in my 30’s when “gay” began to be used to mean “stupid”, usually by young, homophobic, sexually-insecure teens who had never even met a gay person but had absorbed the reigning homophobia of their parents and society. It was ugly and mean-spirited then, and it still is.

To easily see how this usage is offensive, replace gay with a term you identify with. Imagine if people said, “Ewww . . . That’s so Mexican!” or “Ewww . . . That’s so Christian!”

When I was a little boy, the kids in my neighborhood used to use the word "jew" as verb. To "jew" someone meant to get the better end of a deal with someone. Such as, "Bobby jewed Freddy out of his Mickey Mantle baseball card for a penny!" I don't know where or how we picked up this usage. The anti-Semitism in this stereotype is atrocious, but if any adults ever heard us using it, they never corrected us. As a kid I went to Catholic school, and though my parents didn't have any Jewish friends or neighbors, they never said anything bad about the Jewish religion or Jewish people. And even though I knew about the Jewish people from Catholicism, I never even made the connection between "jew" as a verb and "Jew" as a person until I went to public school in 7th grade and made my first Jewish friend -- Robert Testa. I probably used "jew" as a verb with him, and I'm sure he went off on me as a result and set me straight (so to speak). I don't remember the details anymore, but 7th grade was when the light bulb finally went on for me with using "jew" as a verb.

Words have meaning, and your usage matters! The Dictionary is your friend!
It occurs to me that many of you probably don’t even know the primary definition of “lame” , and why many disabled people find the use of “lame” to mean “stupid” to be offensive.

Here’s the American Heritage Dictionary definition of lame:

1. Disabled so that movement, especially walking, is difficult or impossible: Lame from the accident, he walked with a cane. A lame wing kept the bird from flying.

2. Marked by pain or rigidness: a lame back.

3. Weak or ineffectual: a lame attempt to apologize.

4a. Informal Dull or unsatisfactory: That movie was so lame!

  b. Slang Socially inappropriate; foolish.

Notice that the way most of you use it is not listed till #4a, and even then it is noted as an informal usage.

Now let’s look at the American Heritage Dictionary definition of gay:

1. Of, relating to, or having a sexual orientation to persons of the same sex.

2. Showing or characterized by cheerfulness and lighthearted excitement; merry.

3. Bright or lively, especially in color: a gay, sunny room.

4. Offensive Slang Socially inappropriate or foolish.

5. Given to social pleasures, especially at the expense of serious pursuits: "You know she is gay, and wild, loves company and mirth, and that it was her impatience of restraint in these things, that made the breach between her and her father" (Daniel Defoe).

6. Dissolute or licentious: "He and his wife led a gay life. He made money fast, and she spent it faster. Eventually, both were broken physically" (Robert Coleman).

Once again, notice that the offensive definition is not listed till #4, and even then it is noted an offensive usage.

There are multitudes of other words and expressions that can be used more effectively to mean “stupid”, and using “gay” in that context is rooted in homophobia. Don’t do it! It is always best to use precise language.  If something is stupid, SAY so, but more importantly, say WHY."