Binary Blues

The following article (see link below) infuriates and profoundly dismays me. This is what's wrong with society! Why can't this kid just be himself? He's not "wearing a disguise", he just doesn't fit into society's/the DMV's binary box of what a male should look like. This is who he is and he has the right to be who he is, binary box be damned!!!!!!!!!

If he keeps having experiences like this, he may feel like he has to "choose" one way or the other (one side or another of the gender binary) instead of just being himself, and that is a crime. Why should he have to fit himself into what the DMV or anyone else says he should be? He doesn't fit neatly on one side or the other of "the line", and that is PERFECTLY FINE--the DMV doesn't have the right to say "Step onto what we define as the MALE side of the line!" This just infuriates me beyond any ability to even adequately express the degree of my infuriation.

P.S. PLUS this is a clear violation of his civil rights and I hope he takes this all the way up to the Supreme Court!

Link: Teen forced to remove his make-up for driver's license photo.

Pork Yes, Love Thy Neighbor No?

Soooo, let me see if I have this: If I'm a Christian restaurant owner in Arizona, it's okay if I serve pork (bible says no), open my restaurant on Saturday (bible says no), and serve shellfish (again, big fat NO), yet I can't, in good conscience, allow all my fellow humans equal access to my establishment because "those people" over there, who I am commanded to LOVE by the bible I claim to be bound to follow, engage in some behavior that I don't approve of and that I think God doesn't approve of (even though God clearly says I'm supposed to LOVE MY NEIGHBOR AS MYSELF) ...or I think they do, I can't really tell because right now they are just two people presenting themselves at my restaurant and asking to be let in and allowed to support my business.

So, do I have this situation evaluated correctly?

Well, I might have to open a restaurant in AZ and refuse to serve radcon fundie bigots because they are VERY offensive to everything that MY religion stands for!*

And where does it stop? Religious freedom is fundamental to our constitution. Bigotry and discrimination are NOT. Get to know the diff, fundie radcons.

( * AND everything that my COUNTRY stands for!!! You know, the constitution: yeah, THAT. That's what the laws in this country are built on, NOT on what ONE radical, hate-filled wing of ONE religion MISINTERPRETS their own bible to be saying!)