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High school students, community stand up to Westboro Baptist Church
On June 9, nearly 1,000 students and community members gathered outside Wilson High School in Washington, D.C., to stand up to the notorious bigots of the Westboro Baptist Church. Wilson High was targeted by WBC because the school was celebrating LGBTQ Pride, shortly after the school’s principal, Peter Cahall, came out as a gay man.
The progressive move by the school infuriated the bigots, who are well-known for their inflammatory, slur-ridden signs and confrontational choice of venues for protests. However, they were embarrassingly outnumbered by the overwhelming outpouring of support for LGBTQ equality. At 8:00am, a huge crowd had gathered outside the school for a demonstration led by students.
Wilson students ran through the crowd with a rainbow flag and held signs expressing their outrage at the Westboro protesters. Student leaders kept the energy high, chanting, “One, two, three , four, equality’s what we’re fighting for! Five, six, seven, eight, fight the bigotry, fight the hate!” and “When human rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”
In the end, the anti-LGBTQ bigots were completely overshadowed by the actions of progressive high school students and their supporters – a very good sign for the future of the struggle for equality!
Photo: Wilson High School, Washington, D.C., June 9, by Walter Smolarek
Content may be reprinted with credit to LiberationNews.org
http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/high-school-students.html
Wilson students ran through the crowd with a rainbow flag and held signs expressing their outrage at the Westboro protesters. Student leaders kept the energy high, chanting, “One, two, three , four, equality’s what we’re fighting for! Five, six, seven, eight, fight the bigotry, fight the hate!” and “When human rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”
In the end, the anti-LGBTQ bigots were completely overshadowed by the actions of progressive high school students and their supporters – a very good sign for the future of the struggle for equality!
Photo: Wilson High School, Washington, D.C., June 9, by Walter Smolarek
Content may be reprinted with credit to LiberationNews.org
http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/high-school-students.html
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Great job stopping the WBC, though there are many more homophobic bigots out there in the "Big Three" Abrahamic religions. Overall the right-wing segments of these religions will continue to spread words of hatred of diverse sexuality and sex for pleasure in general.
The three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) are responsible for the current levels of homophobia and sex-negative outlooks on Earth today. The right-wing branches of ALL 3 above mentioned faiths are primary instigators and the left-wing are complicit in the shaming of diverse human sexuality (IF they say nothing about their conservative cohorts hate speech).
From a biological perspective, sex for humans should be pleasurable and research indicates it increases health and happiness. Lack of sexual relations (including the disabled community) and sexual isolation can lead to mental and physical illnesses. We can also witness the collective mental illnesses (placing their faith over life) of religious fanatics in the IDF bombings of Gaza residences and hospitals and the extremists in Hamas targeting random Israeli civilians with rockets.
Using the emotional tool of guilt, religion attempts to put people's actual physical sex lives in the freezer while waiting for some intangible rewards in the mythical construct of "Heaven". That doesn't imply we should all go out having unprotected sex with strangers and get STDs, though having protected sex with a variety of humans over time that includes love and compassion (without guilt over bi/homosexuality or cohabitation!) for our partner(s) is paramount to mental well being of ALL humans. We are not little religious robots that can just "Go to Heaven" while ignoring our natural emotional and sexual needs for companionship and intercourse.
Any religion(s) that shames human sexuality is no friend of the human species.
"Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo."
― Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
entire quote; http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7084.Karl_Marx
The three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) are responsible for the current levels of homophobia and sex-negative outlooks on Earth today. The right-wing branches of ALL 3 above mentioned faiths are primary instigators and the left-wing are complicit in the shaming of diverse human sexuality (IF they say nothing about their conservative cohorts hate speech).
From a biological perspective, sex for humans should be pleasurable and research indicates it increases health and happiness. Lack of sexual relations (including the disabled community) and sexual isolation can lead to mental and physical illnesses. We can also witness the collective mental illnesses (placing their faith over life) of religious fanatics in the IDF bombings of Gaza residences and hospitals and the extremists in Hamas targeting random Israeli civilians with rockets.
Using the emotional tool of guilt, religion attempts to put people's actual physical sex lives in the freezer while waiting for some intangible rewards in the mythical construct of "Heaven". That doesn't imply we should all go out having unprotected sex with strangers and get STDs, though having protected sex with a variety of humans over time that includes love and compassion (without guilt over bi/homosexuality or cohabitation!) for our partner(s) is paramount to mental well being of ALL humans. We are not little religious robots that can just "Go to Heaven" while ignoring our natural emotional and sexual needs for companionship and intercourse.
Any religion(s) that shames human sexuality is no friend of the human species.
"Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo."
― Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
entire quote; http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7084.Karl_Marx
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