I am sick of this. I am SO sick and tired of this.
What is it about the Republicans? Why is it they try to hide their anti-American, anti-union, anti-woman, anti-LGBT crap inside of spending bills? Why is it that they are so fucking scared to put it out in the open? Do they think people don't notice? Do they think that we're all fucking stupid?
At Eastern Michigan University, a student in the graduate program for counseling refused to help a gay student struggling with his identity. She was let go by the university for failing to follow the ACA (American Counseling Association) code of ethics. She claims that she referred him to another counselor and sued the university for "discriminating against her religion." Of course, never one to let an opportunity to truly discriminate go by, the state GOP that dominates our legislature (how that happened here, I don't know) stuck a measure into a fiscal bill that states, "What provisions will you be making this year, and long-term, to protect Christian students from harassment and being dismissed from your programs of study for their religious beliefs?” (Note: the subcommittee sent this to each university in the state, even though the bill's language is more vague than that question. The bill simply requires universities to protect "deeply-held religious beliefs.")
Honest to God, what is their problem? "Deeply-held religious beliefs." All the time. They use religion as cover for every last bit of their discriminatory policies. Listen, state and church are separated. If you want to play ball in the public field, you have to go by the public rules. Things like these "conscience bills" for pharmacists and "protecting beliefs" for counselors are just ways of legitimizing and legalizing discrimination and it's fucking bullshit. I'm sorry if my language isn't all PC, but this pisses me off. You know what MY deeply held beliefs are? They are no discrimination against people for their creed, color, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. And what makes this even more galling is that Republicans will go to the fucking mats for any white person with a "deeply-held" religious belief (provided that it's Christian), but they'll be damned if a Muslim gets that same treatment. Deeply-held Islamic faith? Fuck them, they're brown people who hate America and want to rule it with Sharia law. That's today's Republican party. Once again, doing their best for the oppressed white Christian majority, and fuck anyone else who doesn't feel the same way.