Charlotte, NC, Passes LGBT Rights Law, Defies Governor

[Ayla]

The Charlotte City Council passed a bill to ban LGBT discrimination in a 7 to 4 vote on Monday night, despite a threat from the governor to try blocking the law.

www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/charlotte-north-carolina-passes-lgbt-rights-law-defying-gove?bffblgbt&utm_term=.qpBZEr4vjW#.thOQyK69Ra   

[Shan]

A win for all of us!

[Deleted]

I think this article pretty well sums up what the anti-trans movement is all about.

[Kira]

Everytime I see these I think k they make America look crazy to the other western countries. Similar law here didn't raise any significant eyebrows and has has no problem. It's common sense. It just looks crazy how much it seems to be an issue and how everyone goes straight to the left/right slanging match.

[Shan]

Feb 24, 2016 7:09:47 GMT 8 Kira said:

Everytime I see these I think k they make America look crazy to the other western countries. Similar law here didn't raise any significant eyebrows and has has no problem. It's common sense. It just looks crazy how much it seems to be an issue and how everyone goes straight to the left/right slanging match.

Honey people there don't give a rip and have given up, people here are still alive and vent their feelings even if they are dead wrong!

[Deleted]

Feb 24, 2016 7:14:57 GMT 8 Shan said:

Feb 24, 2016 7:09:47 GMT 8 Kira said:

Everytime I see these I think k they make America look crazy to the other western countries. Similar law here didn't raise any significant eyebrows and has has no problem. It's common sense. It just looks crazy how much it seems to be an issue and how everyone goes straight to the left/right slanging match.

Honey people there don't give a rip and have given up, people here are still alive and vent their feelings even if they are dead wrong!

Actually, Shan, speaking for my Western country (Ireland) people haven't at all given up.  We have a general election on Friday, and sparks have been flying.  One of the main issues that has people angry is Irish Water: a company this outgoing government set up to provide water around the country.  Great idea, but it amounts to double taxation and they've refused to back down on that.

Also in recent times you can look at the issues the Irish people have at long last taken on board: the abuse of women in the Magdalene laundries, the abuse of boys in the Industrial schools, the abuse of children by the priests, etc.  Because of all their abuses of power, the Irish people have got sick of the priests and nuns ruling the roost, and they've at last started bringing them down.  What was the result last year?  The approval in a national referendum (stoutly opposed by the Church) of same-sex marriage by a margin of 2-1, and the passage by our parliament, virtually without opposition, of our Gender Recognition Act.

Another item on the agenda?  The fact that it is, of course, public money that funds Irish schools, yet virtually all of these schools are controlled by the Church.  Places in primary schools are reserved for kids who've been baptised.  Absolutely daft!  That one will take a while to get sorted out.  It's going to take a lot of reorganization, etc., but we'll get there eventually.

So the Irish people do give a rip, and they haven't given up.  They're waking up.

But it is a huge problem when people vent their feelings even if they're dead wrong.  Look at the result of that.  In the US these days there are hordes of fairly extreme people who are venting their feelings about transgenderism, e.g., even though they haven't got the first idea what transgenderism is all about.  And what's the result?  Well, maybe you've seen some of Trinity's posts over the last few days.  It breeds total despair, deep unhappiness.  That's what happens when people are venting their feelings without actually thinking about things, without being willing to learn.  It's an age-old problem we human beings have: we're willing to act purely on our feelings without making the least effort to think.

[Shan]

Somehow I knew my remark would draw some ire, and from an Irish lass no less. Ima gonna back down and eat my words and be thankful that they are low-cal! 

[Trinity]

Foxxy thank you darling.

[Mingma]

Feb 25, 2016 1:57:00 GMT 8 Trinity said:

Foxxy thank you darling.

Ditto 

[Trinity]

Feb 25, 2016 0:54:58 GMT 8 Shan said:

Somehow I knew my remark would draw some ire, and from an Irish lass no less. Ima gonna back down and eat my words and be thankful that they are low-cal! 

Heart shaped mouth that sometimes tastes shoe leather.

We love you Shan.

[Deleted]

Feb 25, 2016 0:54:58 GMT 8 Shan said:

Somehow I knew my remark would draw some ire, and from an Irish lass no less. Ima gonna back down and eat my words and be thankful that they are low-cal! 

Sorry, Shan, but you touched a bit of a sore spot with me.  Truth be told, I'm feeling a bit proud of the Irish people these days.  One failing of the Irish, which they universally acknowledge, is that they're too passive.  For a long, long time, they've allowed the priests and the politicians to walk all over them.  The Church has taken a right walloping in recent times.  They're in serious trouble, and they know it.

As for the politicians, the people have always known that those boys (and a few girls) simply don't give a damn about them.  This thing about Irish Water that I mentioned is one of the most blatant "Screw you!" things that politicians have ever done.  Yet the people have always shrugged and let them get on with it.

There are very real signs now that that's changing.  The two main parties, FF and FG, which have been running the show for the last century, would normally expect to get maybe 75-80% of the seats in the parliament between them.  Polls over the last couple of weeks suggest that in this election they'll be down to about 50%.  Now it disappoints me that half of the people are still willing to vote for those **&%$£&&!!!.  But it does mean that half the people are waking up and are looking around for other options.  I myself haven't found an option that really excites me.  You wouldn't expect that in this rural constituency.  But nationwide 28% of people are saying they're going to vote for an independent.  That is an astonishing total.  It shows how many people have lost faith altogether in any political party. 

This could possibly be a watershed moment in the history of this country--when people seriously begin to assert their right to have a say-so in what's being done to their lives.  I'm hoping.  Over recent years a fair bit of momentum has built up.  Let's keep it going.  Let's make the powers-that-be the powers-that-were.

As for me, I have a bit of personal dilemma.  Normally, I might vote for the Labour party, a mildly left-wing party that in theory supports the common man and woman.  They've sold out over the last five years.  They went into coalition with FG in order to enjoy the privileges of being in power, and they've gone a long way to support the "Screw You!" government that we've had over the last five years.  Labour is currently in meltdown.  Their vote is going to collapse in this election.  They've earned it.

And yet it was Labor that took the lead in supporting the Same-Sex Marriage Referendum and the Gender Recognition Act.  They're also taking the lead in liberalizing Ireland's abortion laws, which seriously need updating.  A short while ago a woman was allowed to die in the most ridiculous circumstances when her baby had no chance of survival.  So what do I do with Labor?  They helped me personally a lot, but they sold me out in ways, just like they sold out everybody else.  It's hard for me to see how I can give them a vote.  Their man in this constituency is known to be a good guy.  He used to be an independent.  Then he joined Labor.  I really can't see giving him a vote.

[Shan]

Yes I get that about years of Irish apathy, it's happened here for years where many haven't bothered to vote in an election, it comes from being disappointed and beat down.

What's happening in Irish politics seems a lot like what's going on here. People who vote one side or the other of the political aisle have finally discovered that the right and the left have been in bed together, more concerned in their own interests and getting reelected than in the interests of the people. I have always been an Independent and have voted my conscience, socially liberal and fiscally conservative, rather than support some party agenda. So what were seeing here is a bloodless revolution in progress.

[Deleted]

A bit off-topic now, but WTH.  Our election is going on today (I've already voted) and I came across this story about a candidate in Dublin.  Any takers?

www.msn.com/en-ie/news/national/general-election-candidate-reveals-he-starred-in-two-porn-films-but-wasnt-very-good/ar-BBq2T0y

[Shan]

Feb 26, 2016 23:18:41 GMT 8 @foxglove said:

A bit off-topic now, but WTH.  Our election is going on today (I've already voted) and I came across this story about a candidate in Dublin.  Any takers?

www.msn.com/en-ie/news/national/general-election-candidate-reveals-he-starred-in-two-porn-films-but-wasnt-very-good/ar-BBq2T0y

The Catholics might object, but the fact that he's exposed his sordid past right up front, bulldozing that out of the way so that it doesn't become a tool for the opposition to use as a shocking revelation later, was a smart move because it may all become moot if his position on the issues resonates well with the general populace. I'll have a stout Guinness now thank you!

[Shan]

I suppose this conversation should be in the "Politics" section. This excerpt is from Caroline Glick's political column in the Jerusalem Post and indicates that there are great similarities in the political discourse within western nations.

The US is far from the only country steeped in uncertainty and frustration today.
Today, the peoples of Western Europe are behaving much like the Americans in their increased rejection of the political and cultural elites. Like Trump’s growing band of supporters, Western Europeans are increasingly embracing populists.
Whether these leaders come from the Right or the Left, they all make a similar pledge to restore their nations to a previous glory.
These promises are based as well on a common rejection of the European Union. Like their voters, populist European politicians believe that the EU is a bureaucratic monstrosity that has pulverized and seeks to blot out their national characters while it seizes their national sovereignty.
Due to this growing popular opposition to the EU, establishment leaders throughout Western Europe find themselves fighting for their political survival. Whether their desire to exit the EU owes to its open borders policies in the face of massive Muslim immigration or to the euro debt crisis, with each passing month, the very concept of a unified Europe loses its appeal for more and more Europeans.
On June 23, this growing disenchantment is liable to bring about the beginning of the EU’s breakup.That day, British voters will determine whether or not the United Kingdom will remain in the EU.