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So I rarely talk about stuff that happens at work. That’s because, like most of Huntsville, I work in a secure environment, and “if I told you, I’d have to kill you” applies. But this has SO very little to do with our work assignments here, and that’s probably why it got under my skin enough to share it with you.
First, there was this. Which, in and of itself, bothers the hell out of me. I don’t agree with half of the heterosexual unions I see on a daily basis, and yet it is their right to join in “holy” matrimony. When they are injured (God forbid.. yes, YOUR God), they are allowed to determine who their emergency contact is. All I can say on this, truly, is that it is a basic human right to be with whom you love. God NEVER condemns love. Ever.
Because it makes you queasy has NOTHING to do with it.
Which brings me to an earlier discussion had here at work. I was asking a very religious co-worker how his extended vacation had gone. He and his son had taken an “exploration” type escapade down in the keys, and he went on and on about the cool stuff they did. I was eating it up until he threw out, “And thank goodness we got down there before the faggots got there.”
What amazed me, more than anything else, is that he said it as glibly as if he had said, “And thank goodness we got down there before the storm rolled in.” As if there was no hatred associated with it whatsoever; it was just as factual as the weather report.
“Whoa,” I said, trying to tread carefully. “Honey, around here, we can call them gay people. It’s okay.”
“No,” he said, and started speaking slower, as if I was somehow beneath his intelligence because I was having difficulty stomaching this, “they are faggots. They are unclean and ungodly.”
“I don’t use that word, and I don’t appreciate it being used,” I said, cautiously. When I say cautiously, I don’t mean for MY sake.. I mean for HIS.
“I’m un-PC and proud of it,” he said.
“So I can call you a bad father?” I asked. His spine stiffened.
“They are ungodly, Sarah.” he repeated. Again, I MUST be slower for not picking up this NUGGET OF TRUTH earlier.
“Since we’re just passing judgement, I think you’re a bad father.” I retorted. “But you’re proud of that, right? How, by being ‘un-PC’, as you call it, you’re sketching out for you son how to hate others?”
“Aren’t you a Christian, Sarah?” he asked.
I nodded, perhaps more firm in my faith right that second than I had been in years. “Yes. And I think that any “Christian” energy you waste on hatred, intolerance, and passing it on to your son is just that.. a waste of good, Christian energy.”
He started to say something, but I guess we realized we would agree to disagree. He turned on his heels and walked away.
“And everytime he says shit like that,” I whispered to my fellow liberal cubemate, “an angel gets set on fire.”
We laughed a demonic laugh. Our souls are rotting, after all.
