Sperm donor fights attempts to force him to pay child support to lesbian couple
A sperm donor is fighting an effort to force him to pay child support for a child conceived through artificial insemination by a lesbian couple.
William Marotta told The Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper he’s “a little scared about where this is going to go, primarily for financial reasons.”
When the 46-year-old donated sperm to Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner in 2009, Marotta relinquished all parental rights, including financial responsibility to the child. When Bauer and Schreiner filed for state assistance in Kansas this year, the state demanded the donor’s name so it could collect child support for the now 3-year-old girl. (AP Photo/The Topeka Capital Journal, Jeff Davis)Pay close attention folks. Neither of the women is suing this man for child support. The state is. The women, having gone through a divorce and having a child between them, should have been made to go through a judgment for custody and child support that effected only the two of them. Instead, because the state doesn’t like the idea of a lesbian couple, they are attempting to involve the donor. The problem with this is that had this been a heterosexual couple who had sought a donor and artificial insemination due to infertility, the court would not go after the donor, but would have sought child support between the couple. But because lesbians are involved, now they go after the donor. Homophobic bullshit.
Reblogging for generalbriefing’s commentary, which is spot on.
That is all kinds of fucked up.
Oh the MRAs are gonna love this.
Also note the details: under state law, sperm donations made through a licensed physician or clinic are granted legal immunity from paternity claims, but privately made sperm donations are not covered by this immunity and are legally considered biological parents no matter who actually raises the kids. This sounds fair until you realize that only heterosexual cis couples have access to sperm donations through licensed physicians and clinics, a perfect example of how “neutral” laws can be written and enforced in a way that actually supports discrimination.
Emphasis mine.
“IT’S CANON!” the mindless throng cries.
“No it isn’t!” I retort, desperation creeping into my voice. “It’s queerbaiting! It’s bad writing combined with homophobia!”
“BUT MOFFAT! PERFECT! SO GAY!”
“No!” I scream over the crowd. “Steven Moffat is an incredibly flawed writer! Look how flimsy his Doctor Who plots are! Look at the lack of a coherent theme! Look how little depth or variety his female characters have!”
“STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS!” they screech in return.
He’s won. Steven Moffat has won. He’s acquired a completely uncritical fanbase who can’t see when they’re being toyed with and played for fools. I let out a broken sob and collapse to the ground in despair. As I fall to the ground, the crowd freezes momentarily before they all shout in tearful chorus:
“REICHENBACH FEELS!!”
A couple weeks ago, Dan Savage was the keynote speaker at the National High School Journalism Convention, where he discussed social media, anti-gay bullying, and his It Gets Better Project. While addressing the role of religion in homophobia, he said:
We can learn to ignore the bullshit in the Bible about gay people, the same way we have learned to ignore the bullshit in the Bible about shellfish, about slavery, about dinner, about farming, about menstruation, about virginity, about masturbation. We ignore bullshit in the Bible about all sorts of things. The Bible is a radically pro-slavery document.He went on to explain how the Bible contains specific instructions about keeping people as slaves, and not once does it prohibit the practice of slavery. While he was speaking, a number of students got up and walked out, to which he responded:
It’s funny, as someone who’s on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible, how pansy-ass some people react when you push back.Two weeks later, this has now become the latest manufactured controversy of the Christian right. Breitbart.com devoted their entire front page to stories about Dan Savage, accusing him of “bullying high school kids” with a “profane Bible rant”. The gay conservative group GOProud claimed that Savage was “attacking high school students who were offended by his outrageous remarks” and demanded that he apologize. Michelle Malkin accused “the activist left” of “anti-Christian bigotry” for having Savage speak to student journalists, and the president of the Family Research Council called him a “disciple of division and intolerance”. Todd Starnes of Fox News has written a handful of melodramatic stories about the Christian students who were present at the speech. Starnes describes their decision to leave as follows:
Some will say what happened next took courage - but [student Jake] Naman said he was simply following the prompting of the Holy Spirit.Isn’t that just so brave?
Of course, this reflexive outrage at any criticism of the Bible is really nothing new. This January, the National Organization for Marriage demanded that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie withdraw his nomination of a judge who had criticized arguments against gay marriage that appeal to tradition and pointed out that slavery was also a tradition endorsed by the Bible. Clearly, this is something that many right-wing Christians just don’t want people to talk about.
But let’s get one thing straight: The Bible is unequivocal in its support for slavery. This isn’t a situation where there are a variety of conflicting verses that can be interpreted as for or against slavery. In every instance that slavery is mentioned in the Bible, it is never condemned. Instead, the authors of the Bible only address how slaves should be acquired, how they should be treated, and how they should obey their masters. And despite every apologetic argument about how the context of this enslavement of human beings was different from the more modern forms of slavery, the Bible consistently and indisputably endorses the buying and selling of people as the property of other people. If this is wrong, then the Bible is wrong - and if we can choose to disregard the Bible when it comes to slavery, we can likewise disregard it on the topic of sexual morality.
So regardless of Dan Savage’s tone or how terribly offended some Christians were, his underlying point is completely valid. And its impact was only amplified by the incredible sight of devout Christians literally fleeing from the truth about their Bible and their own moral hypocrisy. In doing so, they made his point even better than he did. After all, if you’re so pious that you won’t tolerate anyone speaking ill of your Bible, then how can you be so completely unprepared to face the reality of what it actually says? What the hell kind of Christian are you?
And if this was your reaction as a student of journalism, then what the hell kind of journalist are you? Make no mistake, this was an event where attendance was voluntary. It was not a mandatory school assembly and they were not a captive audience. And while they certainly had no obligation to stay there and listen to him, I have to wonder whether they really understand what journalism is about. Journalists may often have to talk to people with whom they disagree. They’ll find themselves covering events that they find objectionable. Yet these aspiring journalists decided there was no need to listen to Dan Savage as soon as he said something that offended them.
Now, I’m no journalist, but when the Westboro Baptist Church came to my neighborhood, I didn’t run away from them. I walked right up to them and asked for an interview! I consider the human equality of gay people to be fundamentally truthful, but that didn’t stop me. And many Christians consider their alleged “word of God” to be fundamentally truthful as well, yet these journalism students were unwilling even to be in the presence of someone who criticized their beliefs.
Considering what Savage actually said, it’s remarkable that conservatives would call his comments “outrageous”, “bigoted”, “hostile”, and “bullying”. Do they not agree that slavery is bullshit? Because if you think supporting slavery is bullshit, then the Bible’s position on slavery is also bullshit. It doesn’t get much clearer than that. If these particular Christians haven’t yet found a comforting explanation for the slavery, stonings, and other unpleasantness in the Bible, then they should either cut those parts out of the book, or stop being offended when we quote what it says. Why should there be anything offensive about saying that a text which endorses slavery is not the best source of moral guidance? And why should such a book be immune from criticism merely because some people believe in it strongly?
Just because something is part of your religion, that doesn’t mean it can’t be wrong. And slavery is wrong, even if it’s in the Bible. No matter how much these people whine and scream and cry about it, the all-knowing, eternal God of the Bible apparently saw fit to instruct us on who we can buy and sell, whether we can keep their spouse and children as slaves, and how badly we’re allowed to beat them. Complain all you want! It’s still in there. If you have to grapple with the unpleasant realization that even you yourself have ignored the Bible’s antiquated teachings, then great! But that’s your problem - not our fault. You might walk out on us, but good luck walking out of your own mind.
Dan Savage is kind of a douche but yes to all of this.
Homophobia: The fear that another man will treat you like you treat women.
We were discussing homosexuality because of an allusion to it in the book we were reading, and several boys made comments such as, “That’s disgusting.” We got into the debate and eventually a boy admitted that he was terrified/disgusted when he was once sharing a taxi and the other male passenger made a pass at him.
The lightbulb went off. “Oh,” I said. “I get it. See, you are afraid, because for the first time in your life you have found yourself a victim of unwanted sexual advances by someone who has the physical ability to use force against you.” The boy nodded and shuddered visibly.
“But,” I continued. “As a woman, you learn to live with that from the time you are fourteen, and it never stops. We live with that fear every day of our lives. Every man walking through the parking garage the same time you are is either just a harmless stranger or a potential rapist. Every time.”
The girls in the room nodded, agreeing. The boys seemed genuinely shocked.
“So think about that the next time you hit on a girl. Maybe, like you in the taxi, she doesn’t actually want you to.”That’s not to say that many women worry that every man is a rapist. We understand that more likely than not, these men aren’t dangerous. The possibility of them sexually assaulting us isn’t the only thing that’s intimidating; sexual and street harassment alone can be very uncomfortable and frightening to experience, and are far more common than sexual assault.
(Source: andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
On Sunday, November 9th, 2008, over thirty radical queers from around the Midwest disrupted the sermon of a notoriously anti-queer and anti-choice megachurch.
The Mount Hope Church is a deplorable, anti-queer megachurch in Lansing, Michigan. The church works to institutionalize transphobia and homophobia through several repulsive projects including organized ex-gay conferences and so-called hell houses in Halloween, which the faithful used to scare children with images of ghoulish abortionists and sodomites.
That afternoon, a small group of folks dressed in pink and black, equipped with a megaphone, black/pink flags, picket signs and an upside-down pink cross began demonstrating outside the church. The group was extremely loud and wildly offensive. The demonstration drew a majority of Mount Hope’s security staff outside to watch them.
Meanwhile, with the guards pre-occupied by the distraction, over a dozen queers had put on their Sunday-best and infiltrated the church’s congregation. At the signal that the guards had been lured outside, the infiltrators sprung into action.A group stood up, declared themselves fags, and began screaming loudly. Upon hearing the loud interruption, other affinity groups went into action. A team that had been hiding under the pews in the closed-off balcony dropped a banner and pulled back the curtains to reveal “IT’S OKAY TO BE GAY! BASH BACK!”
Another faction rose to chant, “Jesus was a homo,” while flinging pamphlets, glitter, and condoms into the air. As ushers scrambled to collect the condoms, two women moved toward the pulpit, where they launched into a lusty kiss.
When asked why they did this, one of the members said, “We’re not trying to change people’s minds, we’re not trying to bend straight people to give us freedom—we’re fighting back. We’re going to stop them from preaching hate, stop them from creating an environment that’s unfriendly to gay, queer, and trans* people. We’re not going to be nice about it because they sure as hell aren’t being nice about it.”
…will someone do this with me and we can be “wildly offensive” together
This is amazing.
*cackles* This is awesome. :D
EXCELLENT.
