I am fired up right now. Stop the genital mutilation!!!!!!

We in the GLBT community also need to come to grips with the fact that we make assumptions about what is means to be human that other groups/people do not make. Because we are a part of a marginalized group, it is easy for us to say that all people deserve a meaningful existence, to be safe, supported and loved, and to reach his or her potential in a supportive environment. It is obvious, based on the Federal Marriage Amendment and other denials of civil rights to GLBT people, that these assumptions about GLBT humanity are not made by many many people in our country.

My overarching point is, as we strive to be understood and to gain self-actualization and meaning within our culture, let us also try to understand from where the people who deny our humanity are coming. How many days do you struggle and wish there were easy answers to all of life's questions? Most humans do. For most, they answer life's questions with moral/religious/spiritual texts that tell them that there are knowable, easy answers to complex questions. Let us not deny that easy answers bring comfort to many people, and it makes this crazy life easier for them. Many people in the GLBT community, because we were born in the "gray" area, recognize that there is a lot of moral ambiguity in most situations. At the same time, we need to recognize the humanity even of the people who deny ours. If not, we are practicing the same behavior that we experience and abhor as GLBT people.

So as not to plagarize, many of these ideas were ignited by the class discussion on Sept 1, 2006, of Dr. Jeffrey Crabtree, Indiana University Department of Occupational Therapy.

I was born in Indianapolis in the late seventies to two too-young parents. My mom's father came to Indianapolis via the Great Migration from Eastern Kentucky after the mechanization of the coal mines. My great-grandfather and his father and his father before him were coal miners, paid in company script that had to be spent at the company store to stock the company house in the company town (read: indentured servitude). All of them died of black lung. My grandpa escaped by joining the army and going to Korea. He met my grandmother at Camp Atterbury where she lived with her migrant farm working parents. My dad's side are also Appalachian transplants from my great-grandfather's generation. My dad's grandfather was a grocery store owner in Fletcher Place. I have never really identified as "Hoosier." I have never felt connected to this land.

I reluctantly moved back to Indianapolis after graduating because I was broke. Then I met my now husband and started a graduate program at IUPUI (occupational therapy). I am queer-identified but struggle with the implications of "passing" for straight. I came out to my long-suspecting mother at the same time that I told her I was getting married (to my wonderful amazing cute supportive husband).

I am in NYC right now and just attended evening services at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the largest GLBT synagogue in the world. (I am in the process of converting to Judaism). The services were led by Sharon Kleinbaum, named one of the Top Jewish leaders in the country by Jewish Week.The assistant Rabbi is Eyelet Cohen, who was named one of the most influential Jews by Heeb magazine (I have a crush on her [blush]) Rabbi Kleinbaum gave a compelling talk about the Israel/Lebanon situation. To paraphrase, she feels, though she is a Zionist, that Israel is playing into Hezbollah's plan. For every Lebanese person who watches her child or grandmother die, there is another recruit for Hezbollah. Israel will never solve the situation by continuing to bomb cilvilian areas. Rabbi Kleinbaum questioned if Israel should or will exist if the state continues to ignore it's own ethical teachings. I agree with her views.

I look forward to discussing Hoosier politics and issues on bilerico. I am particularly interested in State Senator Patricia Miller, who many know tried to introduce a bill that would prohibit single people from using artificial insemination (read: no more "my two mommies"). I recently found out that she is one of the main reasons why my future profession, occupational therapy, is not licensed in Indiana, one of only four states in the country without licensed OT's. She believes that OT's should defer to doctors, which is convenient since she apparently receives lots of campaign money from their state association (don't sue me please).

Signing off for now. Shabbat Shalom.