The word, ‘Orientation,’ shouldn’t be a terribly scary horrible awful word, should it? The word, ‘orientation,’ refers to the rising sun, from the Latin, oriente/ orient, meaning ‘rising, from the east.’ ‘Orientation’ means to align to points on the compass. Innocent word actually. Long a part of navigators’ ancient jargon referring to finding one’s way across often unknown seas.
The word, ‘Sexual,’ shouldn’t be a terribly scary horrible awful word, should it? It derives from the Latin, sexus. “Sexual” means “of or pertaining to sex or the attribute of being either male or female; existing or predicated with regard to sex.”
The definition of the word ‘sexual,’ is actually banal compared to the far more interesting story inside the word “orientation.”
Yet, ‘those two words’ seem to raise so much contretemps in some, that it makes one expect to soon see unshaven men in underpants standing on street corners with glassy eyes… no longer holding their signs reading, “The End is Near” … but now instead, holding up signs that read: “The End Just Came.”
It’s taken five decades and much effort to tow us into the present… only a mere 5 decades ago, a deeply repressive society was mired in attempts to obfuscate how babies were conceived; fired women from their jobs for daring to ‘show’ they were pregnant; kept the ‘gent’s magazines’ in the room behind the back room; withheld social and economic opportunities, and sometimes just plain decency, from those not in heterosexual marriages; disavowed that women possessed sexual appetites; put forth the idea that ‘a real woman’ had orgasms solely by being penetrated, which was often as likely as a man having an orgasm by having his socks laundered.
Some more libertine folk have called those olden times and the ‘approved sexual practices’ of those times, ‘plain vanilla.’ I think though, that might be an insult to vanilla… which is a fragrant, spicy, sometimes spiky, aromatic that is added to sweets… these descriptors actually being a moderately good description of the variants in the life force underlying much of human sexuality. And more. But, that’s a different story for another time.
HR Bill 1592 Federal Assistance for Prosecuting Hate Crimes, in one of its most recent incarnations (excerpted below)… has roused much frowning and attacking over the addition of ‘those two words’ in the otherwise standard civil rights (straight out of the book) code. Though this is the 21st century, many in Congress seem to be speaking as though they have time-traveled from the 19th and mid-20th century to see if they can turn the earth backward on its axis.
Those who are opposed to adding ‘sexual orientation’ to any governing or legal document locally or nationally, have had some successes in that area. Often churched and wealthy, they’ve spent huge amounts of time and money to put anti-GLBT referendums on state ballots.
They then worked pyramid-marketing style to rouse ‘the base.’ Early successes in Colorado, Oregon and Ohio were reversed by high courts who found the anti-GLBT laws unconstitutional.
Now, some of the same people are angry because they thought they would vote down such addition of ‘those two words’ to any code… by forcing the issue onto state ballots. The current bill however, because it is Federal, and will not be brought before a vote of ‘the people,’ and therefore not allow a rallying of ‘the base’ … will instead be decided by a mere 535 folks in Congress, many of whom are not of ‘the base.’
It couldn’t make some happier, and some others more livid.
HR Bill 1592 Federal Assistance for Prosecuting Hate Crimes
The bill reads quite differently than some in media have portrayed it. On the face of it, it’s actually a 1,916 word document about laying out substantial funding… a $5 million dollar Federal involvement that also may offer grants to Native American Tribes, towns and States up to $100,000 per year to facilitate the following under certain circumstances…
“At the request of State, local, or Tribal law enforcement agency, the Attorney General may provide technical, forensic, prosecutorial, or any other form of assistance in the criminal investigation or prosecution of any crime that–
(A) constitutes a crime of violence;
(B) constitutes a felony under the State, local, or Tribal laws; and
(C) is motivated by prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim, or is a violation of the State, local, or Tribal hate crime laws.
The bill goes on for many paragraphs more about funding and more funding.
The general lay of the bill as I understand it, is not about validating or invalidating the instances of hate crimes, but rather says financial assistance would be possibly made available for investigation and prosecution. The version of HR Bill 1592 that was passed by the House has the stated purpose of: “To provide Federal assistance to States, local jurisdictions, and Indian tribes to prosecute hate crimes, and for other purposes.”
And there are of course, ‘those two words.’
One of ‘the lost stories’ of this bill, is that there was a truly useful and far-seeing part of it that was omitted. A part that would have made too much sense perhaps. The clause taken out of HR Bill 1592 was that “The United States Sentencing Commission shall study the issue of adult recruitment of juveniles to commit hate crimes and shall report the Commission’s findings back to the Congress not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.”
What a thought, pre-empt the haters; understand how to keep them from infecting the young into becoming haters too. What benighted thinkers thought that up?
Probably the same addled hearts and souls that thought of adding ‘those two words.’