Today I think I’ll pick on some radicals. Yea. This should be an easy one because lots of people think radicals are a bunch of ridiculous low-life scum anyway.

Oh boy, I can see you conservatives starting to smirk already. “This Vogelsang clown has finally seen the light. He wants to be an oppressor just like us!”

Sorry kids. The radicals I’m talking about this week are the conservatives who think homosexuality is wrong and that gays have no rights because they are subhuman. And it looks like we got lots of them in Chicago. At least the ones there are much more vocal than the people that think gays are people too.

It seems that as it stands now a homosexual in Chicago can be refused an apartment, job or promotion because he or she is gay. And there isn’t anything they can do about it. There are laws that prohibit discrimination against just about anyone, but none that prohibit discrimination against gays.

Last month the Chicago City Council defeated a measure that would have given homosexuals civil rights. Basic civil rights just like minorities and women have. But no, they ain’t gonna get ‘em. And this makes a lot of radicals in Chicago very happy.

It seems that these people don’t like gays and want to keep them down. Maybe they could start their own little hate group. They could even burn crosses just like another group that doesn’t want certain people to have rights.

The measure was defeated in part because of the extremely vocal opposition from people in the gallery opposing it. People from all walks of life, many of whom have gotten their civil rights within the past few decades. But they already have their laws in place, so now they can fight against giving rights to other people.

My favorite example is the photo of a woman in a crowd holding up the sign saying “God says no.” Isn’t this one of the same reasons the KKK uses to justify their discriminatory beliefs? The woman holding the sign is black. Throughout history blacks have been discriminated against because they are different. But now steps have been and are still being taken to prevent discrimination against them.

I’m having a little difficulty seeing the difference. Does having a different sexual preference make you less than human—not deserving of the same rights as everyone else?

The woman holding the sign wasn’t the only one using God or the Bible as justification for their discimination against gays. There was an alderman holding up a Bible saying that homosexuality goes against everything in the Bible. So what? I thought that religion wasn’t supposed to be a factor in making political decisions. I must have missed the footnote saying you can use religious stuff to better your arguement if it would help shoot down gay rights propositions.

All right Bible-thumpers, get ready. I admit to a very poor knowledge of the Bible, but I do know that God didn’t write it. Neither did Jesus. It was written by people who were religious and could put what they believed were God’s thoughts onto paper.

So when these people were writing, did the sky open up and a big voice boom out “Write something condemning homosexuality?” I don’t think so. I think the people that wrote it were putting down their beliefs and the beliefs of many others that were around at the time. Obviously, they thought homosexuality was wrong enough to put it on paper and call it the word of God. That’s fine, but does that mean they’re right?

The people that wrote the Bible also believed in creationism. So God created everyone? Did he create gay people too? I believe that he did. I also believe that many homosexuals were born that way. They didn’t just decide to be gay one day. I say God created them to be gay and he had every intention that they be treated like everyone else.