I'm US , ailing, gay and now an ex-Republican

[lonelywombat]

Story of a man with a Thai husband and his problems

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/21/492516 ... lican.html (http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/21/4925169/im-ailing-gay-and-now-an-ex-republican.html)


Tom Knutson is a professor of communication studies at California State University, Sacramento, and a professor of global communication at Bangkok University, Thailand.


Viewpoints: I'm ailing, gay and now an ex-Republican

Tom Knutson is a professor of communication studies at California State University, Sacramento, and a professor of global communication at Bangkok University, Thailand.


I am 69 years old. I am a professor emeritus from California State University, Sacramento. I am gay. I have pancreatic cancer. I am changing my voter registration from Republican to independent. Let me tell you why.

First of all, since my cancer diagnosis in April, I've been treated by an incredibly gifted team of cancer surgeons, anesthesiologists, oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, endocrinologists, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, social workers and nutritionists. This incredibly knowledgeable group has provided me with surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and a wide assortment of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The cost of these services to date totals well over $400,000 тАУ perhaps a partial explanation of the massive construction projects currently under way at hospitals in our region.

Because of Medicare and PERS, I have not had to pay out of pocket for any of the medical charges. My condition, while life-threatening, does not fall into the category of the senior abuse irrationally proclaimed by so many Republican candidates for office. I am getting better every day and progressing toward recovery because of the extraordinary medical care and the compassionate laws of the greatest country in the world, the United States of America. Given my experience, senior citizens have little cause to be anxious about their inevitable future health care costs.

Secondly, the Republicans have a disgraceful record in extending constitutional rights to gay American citizens. I am an American citizen legally married during the "California Window" in 2008 to Phan, my loving spouse and a citizen of Thailand. We have been together for more than 20 years, 15 of which have been spent in the United States during which Phan has earned three college degrees.

We now live in fear that Phan will be deported at a time I need him most for his love and support during the terrible cancer battle. You see, since we are a bi-national same-sex couple, our marriage is not recognized by the United States government due to the Defense of Marriage Act тАУ the so-called DOMA тАУ a law precluding us from the immigration rights and responsibilities extended to American heterosexuals. So much for leaving the issue to states' rights.

Phan is not allowed to work and we have been cash-hemorrhaging with legal expenses trying to establish a more permanent relationship in the United States, a goal easily accomplished by married bi-national heterosexuals. Furthermore, our status excludes us from more than 1,000 federal regulations and benefits. For example, when I die, Phan will receive no Social Security benefits, a program into which I have paid for more than 50 years. The Republicans support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The Republican leadership has engaged in frightening seniors about health care and has cavalierly disregarded gay American citizens. For these two reasons, I am canceling my Republican voter registration. I will maintain my fiscal conservative views, but I will no longer participate in the politics of hate and fear. In a very real sense, I am not abandoning the Republican Party; the Republicans have abandoned me.

May the future of our great country be as great as its past, and may all of us survive despite the current political opportunism of negativism, fear and hate.

┬й Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

[Khor tose]

I know how this man feels about being abandoned by the Republican Party, and I am saddened by his medical problems, but I would have to ask him what took him so long to come to this decision. As an ex-republican I felt the Republican party abandoned their principals a long time ago. Ever since Reagan they have been moving slowly away from being the party of small and fiscally sound government to the the party of "we know what is morally right for all of you". It is a shame that he and so many others have ignored for so long the direction this party has taken over the last 32 years. In truth had he and others woken up sooner, we might have not had a George W. and would not be in the terrible shape he placed this country in.

Well, I'll preface my comment by saying that I'm a casual observer of American politics and by no means an expert - but am I being hard-hearted to observe that the good Professor seems to have spent a number of years not only tolerating discrimination against his life-choices (and thereby against others in similar situations) but also actively voting for a Political Party which promoted and still promotes that discrimination?

Only now that he is in the desperate position of requiring FREE life-saving medical care (which his previously preferred Political Party of choice would happily deny him) and is worried about his long-term partner being left with nothing and possibly being deported, does he appear to realise the consequences of his political choices over the years.

And yet, even now, he can only bring himself to switch from Republican to Independent and (bizarrely) still proclaims that he lives in "the greatest country in the world" - despite the fact that, as far as his life-choices are concerned, it is screwing him and his partner (and everybody else in the same situation) big time.

:dontknow:


PS: Dammit Khor Tose - you posted broadly similar comments whilst I was composing my post :hello2:

[Neal]

I never did understnad many people who have proclaimed that they were "Gay Repubicans". I never thought such a thing could be possible. :violent1:

I have the same feeling about people who self-proclaim as "Gay Christians" and who support by association the continuing discrimination against and vilification of gay people being put forward by the vast majority of Christian Churches and by the Roman Catholic Church in particular.

[lonelywombat]

Cannot let the previous post go without reference to a Government investigation continuingCin my home state right today. Includes a link to a video report

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/one-i ... 2816q.html (http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/one-in-20-priests-an-abuser-inquiry-told-20121022-2816q.html)

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theage.com.au

One in 20 priests an abuser, inquiry told

Date
October 22, 2012 - 7:25PM



Barney Zwartz

Damning statistics revealed at abuse inquiry

Disturbing new claims against the catholic church have emerged from an academic saying one in 20 priests in Melbourne are child abusers.

AT LEAST one in 20 Catholic priests in Melbourne is a child sex abuser, although the real figure is probably one in 15, the state inquiry into the churches' handling of sex abuse was told this afternoon.

RMIT professor Des Cahill said his figures, based on analysing conviction rates of priests ordained from Melbourne's Corpus Christi College, closely matched a much larger American analysis of 105,000 priests which found that 4362 were child sex offenders.

n other key testimony, Professor Cahill:

Called for married priests, as are being allowed now in the Anglican ordinariate within the Catholic Church, as a "circuit-breaker" that would reduce child sex abuse. The state should remove the Equal Opportunity Act exemption letting the church discriminate on grounds of marital status, he said.
Described the Church as "a holy and unholy mess, except where religious sisters or laypeople are in charge, for example schools and welfare agencies".
Called for an "eminent Catholic task force" of lay people to work with the Church on reform and transparency.
Said other religions were not immune from child sex abuse, including credible anecdotal evidence of two incidents within Melbourne's Hindu community where the offending monks were "shipped back to the home country".


Professor Cahill said that 14 of 378 Corpus Christi priests graduating between 1940 and 1966 were convicted of child sexual abuse, and church authorities had admitted that another four who had died were also abusers, a rate of 4.76 per cent.

But the actual figure was much higher when under-reporting was taken into account, along with cases dealt with in secret by the Catholic Church. "One in 20 is a minimum. It might be one in 15, perhaps not as high as one in 10," he said.

He suggested that, though the Church tried to "fudge the figures" by including other church workers, Catholic priests offended at a much higher rate than other men. If the general male population now over 65 offended at the same rate, there would be 65,614 men living in Australia who had been convicted of child sex abuse тАФ very far from the case.

Professor Cahill said the Church's "culture of caste clericalism" and its pyramid structure rendered it incapable of the systemic reform needed. The organisational culture was "verging on the pathological".

"Bishops are caught between canon law and civil law, and Rome has put a lot of pressure on bishops to make sure canon law and the rights of priests are being observed, but canon law has nothing to say about the rights of child victims," he said.

The Melbourne Response тАФ the internal protocol used by the Melbourne archdiocese тАФ was designed to protect the image and reputation of the church and to contain financial liability, and had to be changed. "The church is incapable of reform, so the state will have to do it," he said.

He suggested a new structure involving the Office of the Child Safety Commissioner and a new "eminent Catholics task force", appointed by the Government, to work with Church leadership. Possible candidates included former Supreme Court judge Frank Vincent, La Trobe professor Joseph Camilleri, former Geelong mayer Frank Costa, former deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer, Mrs Diana Grollo, state chief health officer Rosemary Lester, retired Ballarat bishop Peter Connors, retired Melbourne priest Eric Hodgens and Australian Catholic University professor Gabrielle McMullin.

Professor Cahill said child sex abuse had existed in all ages, cultures and religions, shrouded in secrecy and poorly responded to by religious authorities. He said a church council in 309 AD was concerned about child sex abuse in monasteries.

One in 11 Victorians identified with a religion other than Christianity, up 68 per cent in 10 years, and Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Jews all had issues to do with sex abuse, especially in other countries.

In Sri Lanka, child sex abuse was rampant in Buddhist monasteries, and more than 100 monks had been charged in the past decade. Child sex abuse had been called "India's time bomb", especially the plight of street children, while many Muslim communities were in denial, he said. Melbourne Jewish groups were making their own submission to the inquiry

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/one-i ... z2A1Kavj77 (http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/one-in-20-priests-an-abuser-inquiry-told-20121022-2816q.html#ixzz2A1Kavj77)

Well LW it certainly highlights the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church.

The only thing I find rather difficult is the notion that it follows if priests were allowed to marry then they would be less likely to sexually abuse children. I find that a very shaky connection indeed since we know most child sex abuse takes place in the home and is committed by heterosexual men who are likely married or heterosexually-partnered.

Having said that, let's not go down the child sex-abuse route on your very interesting political thread that originally had nothing to do with it.

:hello2:

[CoffeeBreak]

Why did it take him so long to be an ex-Republican?!? That creepy Romney has already said he has total contempt for 47% of Americans. We know he and those he represents in reality hate blacks and gays and womans rights like abortion.
But whats the betting the stupid USA electorate put these loonies into power. Lets face it they elected that half wit Bush not once but twice.

All the off-topic political knockabout from this thread (including mine!) has been moved to a new topic entitled Global Politics in the Global forum. The political knockabout which relates to the OP's post has been left in place here. See y'all there!! :duel:

[lonelywombat]

I have the same feeling about people who self-proclaim as "Gay Christians" and who support by association the continuing discrimination against and vilification of gay people being put forward by the vast majority of Christian Churches and by the Roman Catholic Church in particular.

Scottish I followed your lead with this post.

But back to the original posts

I know, but the topic subsequently strayed even more into all sorts of political stuff (like the Falklands War!!) which had nothing to do with the OP , so I moved all the really off topic stuff (including some of mine)

[cameroncat]

If Romney wins (which appears more and more likely), you can say good bye to Gay, Women's and Minority rights in the US for many decades to come....

[Dboy]

"Tom Knutson is a professor of communication studies at California State University, Sacramento, and a professor of global communication at Bangkok University, Thailand.
"

Meh. This guy is educated enough to know better. His conversion to non-Republican is late and completely selfish. He's not ex-republican due to Bush's war crimes, or The Patriot Act, or torture (Bush used to torture people, Obama just assassinates them). He's a member of the intellectual class, and is therefore complicit in creating the ball of shit that the US has become. He's been a fan of the worst elements of American society, and now, when it's far too late, decides to wake up and think a little. Where was this guy during the WTO protests? Or the Iraq War protests? Or the MANY gay rights protests? No doubt he was bashing all those movements, in the classroom. I say f-him.

Dboy

[latintopxxx]

no need to denigrate the US...if it's such a ball of shit why are container loads of Asians trying to slip in and why are gazzillions of Mexicans and assorted South Americans trying to pole vault their way in over the southern border...

[naklua]

This guy is educated enough to know better. His conversion to non-Republican is late and completely selfish.

Not only people with a university degree should be able to make informed political decisions. It should go without saying that thinking independently for oneself should be a duty of every citizen who is entitled to vote. Just listen to the propaganda and not leting facts spoil one's opinion (e.g. watching Fox News) is not the way to go. Republicans (any many Democrats, too) despice gays - as simple as that. Why should a gay vote for a party or a candidate of a party with the clearly stated policy of discriminating gays? Because of their fiscal discipline? 55555
But why think for yourself if the propaganda tells you how to see things? Example: Reagan abandoned fiscal discipline and started with a deregulation frency which brought the US almost to its knees 25y later. Nevertheless he is the Republican "hero".