Wednesday, March 14, 2007

"Your Jedi mind tricks do not work with me..."

Anna from Blackbird sent me an article headed,

"Use of ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ Too “Homophobic”, Scottish Nurses Told".

Apparently,

In "EDINBURGH, Scotland, February 16, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Nurses and other health care professionals should avoid using the terms ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ to refer to family relationships since the terms could be offensive to homosexual couples with children, a new directive published by Scotland’s National Health Service recommends".


Again, people seek to change human behaviour with semantics.
It doesn't work.
In fact, those who want to see you as a crazy fanatic, now have some ammo to call your cause petty and narrow.

"Along the same lines, the directive points out, use of the terms ‘husband’, ‘wife’ and ‘marriage’ is not acceptable since such terms exclude lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Instead, health care workers should use the terms ‘partners’ and ‘next of kin’. Since ‘next of kin’ is often understood to mean nearest blood relative, however, the booklet recommends that it may be preferable to use ‘partner, close friend or close relative’ to avoid confusion".
Listen, I don't see the issue.
If you're admitted to the hospital, whoever sees you and fills out the form should have your information there. Anyone of importance will read the file and know who the important person in your life is.

I was in the hospital with my sister-in-law when both my nieces were born...the nurses all assumed that my husband was the father.
I'm white, he's black...the pregnant woman in the bed is black...that white woman couldn't possibly be his wife.
Black, white and Filipina nurses, all assumed my husband... was his sisters husband.
People make assumptions all the time.
You correct them as you go. They apologize, correct their behaviour, and we move on.
We don't stomp our feet and demand that everyone change how they wish to be addressed in order to suit us.

Frankly, when I hear the word partner, I assume that the partner is gay.
It's going to take a while to get this word into the mainstream.
When I do hear heterosexuals using it, it's mostly women using it to describe their live in boyfriend. When you think about it, "boyfriend" is a stupid word too, especially when you're out of high school...but don't listen to me.
I hate the word fiancee, and whenever I say it, I can't help but say it in a nasally, whiny voice, dragging out the "aaayyyyy".
I've never used that word, even when I had a "feeee-on-saaaaayyyyy".

I don't know, language is a living thing, and it's constantly changing.
Does language change the way people feel about things. Does a homophobe stop being a homophobe by choosing his or her words while addressing a parent they aren't sure is straight?
Does not using the word "nigger" stop people from being racist?

I'd prefer to be able to identify them more readily, rather than let them hide behind politically correct words...but, I've got to say, this Scottish LGBT initiative is the ultimate in tail wagging the dog mentality.

According to The Pink Pound, 6% of the UK is gay.

Perhaps forcing their point down the throats of the other 94% is not going to help their cause as much as they'd like.