I am sick and tired of being demonized

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What is so wrong about this adorable book about one kind of American family?

I am just sick of it. And here we go again. The North Carolina Republican-dominated legislature has called in the superintendent of the Chapel Hill – Carrboro school district, Rodney Trice, to question him about LGBTQ-themed books in their school libraries. Link to article. Despite not being able to pass an annual state budget for an entire year (the Republicans in the State House and the State Senate cannot agree), they are wasting their time on this non-issue because of one parent’s complaint.

If this one parent does not want their kid to read LGBTQ+ themes books, they can simply direct their kid not to take one out.  Why should this one parent trample on the rights of all the inclusive parents who are fine with their children reading books that include LGBTQ-themed content?  Don’t those parents have rights too?


But worse than this being a waste of time instead of addressing the needs of our state, this continues to send the message that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are somehow bad or illegitimate human beings. What does it say to a teenager coming to grips with their sexuality that there are no books in the library about this subject? What does it say to a small kid with two moms or two dads that their family is so bad, that there are no books about kids with two moms or two dads in their library?

And North Carolina is not the only state bent on demeaning and demonizing queer people. Some states are passing laws forcing transgender people to change their driver’s licenses to gender markers that do not align with their gender identities or to use the bathroom that matches their gender assigned at birth instead of their current gender identity. Some state legislatures are asking the Supreme Court to invalidate and reverse the ruling on universal marriage rights for same-gender couples. And some state legislatures are trying to ban the flying of the Pride Flag.

Should this man really be forced to use the ladies room because his birth certificate has the gender marker F?

It’s a disgrace that one particular political party (OK – let’s call it out – Republicans) are hell-bent on finding some group to hate. Over the past decades their hate and demonization has cycled across Black people, immigrants, Muslims and LGBTQ+ people. The only way they think they can win elections and keep power is to pit groups of Americans against each other with divisive rhetoric and laws.

It’s time to put and end to this hate. When you vote, please consider … are you voting for all Americans to be treated equally and respectfully, or are you voting for hate and division?

Doing the Right Thing – – Part Way

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Late last year, I published my latest blog, “Doing the Right Thing.” I wrote about a long time local politician who lost her reelection bid because she cancelled her town’s LGBTQ pride recognition, and about the success of companies that did not bow to political pressure, but instead maintained their commitment to their DEIB strategy and efforts. Yes, it does take courage to do the right thing!

I plan to continue on this theme for a while, and this time I will write about doing the right thing, but perhaps not going far enough.

In the past few weeks, the USA ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) group has gone into the Minneapolis area to round up undocumented immigrants. They have used strong arm and inhumane techniques, leading to wide spread protests across the city. Now in two cases, two innocent well-meaning US citizens have been murdered by ICE. In addition, agents have been attacking peaceful protests with tear gas and projectiles.

President Trump and other leaders around him have quickly jumped to conclusions labeling the two murdered people (Renee Good and Alex Pretti) as domestic terrorist who threatened the lives of agents, totally disregarding the facts presented in videos of the incidents.

At this point, I am expecting all political leaders from both sides of the aisle to strongly condemn these lies. It is disappointing to see only a small handful of Republicans honestly address the situation.

Finally, after the second murder and seeing images of several peaceful crowds being pepper sprayed, most leaders of the Fortune 500 companies in the Minneapolis area issued a letter urging “state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions” and how the recent tumult in Minnesota has caused “widespread disruption and tragic loss of life.”


I call this “partially doing the right thing.” I view this as a fairly feeble attempt to address the situation as the letter did not specifically name President Trump or any other political leader involved with the situation. Executives across the country have been largely reluctant to comment publicly on political issues throughout Trump’s second term.

This reminds me of a situation with a team I was once on. There were three people who were causing chaos and being outward belligerent toward other members of the team. The leader then came and gave us a tepid talk about how we need to work better together without addressing those causing the problem. So nothing changed and the team totally imploded into ineffectiveness.

Doing the right thing does take courage, especially when it includes being totally frank about addressing those in the wrong. So is it enough to “do the right thing” part way?