I'm ZJ, and I've been told "users relate more easily to somebody they've seen." Sounds good to me!
Facebook group
Live chat
(#emptv on irc.synirc.net)
Email: zjemptv@gmail.com
AIM: ZJemptv
YouTube (video transcripts)
Twitter
Facebook
MySpace
Other stuff:
SpikeTrap
Loose Change
Photography
Recipes
Link creator
Worth reading:
Accelerating Future
Brian Kelly
Daylight Atheism
Games Aren't Numbers
Kill The Mode
Less Wrong
Pharyngula
Respectful Insolence
TorrentFreak
Excuses, excuses
Video | ZJ on YouTube | Subscribe
ZJ: In my last video, I talked about the Salvation Army, their religious beliefs, and their anti-gay policies, as well as their attempts to influence the law in this area. I did this so that people would be aware of these issues before deciding to donate to the Salvation Army.
And some responded with indifference, essentially saying that this was irrelevant because the Salvation Army helps people and they do good things. And I can certainly understand that many of you think it's very important to support this. That's why I listed 11 other charities that help people and do good things, and they do not have discriminatory policies based on religion.
If you want to help people, there are plenty of ways to do that, and you don't have to support anti-gay bias in the process. So what reason is there to give to a charity that supports discrimination, when there are many others that don't? And yet it seems that's exactly what some people are committed to doing, and I'd be really interested to know why.
Maybe it's just convenient that the Salvation Army is waiting outside the store to take your change, when you probably wouldn't have gone to the trouble of finding a charity to donate to. Maybe you've given to them before and you don't want to feel like you could've made a better choice. Maybe you feel that supporting charity means you have a free pass for a bit of ethical laziness or moral disregard, and so you don't really have to care about the biased beliefs of the Salvation Army.
Or maybe the recognition of equality for gay people just isn't that important to you. Perhaps you feel that the treatment of gay people as equals can be deprioritized, cast aside and traded away if a certain amount of good is done in return. And that's a rather disturbing moral calculus—just how badly would they have to treat gay people before you would no longer jump to their defense, saying "but they do good things"? Alternately, just how much good must be done to compensate for telling people that their relationships are less than equal, and sexual intimacy with a lover should be forever off-limits to them?
What if the Salvation Army supported legal discrimination against straight people? What if they defended legislation calling heterosexuality a "pretended family relationship"? What if they believed heterosexuals should embrace a lifetime of celibacy simply because of who they love? What if I told you that none of this matters, and you should still give them your money, even though there are so many other charities that will treat you with dignity?
I'm sure you understand how unnecessary and unacceptable that kind of discrimination would be. So why would you support an organization that treats gay people like that, especially when you have better options? And if, as many people said, it doesn't matter what they believe as long as they're getting something good done, then what trouble is it to find a charity that recognizes gay people as equals? When giving to charity can be a win-win, there's no need to make compromises.
And by the way, for those of you who accused me of not supporting charity after I recommended 11 charities that work to fight hunger, torture, disease, poverty, cancer, diabetes, and suicide, I have two more charities to add to that: The Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis, Missouri, and The Arc of the United States—formerly known as the Association for Retarded Citizens.