NASA Mission Includes Pride
While I don’t think any gay rights activist is out praising Obama for his actions surrounding GLBTQ issues, His proclamation has had a few interesting results. He isn’t the first president to do such a thing. Clinton did as well- but the time seems right for this action to have some legs and start to make a difference.
NASA headquarters issued a press release Monday declaring that the space-faring organization would participate in, and encourage celebration of, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month declared by President Obama.
“LGBT Pride Month is a reflection of NASA’s commitment to inclusiveness across the broad spectrum of our workforce,” said NASA’s Acting Administrator Christopher J. Scolese. ”NASA strives to be a model employer by ensuring it adheres to the principles of inclusion. These principles include fairness and respect for the many different backgrounds, perspectives and life experiences of our employees.
The radical right isn’t quite so happy about it.
John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, called NASA’s celebration of homosexuality “completely off-mission.”
“Promotions of specific sexual orientations over others clearly is outside of NASA’s mission and is being paid for by taxpayers’ dollars,†Stemberger told the Catholic News Agency. “NASA should be for advancing scientific space research objectives, not engaging in homosexual activism.â€
Although Stemberger, and others really miss the point. Events like this neither promote any lifestyle over another nor are activist as their purpose. It is hard to see how “commitment to inclusiveness…” can be interpreted as promoting one sexual orientation over another. conservatives are supposedly the big supporters of a Free Market System(FMS) , and inclusion, fairness, and respect for different life experiences fits perfectly within a FMS economic model because employees who are happy at work, and work together in teams; those who feel appreciated and welcome; those not living in fear of being fired or treated badly, will naturally do a better job and help a company do better. Pride is very much at its core an economic thing.
The line that makes me chuckle most, is the one about “taxpayers’ dollars.” Guess what- Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered people pay taxes too! We are here, we are queer, we work, we pay taxes and you are just going to have to get used to it.
Family Advocates Baffled as NASA Celebrates Homosexual “Pride” Month.
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