Duggar Demons

[Okiebug61]

What are your thoughts?

https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/duggars-helped-repeal-law-banning-lgbt-105011569557.html

[MsTinkerbelly]

Omg, i read an article earlier today on LGBTQ Nation...they make me feel ill, angry, sad and so many things all at once, that I'm not sure my thoughts can be made clear.

I am always suprised at the hate that spews forth from people who are supposed to "love thy neighbour as they love themselves"...oh yes i forgot, as long as you are just like them!

They worked to make descrimination legal. Stop for a second and think about how much time they must spend thinking about making our lives worse...with nineteen children you would think the breeders would have a whole lot more to worry about than if we can rent a house, or keep our jobs.

What's even worse, is that they have nineteen people to brainwash, who (as their oldest is
doing) will work to keep us second class citizens, have a passel of kids each, and so on and so forth.

Love thy neighbour..........

[Andrea]

It will be very interesting when one comes out as gay or lesbian. It is bound to happen with 19 of them.

[Femmadian]

While it's a catchy term for them, I don't know if I'd ever want to call anyone a demon... That being said, I do think the parents are disgusting human beings who created the poster family for child abuse and patriarchal Christian Right values and it makes my blood boil when people describe them as a fair, loving, albeit "traditional" family.

I also wonder what will happen if/when (statistically) one or more of their children has to grapple (or is currently grappling, who knows) with their own queerness at some point. I do fear for whichever child or children it may be as, coming from an abusive Evangelical background myself, I know it can be terrifying (as in thinking-you're-possessed-by-demons-and-going-to-hell-terrifying) to admit even to yourself and doing so to others often has dire consequences for both their family and community relationships. Frankly, I could imagine those kids staying closeted for all their lives unless intentionally outed by someone along the way. It's just sad all around.

I've read a bit about the bill they were working against and from what I gather, it would have prevented discrimination in housing and employment based on an individual's gender identity. I'm unfamiliar with the state-by-state protections in the southern US, but from what I understand, there is no statewide protection on the basis of sexual orientation either. Does anyone know if there is a move towards a more comprehensive bill for the whole state?

The bigotry of the Duggars doesn't surprise me and I wouldn't expect any less of them. That being said, I do, however idealistic it may be, believe that such protections will eventually come to be codified into law and that it is not so much a matter of if but when. There are too many good people working at the ground level doing too many good things for me to believe otherwise.

What really bothers me in the critical conversations about the Duggars is the relative silence surrounding the abuse of their children and the fact that they're being given a platform to preach such abuse as a healthy and loving alternative form of parenting. I know a lot of right wing Christian families who watch the show and follow them online religiously (forgive the pun) and the children who are trapped in those families and have few rights at all, they're the ones who I worry for.

Adults on the whole have a dimension of autonomous mobility and choice to their lives that children simply do not. There are exceptions, of course, but it's worth pointing out the specific ways in which the Duggar family having a prominent voice in public discourse affects a very specific group which has few protections as a general rule and is seen in some ways as an extension of and property to be owned and controlled by the people they are financially and emotionally dependent on. This bill will absolutely be harmful for the children in the families affected, but so is their show and on a national and even international level (yes, we get it up here too...).

I'm not trying to minimize at all the horrors of what they've done and their overall bigotry. I just wish that the effect that they are also having on children within the Christian Right would be given greater (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2012/02/carefully-scripted-lives-my-concerns-about-the-duggars.html) attention (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2014/08/an-open-letter-to-duggar-defenders.html) more (http://bitchmagazine.org/article/multiply-and-conquer) generally (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/16/sex-scandal-rocks-the-duggars-christian-patriarchy-movement.html).

Anyway, don't mean to derail the conversation. It's an important one to have and I hope that if nothing else, their actions surrounding this bill will be part of a larger, more long lasting and ultimately successful call to take them off the air.
:LGBTQFlag:

[girl_dee]

I never cared how they lived until NOW.

[Okiebug61]

While it's a catchy term for them, I don't know if I'd ever want to call anyone a demon... That being said, I do think the parents are disgusting human beings who created the poster family for child abuse and patriarchal Christian Right values and it makes my blood boil when people describe them as a fair, loving, albeit "traditional" family.

I also wonder what will happen if/when (statistically) one or more of their children has to grapple (or is currently grappling, who knows) with their own queerness at some point. I do fear for whichever child or children it may be as, coming from an abusive Evangelical background myself, I know it can be terrifying (as in thinking-you're-possessed-by-demons-and-going-to-hell-terrifying) to admit even to yourself and doing so to others often has dire consequences for both their family and community relationships. Frankly, I could imagine those kids staying closeted for all their lives unless intentionally outed by someone along the way. It's just sad all around.

I've read a bit about the bill they were working against and from what I gather, it would have prevented discrimination in housing and employment based on an individual's gender identity. I'm unfamiliar with the state-by-state protections in the southern US, but from what I understand, there is no statewide protection on the basis of sexual orientation either. Does anyone know if there is a move towards a more comprehensive bill for the whole state?

The bigotry of the Duggars doesn't surprise me and I wouldn't expect any less of them. That being said, I do, however idealistic it may be, believe that such protections will eventually come to be codified into law and that it is not so much a matter of if but when. There are too many good people working at the ground level doing too many good things for me to believe otherwise.

What really bothers me in the critical conversations about the Duggars is the relative silence surrounding the abuse of their children and the fact that they're being given a platform to preach such abuse as a healthy and loving alternative form of parenting. I know a lot of right wing Christian families who watch the show and follow them online religiously (forgive the pun) and the children who are trapped in those families and have few rights at all, they're the ones who I worry for.

Adults on the whole have a dimension of autonomous mobility and choice to their lives that children simply do not. There are exceptions, of course, but it's worth pointing out the specific ways in which the Duggar family having a prominent voice in public discourse affects a very specific group which has few protections as a general rule and is seen in some ways as an extension of and property to be owned and controlled by the people they are financially and emotionally dependent on. This bill will absolutely be harmful for the children in the families affected, but so is their show and on a national and even international level (yes, we get it up here too...).

I'm not trying to minimize at all the horrors of what they've done and their overall bigotry. I just wish that the effect that they are also having on children within the Christian Right would be given greater (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2012/02/carefully-scripted-lives-my-concerns-about-the-duggars.html) attention (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2014/08/an-open-letter-to-duggar-defenders.html) more (http://bitchmagazine.org/article/multiply-and-conquer) generally (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/16/sex-scandal-rocks-the-duggars-christian-patriarchy-movement.html).

Anyway, don't mean to derail the conversation. It's an important one to have and I hope that if nothing else, their actions surrounding this bill will be part of a larger, more long lasting and ultimately successful call to take them off the air.
:LGBTQFlag:

I was actually referring to the demons they carry and not calling them demons.

[Medusa]

Pretty much everything the Duggars represent is loathsome to me.

* The Patriarchal family where women are subjugated and quiet, hands neatly folded, always awaiting the husband's word. The idea that the men in the family can do anything they want with their lives but that the women must stay at home, make babies, and keep house.

* The "quiver full" bullshit where "God blesses the family with children" when it really feels to me like ignorance and willful disregard of birth control (and that is fine if that is what people want to do but having 20-30 kids feels really privileged to me on the level they are doing it)

* The idea that the older children are heavily responsible for caring for and raising the younger children (especially the girls, acting in pseudo-"Mom" rolls to the younger children"

* The ignorance i.e. Homophobia in the name of "Well, the Bible says…"

* The audacity to actively fight against an equality act as if you are doing people a favor by discriminating against LGBT folks while muttering "But I'm protecting your children because what if a MAAANNNNNNNN dressed as a Woman goes in the bathroom"

* Implying that all Trans people are pedophiles.

* Basically existing.

Needless to say, I don't find much at all redeemable about that entire family.