This nonsense over whether or not President Obama is an American citizen has made me philosophical.
Most specifically, the new controversy has made me philophical. This one has to do with President Obama's alleged Kenyan birth certificate:
The latest development in the Obama "birther" conspiracy is the emergence of a "Kenyan birth certificate" for the president, put online by movement maven Orly Taitz.
Oddly, the same people who are so skeptical of Obama's Hawaii birth certificate are willing to accept this new document despite many flaws, documented by the Washington Independent's Dave Weigel and Markos Moulitsas.
There are numerous flaws with this birth certificate including:
First, the hospital is Coast Provincial General Hospital (sometimes said to be Coast Province General Hospital), not Coast General Hospital.
Second, Kenya was a Dominion the date this certificate was allegedly issued and would not become a republic for 8 months.
Third, Mombasa belonged to Zanzibar when Obama was born, not Kenya.
Fourth, Obama's father's village would be nearer to Nairobi, not Mombasa.
Fifth, the number 47O44-- 47 is Obama's age when he became president, followed by the letter O (not a zero) followed by 44--he is the 44th president.
Not that it matters of course. As I understand it, those fine fiends at Free Republic are on the case to prove that the birth certificate is not a flaw.
It should make for more comedy, as if this nonsense about President Obama not being a United State citizens hasn't been funny already.
But it becomes less comical when one analyzes the entire situation in relation to the lgbt community.
President Obama has now become afflicted with that lovely thing that many of us in the lgbt community know of too well - the headless monster.
The headless monster is a belief or idea that is passed off as truth even when it has been consistently debunked. The belief's "head" or credibility has been lopped off. However, belief continues to be propped up as truth due to the insistence of a loyal group who will swear to its veracity.
These include beliefs like President Obama is not an American citizen.
Or beliefs like "homosexuality takes 20 years off of your life," or "the majority of child molesters are gay men," or "homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle."
No matter how many times we have debunked these lies, they continue to be thought of as truth by people either too ignorant or too homophobic to accept the fact that there is nothing wrong with being an lgbt.
But while the birther mess is providing us with a laugh a minute, the constant repeititon of "headless monsters" about lgbts has caused real harm to us and our families.
So what does all of this mean? I don't know. Maybe it's something to think about the next time our community goes off on the President about not moving fast enough on our issues.
Granted, we should never slack up when it comes to getting our issues taken care of, but maybe the realization that we are all in the same boat may give us a bit of levity.
After all, us and the President are in the same boat. Let's rock it when need be but not sink it.
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