Monday, October 1, 2018

U.N.believable!

Remember when the government was
run by people who knew what they
were doing? That was great wasn't it?
Hey, so here's a thing I didn't know. People working in the U.S. for international organizations like say, the U.N. or the IMF, need a visa to work here. This visa-huh? Yeah, I guess I knew that, but that's not the interesting part. The interesting part is that the spouses of foreign nationals can apply for something called a spousal visa so they can live here too. Cool, but this policy only applied to straight couples, that is until the Obama Administration when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton extended the rules to include domestic partners. Awesome, right?

After all, most countries around the world don't have marriage equality, so same-sex couples were just shit out of luck until Secretary Clinton came along. So why am I talking about this? Yup. Because that policy is over as of today.
With each passing day I find myself asking 'what is
wrong with these people, and what were they thinking?'
Pictured: a straight married couple
dealing with the gross unfairness of
the State Department's former policy.
The State Department's new policy is that spousal visas are only available to married couples, gay or straight, but still, married couples. According to the State Department the change is designed "to help ensure and promote equal treatment" which, seriously? I mean, yes, in a sense the policy opened an avenue to getting a visa not available to straight married couples, but since there are governments that will literally murder someone for being gay, maybe letting 'domestic partnerships' slide on this one would be ok?

Also, there is totally a straight pride
parade. Happens every March 17th.
Like, the policy harmed exactly no one and revoking it could easily endanger lives. And what possible benefit is there for the State Department to roll back a policy that allows staff at these organizations to live with their partners without fear of retribution from their home country? Because some idiot somewhere this is unfair to straight couples? This is a false-equivalence worthy of Michelle Bachman. I can't believe we're still stuck listening to this kind of 'why isn't there a straight pride parade' bullshit rational.

Sorry, I'm spiraling out here, I know, but sometimes I wonder if people in the Trump administration don't sit just down around a table and discuss new and interesting ways to make people's lives more miserable. 
"We do, we call them cabinet meetings. Hey-oh!"
-That game show host most 
of us didn't even vote for

No comments:

Post a Comment