What belongs in state capitols? Menorahs? Christmas trees? Holiday shrubs? Ten Commandments? Crosses? Brooms? Satanic altars? How about something like the rendered pic above, a rainbow pole with a disco ball on top (pic from slate.com).
A Florida man has won the right to erect a gay rights-themed Festivus pole on the grounds of Oklahoma’s state capitol, The Associated Press reports.
And he won’t stop there.
Chaz Stevens, of Jupiter, Florida, will display the pole Wednesday, Dec. 23—the official day marking the Seinfeld-inspired holiday—in the first-floor rotunda of the Oklahoma City building, near an existing display of giant nutcrackers and a gift-laden sleigh. The six-foot-pole will be wrapped in the colors of the gay pride rainbow flag and topped with a disco ball, the AP says.
Earlier this week, Stevens won the right to display the pole at the Washington state capitol in Olympia. The AP says he also has or is awaiting approval to erect the pole in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Michigan.
In October, my colleague Casey Tolan wrote about Stevens’ other campaign: Attempting to hold Satanic incantations to short-circuit the practice of local governments’ holding prayers before meetings. It’s part of Stevens’ Humanity Fund group, which is dedicated to “protecting and promoting freedom of speech and religion, especially the separation of Church and State.”
“If I have to go to the city or county commission to get my roof fixed or something and I have to go through church for a few minutes, I hate it,” Stevens said. “We pay them to get right to the business at hand—the trash, the police, the fire department—not to pray.”
The Festivus pole’s placement in Oklahoma comes just months after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that a permanent Ten Commandments monument had to be removed from the state’s Capitol.
“Out goes the Ten Commandments. In comes the gay pride Festivus pole,” Stevens told the AP. “It’s a beautiful way to talk about 2015.” – fusion.net
I'm not sure I'll go to any state capitol to see a rainbow pole on display, just like I never desired to go any where on God's green earth to see a copy of the Ten Commandments, or a 6 foot menorah, nativity scene, or a Christmas tree. And I think that may be one of the points Stevens is trying to make. Why do we feel the need to put this kind of stuff in a place of government? I think the most exciting thing I've seen in a state capitol building was a stuffed moose in Augusta, Maine. I'd go see that again.
How does this year's project compare to previous years?
In previous years, Stevens put a simple stack of 16 Pabst Blue Ribbon cans to poke fun at the religious symbols adorning the Capitol. Stevens is an outspoken atheist. – myactsofsedition.com
Thanks Chaz Stevens for the reality check that some of us need.