I still haven’t dropped off my rent check. I always forget. I really am about to do some actual work (I had family duties earlier today). But I thought I’d just chime in with today’s update from the planet.

I finally got around to reading this week’s Savage Love and found a disturbing fact about local corporate monstrosity Target:

STRAIGHT RIGHTS UPDATE: There were two disturbing developments in the battle over straight rights last week. First, we know thatTarget fills its ads with dancing, multi-culti hipsters giving off a tolerant, urbanist vibe, and runs hipster-heavy ad campaigns positioning Target as a slightly more expensive, more progressive alternative to Wal-Mart. Well, as John Aravosis revealed on americablog.org last week, Target’s politics are as red as their bulls-eye logo. The chain allows its pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control and emergency contraception to female customers if the pharmacist objects on religious grounds. What’s worse, the company claims that any of its employees have a right to discriminate against any of its customers provided the discrimination is motivated by an employee’s religious beliefs. Read all about it at americablog.org and plannedparenthood.org.

You can read the rest of Dan’s mention here. And there’s this ink to write to Target and voice your concerns. I found a couple of blogs where people received emails back from Target explaining their position. And that’s as far as I’m researching it. I’m just too lazy.

Hm. No matter what, the whole situation is fucked up.

But when you really think about it, the company is between a rock and a hard place. Because they can’t ask what religion a potential employee is during the hiring process. And to ask an employee to go against their religious beliefs is not respecting that person’s right to adhere to said beliefs. And since a company can’t fire this person for refusing to dispense this drug on the basis of religious beliefs…

So, really, what do they do?

Frankly, I think there should be some sort of policy/legislation allowing non-… whatever, licensed pharmacists to dispense certain drugs when the pharmacist on duty refuses. For a company to respect someone’s beliefs is one thing, it’s quite another not to have any contigency plan in place to respect and help their customers.

I used to work downtown at company headquarters for about six months (internship in college) and I thought it was a good company to work for. It hadn’t quite taken over the world yet, but it was poised to (I saw the roll out of where the stores were going to be going in over the next five years and was shocked).

So until I find that Target is doing nothing to help rectify this, I’ll reserve judgment. But if someone doesn’t come up with ome solution and fast, then we’ve got a problem.

In the meantime, I will build up my anger toward pharmacists who ostensibly take the time to become certified to help people by dispensing medicine and then refuse that help when the patient doesn’t fit into their narrow-minded world view. THEY, quite clearly, SUCK.

Listen, I had to work for a company whose main clients were hypocritical fundamentalist Christians for way too many years, and I would have LOVED to have refused to work with their clients on the grounds that they didn’t conform to my moral belief system, but I didn’t.

Instead I sucked it up, shook it off, and then finally quit my crappy job to start my own company so I can tell hypocritical people exactly where to go.

Hm. There’s the pissed off Claire I know and love. I was going through my old rants to find stories to add to the Storybook Nook. I forgot some of them.

Anyway: I found a rant I wrote a year ago after the presidential election. And everything I posited would happen, pretty much
happened.

Funny how predictable this administration is. In other news: Today is Gram Parsons birthday. Or would be, anyway. I pulled out my Return of the Grievous Angel Tribute Album.
I like that album.