The Pursuit of Happiness and the Puritans (Summer 07)

The Pursuit of Happiness and the Puritans by Melissa Ann Pink

This week our country celebrated the Fourth of July and with it, a celebration of the documents and principles that define our nation. I thought this would be a good time to examine these principles in the context of the transgendered and GBLT communities. Our founders, all males and presumably most of who were straight Anglo Saxon males and at least no known transgendereds (although history is filled with many secret transgendered people who were royalty and with much power and money) set forth basic principle that all “men” (reflecting the clearly sexist period in history when women were treated as second class citizens)and now refined to be all people (supposedly in the broadest sense – all humanity) are created equal and that we all have equal rights and opportunities in our society. Furthermore, human beings were endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights –largely life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

What if that pursuit of happiness or enjoyment of life and expression of liberty involves being attracted to someone of the same sex even to the point of choosing to want to spend the remainder of one’s life with that person? What if that pursuit of happiness and enjoyment of life involves expressing one’s self in a manner opposite one’s genetic birth gender? What if it involves transitioning to the preferred opposite gender including the legal rights of such including name change, insurance coverage, employment and avoidance of discrimination so that one can pursue other aspects of life in the pursuit of happiness? Did our founding fathers envision those in the society that were gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered? The pursuit of rights for those of us in these communities is a long and complex subject for discussion in this particular forum and is more geared for a course at university or a book or treatise.

However, I have a theory as to why acceptance and progress has been slow in these areas and why society still fights the trend to expand the rights, privacy, dignity and liberties of human beings of the GBLT communities. It is because society in America has been hindered ( at least way behind many European countries ) and crippled for many years is still extensively affected by a disease called “Puritanism” This culture is of course named after the Puritans who settled early America. The Puritans left Europe (which is why Europe may have faired much better than the US in its progress and attitudes) to escape “religious prosecution” so that many years later, they could persecute others (sorry hypocrisy is always one of my favorite subjects. These Puritans brought us the Puritan work ethic which has prevailed for centuries in this country. Americans work harder and longer and with fewer amounts of time off than our European counterparts. The Europeans always have an attitude to work hard but they realize there is more to life than just working one’s self to bone and they take times both during the day and during the year to relax and enjoy a bit of life as well. Americans following this puritanical work ethic which has driven us for centuries work excessively long hours as companies squeeze more and more out of less and less and our people are made to sometimes even feel guilty for taking breaks or vacationing. People even try to work while on “vacation”.

The second thing that the Puritans gave us was religious intolerance and persecution of anyone that seemed different or who ran afoul of their strict societal and religious rules. Case in point is the famous book “The Scarlet letter”. Other wonderful examples include the burning at the stake of so called “witches”. The Puritans were a very strict- minded Bible centered group which were the forerunners and major influence for the “religious right” that stands today as the greatest barrier for the rights and dignity of those of us in the GBLT community. Their intolerance of others that are perceived to be “different” and belief that we all are an abomination of deviants undeserving of the same rights and dignities of those that are “pure” stems from the early roots of the Puritans and their influence on our society’s development throughout our history. The so called ‘religious right” or ‘moral majority” (which in both cases is neither) has its roots and origins deeply embedded in our Puritan ancestors.

Wonderful people ……..these Puritans….oh yeah! So next time you feel a little stressed from all your work and lack of free time to pursue happiness or you feel your rights and liberties are being denied and squelched as a member of the GBLT community, just blame it on those @@##&&& Puritans !!!