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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJanuary 12th, 2012
Wade Henderson, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, presented an Op-Ed in the Baltimore Sun. It gives wise counsel to all of us and is worth reading in its entirety.
Terms like “gay is the new black” are inherently disrespectful to the black experience in America. These types of misleading slogans obscure the uniqueness of both groups’ struggles in an attempt to make a neat and tidy analogy. After all, gays and lesbians were never enslaved or subject to the harsh Jim Crow tactics of oppression, lynching, and intimidation in the way that blacks were.
And yet while their story of oppression and injustice is not the same as ours, it is equally valid. African-Americans recognize injustice when we see it. Gays and lesbians have been incarcerated, brutalized, lobotomized, raped, castrated, and robbed of their jobs, families and children.
…
In Maryland, gays and lesbians are engaging in a fight for their civil rights — for marriage equality. And we must not let rhetoric that seeks to appropriate our experience blind us to a simple fact: that while the journeys of our two communities may be different, our ultimate goals are the same.
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gar
January 12th, 2012
I spoke about this subject not too long ago on my own blog, the gar spot. Overall, Mr. Henderson and I are certainly on the same page. Well done.
toyotabedzrock
January 13th, 2012
Um, gay people are lynched all the damn time in Africa and Iran, Iraq.
TampaZeke
January 13th, 2012
I’m sorry but I still hate it when people go on the “it’s not right to compare oppressions” meme only to immediately follow the statement up with why racism is SOOOOO much worse than homophobia by listing the usual suspects of slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, etc. First of all there IS a type of LEGAL Jim Crow in many parts of the country and until relatively recently it was legal in ALL parts of the country. Gays STILL get lynched EVERY day in the world and all to often still here in America. These folks never talk about how gay black people suffer from rampant homophobia from WITHIN and without of their own community in addition to the racism that they face. They NEVER list the unique oppressions that gay people experience that black people don’t. For example black kids aren’t abused, disowned and even killed by their own parents over their race. When a black kid is the victim of racism at school he comes home to the supportive fold of his family who commiserate with him, comfort him, support him and defend him whereas all to often when a gay kid experiences homophobia at school the LAST people he wants to tell is his family who may be the most homophobic people he knows fearing even greater abuse from his friends and family than from the bully. Black people aren’t condemned to hell for their race by their pastors, family, friends and neighbors.
I too disagree with playing the “who’s most oppressed” game but when others attempt to show that they’re not the same because black people’s lives are, and were, so much worse, it’s time for someone to stand up and educate that they are doing exactly what they claim to abhor, and ignorantly so.
Lucrece
January 13th, 2012
THERE ARE BLACK GAY PEOPLE. Please, I hope that sinks in for once in his life.
Yes, there were gay black people who were subjected to racist treatment, only worsened by their sexual orientation. And what’s worse, their black peers turned around and piled on. Just like in concentration camps where jews and political prisoners would deign themselves to look down on those with a pink triangle.
Gay people are unique in that they’re born into environments where they are outnumbered by their oppressors; so, unlike straight black people who could seek sanctuary among each other, gay people were truly alone.
The death penalty and incarceration for gay people wasn’t haphazard — if you were found out, you died/were left to rot in jail. Conversely, not every black person was sentenced to lynching.
And gay people DID experience slavery, considering they were prohibited from living any semblance of a fulfilling, healthy life. Let’s force straight black people to become priests or marry someone of the same sex lest they be killed/blackballed from holding any job or social relations, and see how that tune changes.
I’m tired of some minorities’ talking shit about the privilege gay people have had when they have no idea whatsoever about our history thanks to not having — unlike Black and Hispanic– Heritage months and books and movies taught in public schools depicting our struggles.
I’m tired of gay people being compared in our modern movement against centuries old movements. If you’re going to use slavery, you better compare it to being burned alive at a stake and being forsaken/killed by your own family.
trog
January 13th, 2012
@TampaZeke and Lucrece:
Well said. I often think exactly the same thing and experience the same frustrations with these “blacks vs. gays” arguments.
Please post your thoughts to Henderson and the Baltimore Sun.
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