It’s All In the Name…Or Is It?

Members of the LGBT community have been struggling for decades. We’ve been beaten, murdered, arrested, etc., simply for being gay. It wasn’t that long ago that it was illegal in many states and cities for more than 3 gay people to gather in one spot. Sounds a tiny bit like what Blacks have endured doesn’t it?

While I’ll admit there haven’t been any known cases of enslaving LGBT people, I often have thought our slavery came in a much different form. Being forced to stay in the closet out of fear. Fear of being beaten, murdered, ostracized, denied housing and/or employment and so forth. I think one could feasibly justify these actions of intimidation, along with laws that prevent LGBT tax-paying citizens from having the same rights (legalized discrimination) are actually slavery. In my opinion, ’slavery’ isn’t defined by one single action, but many. In fact, I believe one could easily argue that for decades, women were actually mere slaves for their male counterparts.

Now, let’s look at the word marriage. Many opponents of same-sex marriage claim to be so strictly because of the word ‘marriage’. I’ve heard more than several times, “civil unions are fine, but not marriage”…You know, that whole ’separate but equal thing’ that many Blacks have endured over the past several decades.

When it comes to LGBT equality however, at least according to one study, one problem that has arisen and caused a rift between the straight Black community and the LGBT community is the term “Civil Rights”.

According to a post on The Progressive:

The gay rights movement needs to strengthen its ties with the black community. To do so, it should be wary of claiming that marriage equality is the civil rights issue of the 21st century.

Such a claim is a big turnoff, according to a new study from the Arcus Foundation.

It’s supremely tempting to liken the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights to the civil rights movement. The comparison lends moral authority and historical legitimacy.

But this approach isn’t working.

According to the Arcus study, many black people see the term “civil rights” as referring to a specific political movement, which peaked from the 1950s to the early 1970s. To them, another movement’s adoption of the term dilutes the power and uniqueness of their struggle.

I for one don’t buy into this thought.  Civil, according to the dictionary is defined as, “Of, pertaining to, or consisting of citizens: civil life; civil society.”

And according to the dictionary, rights are defined as, “Having the support of reason or law.”

So, wouldn’t that make Civil Rights something that pertains to citizens having support of the law?

Although I do completely understand there are distinct differences between the Black Civil Rights movement and the LGBT Civil Rights movement, I again see many similarities.  I don’t follow the thought however that the term “Civil Rights” should ever be designated for a specific group.  Whether you are a person of color,a woman, a member of the LGBT community or a purple Martian, if you are a tax-paying citizen of the USA, you should be assured of equality and civil rights.  Civil Rights are for all people and all people should be for Civil Rights.

Being that many people of color still struggle for Civil Rights yet today, and given the past history of the Civil Rights movement, one would think both the straight Black community and the LGBT community would ban together…you know, the simplistic yet realistic idea of strength in numbers.  Unfortunately, people have an unyielding nature to want their struggle to be the worst.  We need to understand, supporting others who have also been oppressed and discriminated against doesn’t lessen our plight, but rather it strengthens our cause.

Remebering the Selma Marches 45 Years Later

Courtesy of Equality Forum:

To commemorate the 45^th anniversary of the Selma Marches, Equality Forum will unveil Life Magazine photojournalist Dan Budnik’s image of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King in Selma in March 1965.  The reception of African American and GLBT leaders will take place on Monday, March 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Equality Forum office, 1420 Locust Street, Suite 300, Philadelphia.

“Dr. King’s dream inspired all Americans and had a profound impact on the gay civil rights movement,” stated Malcolm Lazin, Executive Director, Equality Forum. “Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King were outspoken advocates of gay equality.”

“We had marched with Martin Luther King, seven of us from the Mattachine Society of Washington in 1963, and from that time on, we’d always had our own dream about a march of similar proportions,” said Gay Pioneer Jack Nichols.

Openly gay Bayard Rustin was the lead organizer of the March on Washington in August 1963.  In October 1963, openly gay James Baldwin and Dick Gregory with his wife were the first nationally prominent blacks to protest for voters rights in Selma

“The Budnik photograph will remain in the Equality Forum office as a reminder of the debt the GLBT civil rights movement owes to Dr. King,” said Temple Professor Debra Blair, Chair of Equality Forum’s Board of Directors.

Equality Forum is a national and international GLBT civil rights organization with an educational focus. Equality Forum coordinates GLBT History Month, produces documentary films, undertakes high-impact initiatives and presents the largest annual national and international GLBT civil rights summit.

For more information, please click here to visit the Equality Forum!

For more on the Marches from Selma to Montgomery, click here!

Religion Dispatches: Reproductive Rights & Black Genocide

For several years now, the religious right has been trying to appropriate the moral authority of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s an audacious strategy, given that Christian conservative politics were forged in the white Southern backlash to school integration. But it’s had some successes, particularly in rousing black churches against the gay rights movement. Now, the anti-abortion movement is making a push to enlist African Americans in their cause by framing abortion as a tool of eugenics and genocide.

The campaign is already having an impact. As the New York Times reported late last month, the overwhelmingly white Georgia Right to Life has spent more than $20,000 erecting 80 billboards around Atlanta that proclaim, “Black children are an endangered species.” The group has created a Web site, Too Many Aborted, with excellent production values, designed to portray legal abortion as a plot against the black community. Meanwhile, according to the Times, the new documentary Maafa 21: Black Genocide in 21st Century America, which purports to “trace connections among slavery, Nazi-style eugenics, birth control and abortion,” is finding an audience among black organizations nationwide. The Times quoted Markita Eddy, a sophomore at the historically black Morris Brown College, who had turned against abortion rights after seeing the film.

More of this great read at: Religion Dispatches!

What and How Much is it Going to Take?

Movies and TV shows with gay characters could be ineligible for a “family-friendly” tax credit in Florida under a little-noticed provision tucked into a $75 million incentive package that Republican House leaders hope will attract film and entertainment jobs to the state.

The bill would prohibit productions with “nontraditional family values” from receiving a so-called family-friendly tax credit. But it doesn’t define what “nontraditional family values” are, something the bill’s sponsor had a hard time doing, too.

“Think of it as like Mayberry,” state Rep. Stephen Precourt, R-Orlando, said, referring to The Andy Griffith Show. “That’s when I grew up — the ’60s. That’s what life was like. I want Florida to be known for making those kinds of movies: Disney movies for kids and all that stuff. Like it used to be, you know?”

[For the full article, see here.]

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli: “It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including ’sexual orientation,’ ‘gender identity,’ ‘gender expression,’ or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy absent specific authorization from the General Assembly,” he wrote. Colleges that have included such language in their policies — which include all of Virginia’s leading schools — have done so “without proper authority” and should “take appropriate actions to bring their policies in conformance with the law and public policy of Virginia.” (See here.]

In fact: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s campaign to make sure that every LGBT person can be fired for being gay is expanding to his state’s public universities. (See here.)

And, of course, there is the Obama Justice Department aggressively affirming DOMA in federal court, even linking its need with the specter of incest and pedophilia should it be overturned; the Obama administration dragging its heels on rescinding DADT; Obama not signing a stop/loss executive order so that Gay military personnel wouldn’t be discharged for being admittedly Gay; allowing same-sex marriage, or any civil right, to be put to a vote of the electorate; the continuous defaming and lies perpetrated by assorted professing “Christians” and politicians regarding Gay people; the erroneous appeal to selected verses of the Bible to erroneously and irrationally seek to justify hateful rhetoric that bears false witness and discrimination against Gay people.

It seems to me that the humiliation, indignities, and patent inequality visited upon LGBT people is about to reach a critical mass that demands (and will result in) expressed outrage in the form of meaningful, coordinated grassroots and organizational activism!

Frivolity; reveling in second-class sexual outlaw status and subcultures; demeaning and defaming oneself by use of pejorative and hateful words as self-identifiers; making nice with strident homophobes by trying to reason with them; allowing clergy and politicians to gain power, prestige, and wealth on the backs of LGBT people; in any way sticking a finger in the eye of potential Straight allies; giving credibility and money to homophobic churches by attending them; giving money to LGBT rights organizations and many professional “activists” that merely content themselves with being in proximity to influential politicians and drink the Kool Aid of feel-good rhetoric devoid of substantive civil rights gains, all the while frequently making a handsome living by so doing; allowing civil rights to be put to popular vote rather than having them adjudicated by the courts where they rightfully belong; settling for crumbs of incrementalism, such as Domestic Partnerships, Civil Unions, and the like; denying the fundamental importance of the institution of marriage for same-sex couples; settling for anything less than the very same civil and sacramental rights that heterosexuals enjoy, are both retarding the cause of full and equal civil rights and also giving tacit permission for ignorant and/or mendacious clergy and politicians to externalize the hate in their hearts by using LGBT people as their targets for that hate.

Regardless of rhetoric or seeming “gains,” separate is not equal!

Unless and until LGBT people and allies demand full equality for LGBT people, and do so in a coordinated and sophisticated fashion as occurred in the African American Civil Rights movement, increasing indignities, and even rescinding of some civil rights, will occur, as the strident homophobes will become increasingly emboldened in direct proportion to the psychological, social, and political lethargy of those whose very humanity and civil rights are on the line!

More from Rev. Dr. Jerry Maneker at: ChristianLGBTRights.org!

Will the Pendulum Swing?

There is a powerful piece on the Atlantic by Mickey Edwards, who chaired CPAC for five years and served in Congress for 16 years, which explains why he was not in attendance at CPAC this year. To sum it up, he strongly feels the right wing has been taken over by…well, nuts!

Below is an excerpt from that post:

Today there are few things that set a “conservative’s” teeth on edge more than a defense of “civil liberties;” yet that is what American conservatism was all about—protecting the liberties of the people. It was a system designed to protect the people from an over-reaching government, not to protect the government from the people. American constitutionalism was a historical high-point in recognizing individual worth. Stop at CPAC today and you will find rooms full of ardent, zealous, fervent young men and women who believe the government should be allowed to torture (we condemned people at Nuremberg for doing that), who believe the government should be able to lock people up without charges and hold them indefinitely (something Henry VIII agreed was a proper exercise of government authority). Who believe the government should be able to read a citizen’s mail and listen in on a citizen’s phone calls, all without a warrant (the Constitution of course prohibits searches without a warrant, but nobody cares less about the Constitution than some of today’s ersatz conservatives).

I’m not at CPAC because I believe in America. I believe in liberty. I believe that governments should be held in check. I believe people matter. I believe in the flag not because of its shape or color but because of the principles it stands for—the principles in the Constitution, the principles repeated and underlined and highlighted and boldfaced and italicized in the Bill of Rights. The George W. whose presidency and precedents I admire was the first president, not the 43d. It is James Madison I admire, not John Yoo. Thomas Paine, not Glenn Beck. Jefferson, not Limbaugh.

My guess…This is a trend. For the past year there have been many, who have made a great deal of money by bashing President Obama, Gay Rights (which are realistically nothing more than equal rights for all citizens), health insurance reform, and so on. The problem is, the “tea-baggers” fail to realize they are a fringe group, and unlike their adversarial LGBT activist, they haven’t been denied anything. They haven’t been told they aren’t equal and that lack of inequality hasn’t been reinforced by laws that prevent them from being equal. As I’ve mentioned several times, the tea-baggers claim they want to take back America, yet who are they taking it back from? What have they lost? Nothing. I firmly believe that this fringe group went off the rails, and with every other train wreck, it’s in the news everyday. It’s all people talk about…for a relatively short period of time that is, then as with every other tragedy, it’s becomes lost in the archives. After all, we do live in the United States of Amnesia.

I can’t help but to believe this whole tea-party nonsense is nothing more than a really bad fad…worse than bell-bottoms or curly perms. But as with all fads, people jump on board quickly, but fall off just as quick. Yes, it’s been quite popular for kings and queens of the right wing nutery to spew their hateful rhetoric, and get people all fired up over a man of color being in the Oval Office…and giving recognition to minority groups at that. But, when the dust settles, people are still without jobs, people are still doing without health care and there are people in this country still legally being discriminated against. That is NOT the American way. People still recognize that there is an element of brokenness in this country, and people also recognize the efforts wasted on thwarting President Obama are exactly that, wasted efforts and wasted time. I firmly believe the pendulum is swinging, and the lack of tolerance, soon will be geared towards those who up to this point have refused to tolerate.

Somehow, during the years of the G W Bush regime, the crazy right wing lunatic fringe gained freedoms unrealized by everyday Americans. They were on top of the hill and no one could reach them. That’s where and when the deficit, corporate corruption, oppression and discrimination triumphed. It was easy to for the extreme right to bully their way into every facet of government, as George W held the door open for them. But now there’s a new king of the mountain and they are struggling to maintain their high positions. It’s never easy to be pushed down that hill, but they’re sliding on their own, and fortunately we have a president who is sending the message, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

I believe that Americans are starting to see, and admit, the right, in many instances is wrong. As much as I dislike Michele Bachmann, I still believe in her right as an American to live and speak freely, even if that means hiding in the bushes at LBGT rallies. The problem, Bachmann, and others like her on the right, don’t believe everyone should have those same freedoms. They feel they are part of exclusive American country club. One that doesn’t accept members who think different, look different, worship different or love different. But see, American is not a country club. American is a public course, where if you live here, you too get to play, regardless of race, color, religion, creed, gender and eventually sexual orientation.

I believe in America. I believe in the people as a whole. I believe eventually and gradually (taking from history here) Americans will accept and take in those of us who have been standing outside, just as America, eventually and gradually, accepted others who at one time where on the outside looking in. I believe those who have worked so fervently to exclude will become the excluded.  Just as with woman’s suffrage and Civil Rights for people of color, what’s right will prevail over those who stand far to the right. Perhaps it will take more government intervention to provide the catalyst of change (again taking from history) but it will, and one day, in the not too distant future, the tea-baggers and right wingers with their brand of intolerance and hate, will again be recognized for what they are…a minority on the far right…not the majority.  I believe in America and I think that people will come to see and understand the tea-baggers are nothing more than a detriment to the progress we all want and need.  I believe one day, the pendulum will swing, and “tea-baggers” will be a part of our American past.

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