Parallels: Civil Rights and Gay Rights

Paying tribute to the 1965 Civil Rights marches in Selma, Alabama, hundreds of same-sex couples are marching across conservative farm towns in Central California in the latest demonstration for marriage equality calling for an end to bigotry, discrimination and oppression.

The protest began earlier today in Selma, California, only days after California’s Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, which took away the rights of LGBT citizens to marry.

The leaders of the march have vowed to win the hearts and minds of those who oppose marriage equality.

The weekend-long event is being joined by celebrities including Charlize Theron, a well know equal rights activist.

The march was organized by a mother in Fresno who was removed from her son’s Catholic school parent-teacher association for being a lesbian and speaking out against homophobia.

One well known Civil Rights activist, who lead the marches in Selma, Alabama back in 1965, is also a proponent of marriage equality. Congressman John Lewis has spoken out on several occasions for LGBT rights.

With people like Lewis, and with his background in the Civil Rights movement, others who speak against LGBT rights, such as Marion Barry, the former D.C. Mayor who was arrested for smoking crack with prostitutes, should be ashamed of their public outcries for discrimination against the LGBT community.

Congressman John Lewis Speaks OUT!

One hundred years after the Civil War, many parts of the country, especially in the South, had nullified the 15th Amendment with discriminatory laws, ordinances, intimidation, and violence, which prevented a majority of African-Americans from voting. This discrimination was particularly bad in the city of Selma, Alabama, which lies in Dallas County. In 1965, African- Americans made up more than half the population of Dallas County, yet only 2 percent of the registered voters were Black.

It was 44 years ago (March 7, 1965) when a brave group of Americans set out to march from the small town of Selma, Alabama to the Capital of Montgomery in a peaceful demonstration to promote civil rights and voting equality for African-Americans. They were also commemorating the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, shot three weeks earlier by a state trooper while trying to protect his mother at a civil rights demonstration.

Pictures of the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama

A total of three marches were organized before the trek was completed. The first, which took place on March 7, 1965, has since been referred to as “Bloody Sunday.” On that day, over 600 marchers were brutally attacked by members of state and local police; many of the attackers were members of the Ku Klux Klan. The police, in clear view of the press, beat the marchers with billy clubs, and bombarded them with tear gas. Needless to say, the marchers did not make it to Montgomery as the police refused to allow them to go further than the Edmund Pettus Bridge. After the attack, ABC television interrupted a Nazi war crimes documentary, Judgment in Nuremberg, to show footage of violence in Selma which shocked the nation. Within forty-eight hours, demonstrations in support of the marchers were organized and held in over eighty cities nationwide, and thousands of religious and lay leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., flew to Selma.

The second march, this time lead by Dr. King was attempted on March 9, but a Federal Court Judge issued a restraining order to prevent the march from taking place until an additional hearing could take place later in the week, so instead, Martin Luther King, Jr. led the protesters to the bridge, where they knelt in prayer. Later that night, a Northern minister, who was in Selma to march, was killed by white vigilantes.

It wasn’t until the third attempt, which began on March 21st and lasted for five days, that the demonstrators actually completed the march to Montgomery, 54 miles away. The route has been memorialized as the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights Trail, a U.S. National Historic Trail.

Among those leading the marches was a young man by the name of John Robert Lewis. Still to this day, John Lewis bears the scars of wounds he endured while being violently attacked and beaten by those who hated those of other races. Yet Lewis never gave up and is now known as U.S. Congressman John Lewis. To this day, Congressman Lewis (D-GA) continues his peaceful fight to gain equality for all citizens of this nation…including LGBT citizens.

John Lewis (R) Leading March in 1965

I recently had the honor and pleasure of speaking with Congressman Lewis and had the opportunity to ask his thought on Gay Rights, Gay Marriage, and equality for all U.S. citizens. Congressman Lewis feels strongly that all persons, regardless of sexual orientation should be entitled to equality, and the same rights, as all other citizens.

During our brief interview, I asked Congressman Lewis about his thoughts on those who use religion as an excuse to deny rights to LGBT citizens. I was particularly interested in his thoughts as he is a graduate of the American Baptist Theological Seminary. He Stated:

“It is unfortunate that a segment of our society fails to see that we all should be treated like human beings, that we all are citizens of the United States of America. I’ve taken the position and I’ve long held this position that I fought too long and too hard against discrimination base on race and color not to stand up and speak out against discrimination based on sexual orientation. It doesn’t matter if someone is gay or straight or whether someone believes in a different philosophy or different religion. We’re one people, we’re one family, and we’re one house. There is not any room in American society for discrimination based on sexual orientation. It doesn’t matter whether someone is gay or happens to be lesbian or transsexual. We’re one people; we’re one family, the American family. You call it what you want, discrimination is discrimination and we have to speak up and speak out against discrimination. You have too many people in this society saying they’re against same-sex marriage. If people fall in love and want to get married, it is their business. Martin Luther King Jr. use to say races don’t fall in love and get married; individuals fall in love and get married. So if two men or two women want to fall in love and get married it’s their business. Some people say it is a threat to the institution of marriage, and some of these people who go around saying that same sex marriage is a threat to the institution of marriage, which marriage or what marriage are they talking about? Some of these same individuals have had several marriages and I don’t think individuals that happen to be gay are a threat to anybody’s marriage. Love is love. It is better to love than to hate, it is better to be together than to be divided.”

I also asked Congressman Lewis what he would suggest that we, as LGBT citizens and allies can do to in order to advance or equality, inclusion and rights. He replied:

“I think that it is important for all of us in America, in our own environment, our own workplace, among our own institutions whether it be in the education community, the religious community, in the media or in the political arena, entertainment, in sports…wherever we find ourselves, we have a moral obligation, a mission and a mandate to speak up and speak out for what is right, for what is fair and for what is just. Sometimes I feel like in out society we’re too quiet, and there comes a time you have to make a little noise, for you have to put a face on the issues that are confronting people. That’s what we did during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement, and that is what people must continue to do.”

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Congressman Lewis for taking time to speak with gayagenda.com, and more importantly, for his continued and life-long efforts for fairness and equality for all.

You can listen to the interview below, you can also find more about Congressman Lewis and his extraordinary life by visiting his official congressional website.

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John Lewis and Jim Zwerg (R)

Lewis Speaks OUT on Equal Rights for All

John Lewis (D-Ga.) has been a congressman since 1987.  He was also a major contributor and leader of the Civil Rights movement.  He took part in the infamous Semla March for Voting Rights, during which the first march police attacked the peaceful demonstrators and beat Lewis severely in public.  Lewis still has scars from head wounds that are still visible today.  From 1963 to 1966, he was the chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and became a close associate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

On MLK Jr. Day, Lewis spoke on NPR about the issues of segregation and voting rights.

When he was asked about the issues of gay rights and gay marriage, and how they relate to the civil rights movement, Congressman Lewis stated;

“Gay marriage is not a threat to heterosexual marriage. It is time for us to put that argument behind us.”   “You can not separate the issue of Civil Rights.  We’ve got to have not Civil Right for some of us, but for all of us.”

You can listen to the entire program by clicking here.