January 18, 2010
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If There Is Injustice Anywhere, Than There Is Injustice Everywhere
I was watching a documentary today about Martin Luther King on the History Channel. It got me to thinking had I lived in that time, how I would have reacted to the whole civil rights fight. I’m quite certain I would have been a strong supporter of civil rights, however because I’m a complete and utter wuss, I would have stopped short of marching in the civil rights marches because of the fear of getting attacked. But I certainly would have spoken out for civil rights and contributed money to the cause. It also got me to thinking about the biggest civil rights cause of our day, gay rights.
It would be foolish of me to say that gay’s fight for rights is as tough as the trials and tribulations that blacks went through to get their rights and freedoms. After all, blacks were lynched, churches and homes bombed, blacks beaten and murdered and that was just to get equal rights in the 1950s and 1960s. Some of these atrocities still happen. And gay’s basic right to marry is not even close to black’s right to be free from slavery, after all even without our right to marry we will still be able to live a free life, even if it isn’t on equal ground as heterosexuals. It’s not to say that gays aren’t discriminated or have to suffer brutal physical violence against them. Hell, all of us remember Matthew Shepard. But, at the end of the day, it is still about civil rights and still about equality. You can connect the dots of black civil rights and gay civil rights. Blacks did not want to be elevated above whites or take away rights from whites, they just wanted equality. And the same can be said of gays. We don’t want something heterosexuals don’t have, we just want everything that heteros have.
It is uncertain if MLK would have been a supporter of gay rights, however I have read in recent years that his widow, Coretta Scott King, did support gay rights and said that King himself would have been a supporter of gay rights. It was a different time back then; civil rights for gays wasn’t a thought in the least, hell most gays were still firmly entrenched in the closet. What frustrates me is that so many other blacks are not supportive of gay rights; in fact its quite the opposite, they fight against gay rights. It would make sense to think that blacks would support gay rights, knowing the struggle they had just to be free. But, let’s face it, Christianity and religion prevents blacks from supporting gays.
We can win this fight for gay rights, but only if we have support of heterosexuals, just like blacks could not win freedom and rights without the support of whites and just like women could not win the right to vote without the support of males. As you may or may not know, I’ve been reading a book about American history and its amazing how much the straight, white, male has fought to keep every other group of people down. Its also equally amazing that no matter how hard they have fought, the other groups have always been able to overcome and win the rights they deserve. This is what gives me so much hope.
President Obama speaks tough on gay rights. Herein lays the problem. He speaks tough but never seems to follow through with actions. Publicly he is against gay marriage but for civil unions, which is far more than any other president we have ever had. Privately I believe he is for gay marriage but instead is too afraid of what he might lose politically to support gay marriage. Look, he is not going to lose the vote or support of any Obama supporter who is not for gay marriage, this one issue will not hurt him. He really has a chance to show courage by coming out and supporting gays. Some people don’t believe that we need his support, but I feel that he carries so much influence that without him, we will not win this fight for decades to come. As Obama has said several times, the time for words have passed; the time for action is now. Well for Obama, its high time to put his words into action.
Our country was founded on freedom. It is the mere pillar and foundation of America. It is only natural that the next step is taken to give gays the same rights as everybody else and it remains a grave injustice unti we are given those same rights. As King said, “If there is injustice anywhere, than there is injustice everywhere.”
Comments (2)
I think the reason most black people don’t support gay rights simple because they don’t look it at the point of view you look at it. Most of it is ignorance. They think it’s “nasty” without really trying to step into someone elses shoes and see what they go through. Sure the LGBT community didn’t face the same tribulations as black people but nonetheless they still face them to this day. I was shocked to find out that in Ugandan their trying to pass a law to execution homosexuals caught in the act. It wasn’t till then that I learned that homosexuality was illegal in most parts of African. I was so disgusted. You think of all places, Africa would be tolerant of it.
yeah, the situation in Uganda is very sad and scary. I firmly believe that religion is behind an overwhelming majority of homosexual bigotry.