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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Civil Rights vs. Gay Rights Movement? No comparison...

By Judah
I want to make this as clear as possible so there is no confusion:

I 100% believe in free will and our ability to do whatever we feel in our hearts to do.

If you want to lie, cheat, or steal that is fine by me.

If you want to live a holy life that is fine by me.

If two women or two men wish to spend their lives together that is A-OK in my book.

In life, God gives us choices, but those choice also have consequences.

What is not OK with me is comparing the struggles of American slavery, the raping of the black women, lynchings or Jim Crow to the gay rights movement.

I personally support anything that is positive and makes people happy, but when you compare it to something as real as African suffering and turmoil--I have a problem with that.

I had the privilege to learn about my family tree from my great grandfather when he was still alive. We talked about my line all the way from my niece to my great-great grandmother. We talked about her extensively, and her life during a specific conversation from which he revealed to me where she was from and where she was owned. This place was two miles up the road from where we were having lunch. This wasn’t some far off place in “Never Never Land”…This was right down the street. Another human being owned my grandmother less than 150 years ago. We talked more about her life, and the more I learned, the more it became very real to me, because I could put a name to the struggle.

Today there is a new form of civil rights going on. People who are gay wish to be married and have the benefits that come with the territory of being married. I’ve read in the media and the news about Gay Rights activists protesting the black community for not voting with or supporting the movement overwhelmingly or as a whole. Then a firestorm of media on the major networks asked why black people can’t see the correlation between the Civil Rights and Gay Rights movements.

It boggled my mind how the media, and now Gay Rights activists could compare the discrimination and suffering blacks faced to not being able to be married... So I had to turn the channel. I think back to my father and mother going to segregated schools, the fact that my great grandfather has green eyes, and that the “sacred” Constitution of the United States didn’t consider blacks whole human beings..

These thoughts don’t enter my mind on a daily basis, but when this topic pops up I get a little hot. People have a hard time understanding what really went down in the last 300 years and it bothers me. Check out ROOTS, THEN rethink those correlations.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreed. However most of the news channels I've watched felt the same way, especially FOX news lol. They all agree that comparing gay rights to the civil rights movement of the early 1900s is reaching...

Anonymous said...

Ha, ironically FOX News is right then. But the majority of commentary I've seen on blogs and networks said otherwise. I just don't see the correlation.

Anonymous said...

nice post judah, but i don't think we ned to be making disclaimers all the time. don't "clear up any confusion" as this makes it look like you are somehow wrong which you are not. they should be making disclaimers.

Anonymous said...

A good comparison is that they are using similar if not the same archaic laws that were once meant to protect the sanctity of "white blood-lines" from interracial marriages. It isn't so much that gays and lesbians have been slaves, but have been afflicted with hate crimes and lynchings on a much smaller scale based on their sexuality. So for the African-American community to support the same laws that were once used to deny interracial marriages is a hypocrisy.

Anonymous said...

I can respect your honesty and perhaps I should have clarified and made my point alittle more exact. Two people wanting to share a life together and have that union be recognized has very little in common with the type of civil rights I was referring too. I support happiness but one must understand that two men wanting to marry is vastly different from a black man not being able to use the same water fountain as a white man and being thrown in jail if done so. Also, not all black people are the same. We all share different views and experiences...Not everyone is going to agree. Interracial dating laws were bad..yes...they would hang the black person in the relationship faster than I can type this sentence. Gays should have a choice but dont compare it to something as real as African American Suffrage. It has very minute similarities in the sense that laws need to be changed. But the experiences are totally different.

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Anonymous said...

Im a little confused, so what suffering did YOU go through again? Which rights were YOU denied, I fully understand your ancestors were denied civil rights but what does that have to do with you or the black community supporting gay rights. Its about helping those who are being stepped on and right now the homosexual minority needs all the support they can get. I think you are off base, let those who suffered determine whether their experiences are relatable.

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