Civil Rights Victory For African-Americans Leaves Millions Of Others Out In The Cold

Yesterday I wrote that the election of Obama is a victory over the politics of hate. I was wrong. As the dust cleared this morning, it was apparent that Californians had voted to deny basic rights to millions of citizens who just happen to have been born gay.

As a straight man, it is incomprehensible to me why millions of other straight people would be so shamefully hateful to their friends and neighbors.

A good friend of mine, who happens to be black, had called me last week. With the election still in doubt, and a great deal of hateful prejudice being directed in Obama's direction, my friend asked me how so many Americans could be so foolish. Yet, before the conversation was over, he told me that he was having a hard time voting against Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage initiative that would deny rights to millions of Californians.

His argument was rooted in his religion and in some misguided notion that our Constitution somehow argued for traditional beliefs. My argument to him was simple. First, the question was not what his religious convictions were. The question was did he believe that his religious convictions gave him the right to decide for others how they were to live their lives. What happened to judge not, lest ye be judged?

Second, as an African-American, someone who was once defined by our laws as being worth less than a full human being, how could he believe that our traditions were infallible?

I have no idea how he voted but I have good reason to believe that too many people who have been lifelong victims of intolerance, turned around and demonstrated their own brand of intolerance yesterday.

The election of Obama is a wonderful thing for America. But discrimination is still very much a part of Bush's America and, in all likelihood, will continue unabated in Obama's. The fact that Obama had to prove he was Christian and not a Muslim demonstrates how far we have to go. A black man can be president. Great. Can a Muslim? Can a Jew? Can an Atheist? Certainly a gay person can't be.

For the gay community, it's time to get tough. Rights didn't come to African-Americans easily. Every minority in this country has been forced to fight hard to be treated fairly. Civil disobedience was required. Often, violence ensued. Am I suggesting arming yourselves with Molotov cocktails? Of course not. I am suggesting you stop taking this crap lying down. Fight it in the courts. Fight it in the media. And fight it in the streets. But fight, fight, fight. You will find you have many allies.

As to marriage, if it isn't available to all, maybe it should be shunned by all. Perhaps everyone who believes in equality should refuse to have anything to do with an institution which no longer seems relevant when defined in such a narrow minded way.

Comments

[greenbomb]

Yesterday made history now if only Americans could make more history by allowing homosexuals to marry. What would you do if your governement and voters had told you that you could not marry because you are hetereosexual?

[BlueEsq]

I think the opposition to Prop. 8 has reflected an interesting twist on the patronizing “White Man’s Burden” (a la Kipling) sentiments from a century ago. At that time, European colonial powers — especially Great Britain — thought it their duty to bring “civilization” to the “savage” (i.e., non-white) peoples of the world. The No on 8 crowd, which, as exit polls showed, is overwhelmingly composed of urban White "progressive" voters, has adopted a very similar attitude with respect to gay rights/same-sex marriage and racial minority voters. Those minority groups have rightly rejected that forced “enlightenment.”

The bottom line is that same-sex marriage is not a civil rights issue on par with race-based civil rights. The historical backgrounds of those movements are very, very different. Anti-miscegenation laws were part of a larger pattern of legal and social repression that itself was rooted in a violent past of subjugation and slavery. The grievances of the gay community may be real, but they do not equal those of the African-American community, and attempts to equate the 2 movements are misguided at best, and offensive (to many African-Americans) at worst. Same-sex marriage simply is not equivalent to interracial marriage legally, socially, or culturally.

[ConstanceReader]

Marriage has not been the “cornerstone of human society for virtually all of recorded history”. Up until recent centuries in most of the world, it has been (and in some societies continues to be) an exclusively legal and financial contract between two families. This contract is sometimes but not often entered with the consent of the bride and groom, often entered when the bride and groom are still children and incapable of “marriage” in any but the legal sense, often entered into without bride and groom ever having met. Divorce was accomplished by means as simple as saying “I divorce you” three times (the Brehon laws of medieval Ireland) or as not-so-complicated as writing a bill of divorcement and packing the bride off to her nearest male relative. I repeat, these are not “ancient” examples as many of the above practices continue to this very day, all over the world, across religious and ethnic and geographic boundaries.

If you truly believe marriage is fundamental to human societies, then you should want marriage to be more prevalent than it is, you should want ALL couples willing to make the effort and take the risk to become a part of this societal foundation by contracting a legal marriage.

[mercury613]

Funny. Mildred Loving, of Loving vs. Virginia, felt that they were very much the same:

"My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.

Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights."

Bigotry is bigotry. If we can't comprehend that simple fact, we're doomed.

[BlueEsq]

It was the support of the 2 biggest minorities in California that got this supposedly “hateful” and “bigoted” initiative passed. African-American voters supported Prop. 8 by a whopping 70% to 30% margin — a 40 point spread! A majority of Latinos also favored the proposition. The reality is that this initiative was never about hate. This was about people reaffirming the essential nature of something that has been the cornerstone of human society for virtually all of recorded history. Until the proponents of gay marriage accept that reality and try to understand how a majority of Californians from all stripes of life -- urban/rural, White, Black, Latino, Asian -- could support traditional marriage from non-bigoted motives, then they stand little chance of changing hearts and minds on this issue. Shrill cries of bigotry ring hollow and false.

[paulypants]

Discrimination has been a "cornerstone of human society for virtually all of recorded history," BlueEsq, but during an election so focused on change and hope, I guess I had higher expectations for our country.

[mercury613]

So has slavery.

[Bruce Tenenbaum - Huffpost Blogger]

I am sure racists throughout time used the same arguments to deny rights to other minority groups. Equivalency? Perhaps the Irish felt the difficulties Jews and Italians faced were not on the same level as what they had faced when first emigrating to America. Perhaps Jews and Italians thought that the plight of black people was not comparable to their own struggles. Perhaps Blacks felt the same way about the struggles of Hispanics.

I've heard your argument before and it is a hollow one. It matters not what we perceive to be the level of the offense. What matters is that there is any level of offense. You may not think discriminating against a gay couple who wish to get married is equivalent to the struggle of African Americans in this country, but, frankly I see no difference. Denying rights to any minority group is what it is. Discrimination is discrimination.

[xdevildawg4u]

Wow, BlueEsq, I don't know how old you are or where you're from but I cannot believe how familiar your arguements (religion, tradition, unequivalent, etc.) sound to this man who grew up in rural Mississippi during the 1960's. I heard EVERY SINGLE ONE of your arguements used by racist whites, including my own Southern Baptist preacher father and family, to justify slavery and defend racism and segregation.

It's a crying shame that so many people are so uninformed about history and the struggle for basic fairness and equality and the common thread that ALL civil rights struggles share. It's even more of a shame that so many people are so WILLFULLY uninformed because they never took the time or had the curiosity to become informed.

This is why virually every major African-American civil rights leader from the 1960's supports the struggle of gay and lesbian Americans for FULL inclusion and FULL civil rights. This is also why the late Corretta Scott King supported full civil rights for gay Americans (including marriage equality) and why she felt certain that her husband would have done the same.

Try reading a book about the civil rights hero Bayard Rustin, Dr. MLK Jr.'s right hand man.

[ThePhairOne]

Sure, I’m glad Obama won. Last night was great night for America. Clap, clap, clap. It was not a great night for me. It was not a great night for equality or justice. When I woke up this morning, I woke up without one of the fundamental civil rights that I had yesterday. The same is true for gays and lesbians in Arizona, Florida, and Arkansas. Is this really the “dawning of a new America”? It is hard to get excited about the “sea change” when I have been left upon the shore.
The part that really hurts is that it happened and the rest of the country didn’t even blink. All night, the talking-heads glowed about the great leap forward for racial equality, but not one them stopped and said “wait a minute, what about this other thing that’s going on? What does that mean for America?” Not one of them commented on the incongruity of the first African-American being elected President on the same night that the voters of four states passed laws that expressly roll back the civil rights of American citizens.
As hate became law, my fellow citizens celebrated change. If Barack Obama is going to lead this nation into a new era of social justice and equality, then he must speak out now against all forms of bigotry including the deep-seated prejudice against gays and lesbians; Obama must see it, must call it out, and must condemn it.