That Was Then -- We Know Better Today

"If we feel afraid, it isn't what we don't know that frightens us, it's what we think we do know."
-- Allan G. Johnson in Power, Privilege, and Difference

Though a number of published research studies surfaced in reputable medical journals during the mid-1980s finding that the risk of HIV transmission to people living in close quarters and in non-sexual contact with people with HIV/AIDS was minimal to nonexistent, in 1985, the principal and school board of Western Middle School in Russiaville, Indiana, nevertheless, refused admittance of 14-year-old Ryan White following tremendous pressure from fearful and outraged parents and faculty after Ryan's diagnosis as HIV-positive became widely known.

After Ryan and his family fought a long and difficult battle to have him readmitted, a Circuit Court judge dissolved a restraining order, and Ryan returned to school. The White family received death threats, and a number of parents pulled their children and organized an alternative school. But that was then. We know better than that today, especially since 1990 when the Congress passed and President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which covers HIV-related discrimination.

I still remember a time in our country when people looked askance at interracial couples walking together down the boulevard, and when a number of states retained antiquated laws criminalizing sexual relations and marriage between individuals of differing so-called "races." But that was then. We know better than that today, especially since 1967 when the United States Supreme Court ruled these laws unconstitutional in Loving v. Virginia.

And I also still remember a time in our country when proprietors of retail stores and restaurants, landlords of rental properties, and employers refused service, housing, and jobs to people perceived as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and to same-sex couples. But that was then. We know better than that today, especially since approximately half of the states include LGBT people in their list of enumerated categories within anti-discrimination statutes.

But wait! Recent news accounts may prove me wrong. Maybe we don't know better than that today. Maybe we don't, in fact, know our history!

Officials at the Milton Hershey School, a private boarding school in Pennsylvania, recently refused to admit a fully qualified 13-year-old boy over his HIV-positive status. Talking with ABC News, Milton Hershey spokesperson, Connie McNamera, justified the school's decision: "We have to balance his rights and interests with our obligation to provide for the health and safety of other students, and this meets a direct threat." The AIDS Law Project filed suit in Philadelphia District Court claiming the school has violated the ADA.

The congregation of Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church in Pike County, Kentucky voted recently to ban interracial couples from joining the church after Stella Harville, 24 and daughter of the secretary of this all-white church congregation, brought her fiancée, Ticha Chikuni, 28 and native of Zimbabwe, to services where they sang hymns and played piano for those assembled. According to Stella, things seemed to go well until the pastor, Melvin Thompson, told Chikuni that he could not sing any more. The following week, Stella's parents, Cathy and Dean Harville, who had been members of the Church for decades, met with Thompson, who expressed to them that a number of congregants threatened to walk out if Chikuni sang again. According to ABC News, when Cathy asked the pastor who were these people, Thompson replied, "Me, for one," and then he said, "The best thing [Stella] can do is take him back where she found him."

Two women recently entered Victoria Childress' home bake shop in Des Moines, Iowa for a taste-testing appointment for their wedding cake. Childress inquired who was getting married? A member of the couple, Janelle Sievers, told the baker that they were, she and her partner Tina Vodraska. Upon hearing this, Childress informed the couple, according to published accounts: "I'll tell you I'm a Christian, and I do have convictions. I'm sorry to tell you, but I'm not going to be able to do your cake." Interviewed by a reporter for local TV station KCCI, Childress gave her reasons: "I didn't do the cake because of my convictions for their lifestyle. It is my right as a business owner....[I]t's to do with me and my walk with God and what I will answer [to] him for." Janelle and Tina have yet to decide whether they will file a civil law suit.

I have heard some people refer to our current era as one in which HIV/AIDS and the discrimination surrounding it no longer impose major physical and social barriers. Since the election of Barack Obama, some people refer to these times as "post-racial," where racism no longer limits people from achieving their potential. And I have heard people saying that same-sex attractions, which was once referred to as "the love that dare not speak its name" has turned into "the love that won't shut up."

Though we have passed laws, conducted educational and diversity training sessions, and though times may have changed somewhat for the better, as the proverb goes, attributed to Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, "The more things change, the more they remain the same."

In reality, we still live in a society in which dominant groups continue to have the power and privilege to define and restrict minority "others." Unfortunately, therefore, the multiple forms of oppression, including ableism, racism, and heterosexism remain not only alive, but fully functioning.

 

Comments

[Robbert Bricker]

08:21 AM on 12/07/2011

just watched the movie, "the help." if you haven't seen it, you should. the funny thing about it, is the reasons for prejudice against black folks in the movie are pretty much the same argument against glbt people. most humans learn from past mistakes and the error of their ways. unfortunately, it seems when it comes to the religious, they learn nothing from the past. they keep making the same foolish mistakes over and over. the sad part is that they use full blown propaganda and pump it into society. again, another sad part is that many uneducated or plain lazy people will gobble their diatribe up like a thanksgiving feast as long as you attach the word god to the lies.

in the words of george o'dowd,

"When Will You Learn... From your tears and your sorrow... When will you see... Destiny is in your hands... All of your tricks and lies... Boy, will count for nothing...
When Will You Learn"

[Mindy Czech]

04:54 PM on 12/06/2011

It's interesting how you called same sex relationships "the love that won't shut up." One thing that's always confused me is how some people have said to me that they don't have a problem with my being gay, but they don't know why I have to mention it and rub it in their faces. Apparently, me referring to Cindy as my wife or mentioning her at all is rubbing it in people's faces. It's only a one way street, though, because they don't consider talking about their spouse or significant other, or their engagement, upcoming nuptials or anniversary as rubbing their heterosexuality in my face. It's only excessive and distasteful if I do it. So they don't take issue with me being gay, as long as I'm gay in silence and solitude. Funny how that works.

[Warren J. Blumenfeld]

05:34 PM on 12/06/2011

Hi Mindy. As a gay man myself, I have also heard "I don't care if you are gay, but you need to keep it in the bedroom." This implies that our entire lives center on sex. I wrote a textbook titled "Looking at Gay and Lesbian Life" back in 1988, and people asked, how could you write an entire textbook on "gay and lesbian sex." I believe this is an example of heterosexual privilege in not having to know or understand our lives, and not knowing or understanding that we cannot do things in our society that many [White] heterosexuals take for granted, like walking down the street holding hands or showing affection without being "accused" of "rubbing it in our faces."

[Mindy Czech]

07:14 PM on 12/06/2011

Don't you just love it how our entire lives and relationships are reduced to nothing but sex acts when we decide to live openly as gay people? Like the only thing my wife and I do besides breathe, sleep and eat is have sex. People like Rick Santorum are so hung up on that one aspect of our lives, as though it is the only thing that matters to gay people. We aren't in love with who we are in love with because they are wonderful people and good companions, we are only with them because we have the same set of genitals. It's insulting.

And you're right, it is an example of heterosexual privilege. I'm not a fan of PDAs, but I can't show any kind of affection to my wife in public without getting shot a dirty look from someone. When we went on a cruise for our anniversary in August, none of the photographers would put us in the romantic poses they put heterosexual couples in, even after specifying we were married. Even though my wife paid the cruiseline to decorate our room with "happy anniversary" stuff and we listed our anniversary as our reason for travelling, we entered our stateroom to find the beds separated. These slights sound insignificant to straight people, but when you face them day in and day out, they really start to add up and wear you down.