(no subject)

[primroseburrows]

Sorry for even more spam, but I had to share this:

"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people."

---Corretta Scott King, speaking in 1998.

Exerpt lifted from this post in gay_marriage. There are a lot of interesting links here. Go read!

I'd also like input on what people think about the GLBT civil rights movement vs the (still ongoing) civil rights movement of people of colour. I agree with this poster. I think there are a lot of similarities.

Comments

[dejaspirit.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of similarities, but one big difference. Being Gay or Lesbian is a hidden minority. A Gay or Lesbian person who isn't out will usually be assumed straight and therefore not be descriminated against unless they out themselves somehow.

Of course, the injustice is the same. I shocks me to see how many African American people are anti - gay.

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[dejaspirit.livejournal.com]

The black church. I'm torn in my feelings towards the black church, which I find can be both inspiring and crippling to a black community all at the same time. I will have to think on that topic and make an intelligent post about it one of these days.

But that's pretty much it. It's religion.

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[bookshop.livejournal.com]

Right. I completely agree that the rhetoric of people being used to discriminate is nearly exactly the same now as it was in the 60's, and you know, the thing is that I can understand how history could repeat itself--but I'm utterly amazed that it's repeating itself this quickly.

Let me just quote Kash here:
There were still segrationists in the south after Brown v. Board of Education, and even 15 years later. But some racists were desensitized, and they kept their mouth shut after awhile. Were they still wrong? Sure. Were they hurting anyone but themselves with their thoughts? No.

In the South, the racist attitudes of many citizens hasn't gone away. It's not everybody who joins the KKK, no, but there is this constant and steady undercurrent in the South of the thing everybody's not saying, but everybody knows. The feeling of resentment at the Other is still incredibly strong in the South: resentment at the North, resentment at Liberals, resentment at non-European Americans, and especially resentment at African-Americans for what is perceived as being the huge handouts the government has given them (by 'giving "them" welfare') at the expense of white Southern jobs and white Southern dignity.

I can't help but feel that there's a lot of leftover resentment for all these things fueling the conservative movement to ban gay marriage. It's not just gays and lesbians that Southern conservatives see themselves as fighting; it's a mentality of forced change, forced acceptance of Otherness that encroaches on their culture and society, that has constantly been driving them back into a corner for nigh on a century and a half.

I completely agree with Dionne (my housemate and I were discussing this the other day) that racial identity isn't something that can be hidden, whereas sexual identity is. But that's largely the perspective of those fighting *for* gay rights--in terms of those fighting against it, I think the logic and the rhetoric involved is almost identical to that being used 40 years ago.

Kelly, do you still want to start a fandom activist community, or sort of use the fandom to mobilize action in the gay_marriage and queer_marriage communities that already exist?

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[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

Whatever the fandom wants. I'm up for either. O fandom, my fandom? Whaddya say?