Thursday, December 04, 2014

'Why Ferguson matters for the lgbt community' & other Thursday midday news briefs

Why Ferguson matters for the LGBT community - As an lgbt of color, I have been trying to put this into words. For those who are so quick in the lgbt community to decry the feeling of rage and helplessness in the black community when it comes to situations like Ferguson and Eric Garner, etc., I have three words for you - "White Night Riots."

The greatest of hypocrisies: Gays condemn black riots over racism, forget our movement started with one - And a good friend of mine, Matt Comer, puts in some more emphasis on that point. Remember Stonewall? 

Read: 11th Circuit denies Florida stay extension; freedom to marry should arrive first week of January - Just in case you didn't hear, progress in the form of marriage equality is coming to Florida in January.

Republicans Defeat Bill Securing Employment Protections For LGBTs Without Debate - ENDA may be dead . . . at least for now.

 Mat Staver To Headline Jamaica Conference Hosted By Group Defending Anti-Sodomy Laws - Lovely! At the same time while members of the religious right falsely claim that lgbts are holding them under siege in America, they are doing exactly that to us in countries like Jamaica.

'I Am Santa Claus' Documentary Slammed On Social Media For Featuring Gay Man Who Plays St. Nicholas - And just what is wrong with a gay Santa Claus? I'm all for it. Maybe he can hook me up with a nice elf. (That was a joke. These days, you have to always clarify these things.)

3 comments:

BJ Jackson Lincoln said...

Smashing windows, looting and setting fires is NOT protesting.
There is a big difference between protesting and being an opportunist who use protests to damage property.
I could care less about the color of a person. It's what they do or take advantage of that defines them. I am all for people in the streets to protest the shameful way cops have gotten away with murder as well as profiling and general harassment. Robbing and burning down your neighbors business does nothing but make the rest look bad.

BlackTsunami said...

The point is there are too many lgbts attempting to nitpick in this situation
I think a lot of folks agree with u, BJ, but some folks n our community are deliberately focusing on the looters because of personal bias. And this personal bias prevents them from seeing the similarities which fueled a lot of the destruction in Ferguson and during the White Night Riots. There was ugly destruction in both cases and this was fueled by rage and anger due to perceived unfair treatment. When some of us lgbts make excuses not to see the similarities, we are as guilty as heterosexual African Americans who will use religious beliefs as an excuse not to see the similarities between the black and gay struggles for equality.

Erica Cook said...

I wrote this on my wall, and I thought it was related.

I don’t ever condone violence. I wholly believe that the moment one uses violence to win something, you’ve lost. That said we have to take into consideration the fact that everyone has a breaking point. How one does brake may be different, but some people are going to become violent when they reach that point. If you get enough people who have reached that point in the same way in one area a riot is bound to happen. A riot isn’t rational, and it doesn’t follow any kind of meaning. Because of this, people who have nothing to do with what is going on, even people who may be a part of who they are rioting for will get hurt. That does not mean all the people are violent. It means we as a society have failed a people to the point where every reasonable avenue of getting a point across has failed.

Fact; the man who shot Micheal Brown will not be charged with anything. This does not mean it is over. What led to the issue in the first place was not resolved in this lack of an indictment. Ferguson still has a real issue with police overstepping their authority with no accountability. The cities response to peaceful protest was totally uncalled for. And racially motivated mistreatment of the population is still a part of unwritten policy. We must do something about these issues. Do not mistake the messenger for the message. Work to end sanctioned racism, get body cameras for the cops, make it mandatory for them to have them on at all times when on duty. And punish racial profiling.