Sunday, January 16, 2011

Whether 'gay rights' or 'civil rights,' it's all about 'human rights'

David Badash of the blog The New Civil Rights Movement just sent out a tweet asking for folks to respond to a piece on Examiner.com (Cincinnati version). The piece is entitled The difference between gay rights and civil rights and it is written by one Ricky Johnson.

In case you haven't figured it out, it's one of those "lgbts can't compare their struggle for equality to that of the African-American civil rights struggle because you can hide your sexual orientation but not your race and the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin" pieces that always serves to mentally exhaust me for its lack of basic logic and desire to ignore the empathy that one group who has dealt with inequality should have for another group having the same problems.

Rather than go over it, I would rather show the response I wrote. It's short and to the point:

Rick, whether someone can or cannot hide their homosexuality is irrelevant. You forget that some blacks tried to pass as white. Also, please bear in mind that before you refer to the Bible, it was the Bible which was used to justify slavery and segregation. Lastly, your diatribe forgets the basic existence of black lgbts - which I am one. Really there is no difference between "gay rights" and "civil rights" because they are all human rights. And when a group of people are denied their due, whether it be on the basis of discrimination on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation, we all suffer.



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