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yes, the two are comparable. obviously not exactly and no one comparing the two are trying to insinuate that gays have suffered more than blacks. however, it's pure ignorance to even think that gays haven't suffered due to something they were born as and can't changed (yes, it's my personal belief that people are born gay and it's part of their genetic makeup, and more and more, science is backing this point up). someone who is born gay can't change this fact any more than someone can change the fact that they were born black or female
in the end, at the very core of the gay rights movement, of the civil rights movement, heck, even of the women's rights movement, is a simple idea that a minority group deserves as much rights and freedoms as a majority group. these minorities (and do not make the mistake in assuming "minority" in this context can only refer to race/ethnicity) are simply fighting to be treated as equals and don't want a prejudiced majority deciding what rights they should or shouldn't have and they don't want a "separate but equal" system that very rarely turns out to be equal. if civil unions were equal to marriages, why won't heterosexual couples get them?
speaking as a black female, I feel ZERO anger over the comparison being made. looking at the core of these movements and it's clear to see how comparisons can be made
No groups of people, whether they be black, white, red, gay, straight, man or woman, should be denied what others are granted.
Good afternoon,
Let's test this theory for you and other posters who believe this.
Here are some other ways our government(s) currently discriminate against a group of people over others:
- Polygamists can't marry more than one consenting woman. In fact, to make the gay marriage argument, you have to argue for polygamists too or else it would be hypocritical.
- Men don't have any rights in regards to legally opting out of parenthood past conception without the woman's consent. (I'm referring to financial, not forced abortions). To make things equal, a man should be able to unilaterally decide to have a "financial abortion".
- Higher earners pay a higher income tax rate than lower earners. To make it equal, the tax rate should be the same for everyone.
- Businesses have tax loopholes that individuals don't have. To make it equal, loopholes should eliminated or given to everyone.
- Politicians exempt themselves from many laws they require us to follow. To make it equal, they should be subject to their own laws, like the health care reform act passed last year.
Do you agree that all of these types of discrimination should be overturned?
No one has to know if you're homosexual. Whereas if you're black, there's no way to prevent people from knowing. Therefore, it's relatively easy for a homosexual person to vote, to go to school, to get food and lodging, to get a higher-level job, and so on. Decriminalization is civil rights for homosexuals, and I support this. It is none of the government's business what consenting adults are doing in private. Since we have achieved decriminalization, at least in the United States, all the fuss is much ado about very little. Whatever happened to the concept that our private lives are, well, private? I guess there is no such thing to a "modern" mind; it is now "healthy" to flaunt everything in front of everybody. What is all this voyeurism? I, for one, would prefer not to know if my neighbors, colleagues, or the employees behind the counter at the Post Office are homosexuals or not. It's just nobody's business or concern.
No one has to know if you're homosexual. Whereas if you're black, there's no way to prevent people from knowing. Therefore, it's relatively easy for a homosexual person to vote, to go to school, to get food and lodging, to get a higher-level job, and so on.
Bogus argument.
No one has to know you're Jewish. Yet anti-semitic discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodation, education, career advancement, organization and club membership, even politics and voting is a historical fact that caused many Jews to have to change their names, deny their parentage, religion, and heritage to avoid prejudice. Legislation had to be enacted to prevent these unfair and discriminatory actions taken against Jewish people.
It's the same with gay people.
Race is not the only criteria why people suffer an abridgment of their civil rights.
The cruel irony is that there are reported cases of heterosexual individuals who have suffered homophobic bigotry simply because they are perceived to be gay!
You can believe anything you want, but you are contradicting the evidence and research of the past 80 years of the scientific and academic communities findings on sexual orientation ... such organizations and institutions as the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatricians, the National Association of Social Workers, The American Anthropological Association, etc.
The view you have expressed reveals a prejudice against gay people, an opinion you are certainly entitled to, but one that has been thoroughly and completely refuted and repudiated in mainstream research and science.
Amazing, isn't it?
A person who actually thinks what he thinks and not what you and the powers that be on the progressive left tell everyone they must think.
All lifestyles and all behaviors are a choice. Period. Exclamation point.
Historically Gay people HAVE been beaten by the cops and have been victims of police brutality.
Gay people have been denied access to many educational institutions or expelled from such institutions in the past.
Are you trying to tell us that members of the L/G/B/T community have not experienced discrimination in education, in housing, in public accommodation, in employment and career advancement, in the military, in recognition of their family relationships, etc?
I think you are not aware, and you are uneducated about the reality of oppression and persecution that gay people faced historically.
Think what you wish. The fact that you are unable to differentiate between the present and past tense, or simply pretend that that distinction is not of consequence, makes your thinking valueless. I find it depressing that a student of my alma mater is apparently either gramatically ignorant or willfully mendacious.
Except for the fact that gays were never enslaved, lynched, beaten by cops throughout the nation, denied access to education and the vote, forced to use seperate restaurant, transportation, and restroom faciities, and do not currently suffer from economic hardship and imprisonment at many times the rate of non-gays, and are in fact among the most wealthy and well-educated of our citizenry, the comparison with, and need for, a reprise of black civil rights activism is dead on.
However, given the current infantile feeblemindedness and ignorance which characterizes the majority of Americans, spoon-fed as they are by a manipulative and mendacious mainstream media, the odious and palpably false analogy of the OP continues to gain credence and will probably end with a Matthew Shepard Day holiday. On the Fifth of July, perhaps.
Free at last. Free at last. Thank Brokeback Mountain, I'm Free at last.
What an insult to African-Americans. In some ways, it is perhaps the ultimate trivialization of their tragic past and troubled present, as they struggle with REAL poverty and injustice.
A perfect post...
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The one big difference
