Excellent article by Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby. He clearly shows the difference between what gays are fighting for compared to the bigotry experienced and fought by blacks during the civil rights era. He breaks it down showing examples of TRUE hatred compared to their forced cries of imagined bigotry from those against same-sex marriage.
My favorite part in his article is where he writes:
“Well, let’s see. The civil rights once denied to black Americans included the right to register as a voter, the right to cast a ballot, the right to use numerous public facilities, the right to get a fair hearing in court, the right to send their children to an integrated public school, and the right to equal opportunity in housing and employment. Have gay people been denied any of these rights? Have they been forced to sit in the back of buses? Confined to segregated neighborhoods? Barred from serving on juries? Subjected to systematic economic exploitation?”
Absolutely great writing with excellent points. The shame of gays becoming angry at blacks for not “understanding their plight” as if we share the same experiences of bigotry. We don’t and we need to get this message out to Governor Schwarzenegger and those activist judges: Gay Rights do not equal Black Civil Rights! Sexual preference is changeable but race is inherent and can never be changed.
Jacoby goes on to describe how ridiculous it is of gays trying to equate their rights to those civil rights of the past by saying:
“Plainly, declining to change the timeless definition of marriage deprives no one of “the civil rights once denied” to blacks, and it is an absurdity to claim otherwise. It is also a poisonous slur:”
He also makes the excellent point that if support of Prop 8 means we’re all bigots, then blacks are no better than the very racists who mistreated them in the past! We blacks overwhelmingly rejected same-sex marriage and why? Jeff Jacoby explains it best when he said this:
“. . . because they know only too well what real bigotry looks like.” (warning, very graphic image of lynching, something I’m sure no gay today has had to endure as a fact of life).
So the message to gays should be this: STOP PLAYING THE RACE CARD!
Please read the complete article here on the Boston Globe:
Playing the Race Card on Gay Marriage - Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe Columnist
ADDENDUM: See California’s Governor Schwarzenegger play the race card using interracial marriages:
About California’s legal stance on Interracial Marriage (moved from previous post)
Gays keep comparing their plight to California’s interracial couples of the past when the court’s struck down the ban against interracial marriage. Governor Schwarzenegger also agrees with the same-sex marriage protesters and claims that the same-sex issue is no different from the past interracial issue. (See video below)
But here’s what legally happened in California from the past to present regarding interracial and same-sex marriage:
- From 1850 to 1977, California’s marriage statutes used gender-neutral language, without reference to “man” or “woman,” in providing that marriage is a personal relation arising out of a civil contract to which the consent of the parties capable of making the contract is necessary.
- In 1948 Perez vs. Sharp, the California Supreme Court rules against anti-miscegenation laws, stating that they were based on racial distinctions that were “by their very nature, odious to a free people”. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that race-restrictive housing covenants are unconstitutional. As Japanese Americans move into integrated neighborhoods, increased social interaction leads to more intermarriage.
- In 1977, the Legislature amended the state’s marriage law to replace the gender-neutral description of marriage with language specifically limiting marriage to a “civil contract between a man and a woman.” The Legislature’s express purpose for this amendment was to prohibit same-sex couples from marrying. The gender-specific description of marriage that the Legislature adopted in 1977 specifically discriminated in favor of heterosexual couples and discriminated against, and continues to discriminate against, same-sex couples.
- May 15, 2008, the Supreme Court of California overturned the ban on same-sex marriage (1977), making California the second state, behind Massachusetts, to allow full marriage rights for same-sex partners.
- November 4, 2008, California’s constitution amended to have marriage between one man and one woman only.
And now with Proposition 8, the state’s constitution is pending amendment to show that marriage is defined between a man and a woman.
Californians, please write and/or call Governor Schwarzenegger to give support to have this amendment finalized in keeping the ban in place. Let him know WHY same-sex and interracial marriages are NOT the same!
That can be done here:
Email: http://gov.ca.gov/interact#email
Phone (customer service): 916-445-2841
‘Imagined bigotry’? You do realise that there are quite a few countries in the world where homosexuals can be executed or imprisoned simply for who (or what) they are, right? There are many, many more where homosexual men and women are forced to live in hiding for fear of being harrassed, discriminated against or even killed. The USA is, in some places, one of those countries (and I know people who are in that exact situation).
Now I’ll be the first to admit that black people (or ‘non-white’ people, I should say) have, throughout history, been discriminated against more than anyone else. But the point here is not how ‘much’ discimination exists, it’s what type of discrimination exist, and in that regard there is a very real and valid parallel between the civil rights movement and what’s going on right now. The fact that you’d invoke past prejudices in order to prop up your own bigotry would be rather odious and surprising if not for the fact that you have Biblical support - as they say, it takes religion to make people do wrong while thinking that they’re doing good.
By: journalnous on November 15, 2008
at 5:14 am
My error journalnous. I corrected my article to state “imagined bigotry from those against same-sex marriage.”
I was comparing the complaints that those against Prop 8 were using towards people who support its passing. Those of us who support prop 8 are called bigots and unjustly so. Most of us truly understand bigotry and that word is being used in the worse way possible - against those who know what it is to be discriminated against.
Past prejudices were rightly used here to show the extent of bigotry and the comparison and the reasons.
Why did people hate black people? Did they do anything immoral? Most people hated blacks simply because of the color of their skin.
Why do people hate gay-marriage? Did they do something wrong? The answer to that is YES! You don’t understand your discrimination is based upon your actions which many view as being wrong and immoral.
But if people never knew your sexual preference, which in most cases is very easy to hide, then you would never suffer discrimination that blacks have suffered because there was no hiding of your skin color to get the benefits that were sometimes taken away due to merely being black.
That was the purpose for invoking the past. People suffered for doing nothing wrong. Just for merely existing. It appears that many have had a memory lapse for even comparing the two.
By: Carlotta on November 15, 2008
at 7:54 am
Great article. I especially liked the first part. I’ve been saying for years that the pro-gay groups have a lot of nerve co-opting the Civil Rights movement.
By: Neil on November 15, 2008
at 8:11 am
[...] the humanity! Posted on November 14, 2008 by Neil Update: Be sure to read Playing the Race Card on Gay Marriage. Carlotta highlights some of the absurdities of the pro-LGBTQ movement. They have a lot of [...]
By: Oh the humanity! « 4Simpsons Blog - Eternity Matters on November 15, 2008
at 8:15 am
Why do people hate gay-marriage? Did they do something wrong? The answer to that is YES! You don’t understand your discrimination is based upon your actions which many view as being wrong and immoral.
Carlotta, you seem to think that people who harass or assault homosexuals check to make sure that they’ve taken part in ’sodomy’ before they start breaking windows or skulls. Very few people who meet me would ever suspect that I’m gay, so I’m lucky, but I’m sure you’re aware that with some people it’s rather obvious. I seriously doubt that the kind of harrassment I’ve witnessed was a reaction to somebody actually having homosexual sex; rather, it was a reaction to the way a person walks, talks, or acts around others. That’s not something one can simply change at will, and even if it was, the thought that they should have to is sickening. Or, to put this in terms that might have more relevance to you:
Imagine for a moment that a large movement exists whcih is attempting to reintroduce miscegenation. (In fac such a movement does exist, but it’s thankfully not ‘large’.) Now imagine that you were marries to someone of a different race and had some way to completely conceal your race at will, in order to avoid discrimination and live your life without having to worry about this group making your marriage illegal. You’d essentially be bowing down to them, confirming that your actions were immoral and that you have no right to expect anything better.
The suggestion that homosexuals should simply hide their orientation so as not to upset the status quo is incredibly insulting and stupid - more importantly, it’s entirely distinct from the issue of whether homosexual sex is immoral. Not even the most religion-addled moral code can coherently justify the idea that simply being gay should be considered wrong, just as there is no coherent way to justify the idea that being black, white or anything in between is in itself wrong.
By: journalnous on November 15, 2008
at 3:21 pm
In speaking of hiding one’s orientation, I wasn’t speaking of something that someone ought to do, but I was comparing the differences between sexual orientation rights as opposed to civil rights. Gays CAN hide their orientation if they wanted to - , but those being discriminated against because of their color, CAN’T!
Being “gay” is not wrong in itself. But PRACTICING gay sex IS! Being black is not wrong and the practice of being black? If there is such a thing? NOT WRONG! But there is no way that BEING black IS wrong no matter how you look at it.
So in other words, call yourself gay if you want to, but its the practicing of same-sex that will get you in trouble with our Lord.
By: Carlotta on November 16, 2008
at 4:52 pm