| By
Dyan Dahl
Majority
versus equal rights.
Rosa
Parks in Montgomery, Ala., on Dec. 21, 1956, after a
Supreme Court ruling banning segregation on city public
transit vehicles took effect
Ignorance,
fear of change
and
discrimination in the name of God
Not
surprisingly “the majority vote” has historically been
unsupportive of equal rights, as were many American
Presidents in history. As we look back now after decades
of equality in such issues as Equal Rights for minorities
such as blacks, Jews, gays and women and being taught
in our schools the history of such issues with amazement
and often confusion we find ourselves asking “and why
was it illegal for bi racial couples to marry?”, “Why
weren’t women allowed to vote?” and “Why was Rosa Parks
sent to the back of the bus?” Today it almost seems
shocking that our ancestor’s ways of thinking were so
uncivilized. So discriminating. So ignorant.
And
also not surprisingly many of the foundations of the
majority votes have proclaimed fundamental Christian
values attached to their message. As if God himself
came down from the heavens and gave judgmental badges
to anyone claiming discrimination against blacks, Jews,
women and gays in his name. You know, the old love the
sinner hate the sin, which often translates in behavior
as condemn the sinner, hate the sin.
Interestingly
many minority hate groups,
Neo Nazi’s and the Klu Klux Klan strongly call themselves
out as a Christian Organizations. Maybe they
are confused with who God is, what God stands for. Yes,
the Klu Klux Klan is the organization notorious for
murdering, torturing and lynching innocent men, women
& children whom have done nothing to them but be
born, having done so in the name of God and often using
a burning cross as their symbol of fighting the evils
of blacks and Jews.
In
the new millennium’s fight for equal rights for gay
marriage and pondering our outcome or our shock at the
passionate opposition we simply have to look at history.
Discrimination
coming from the top in Early America
In
1830 American President Andrew Jackson being quite a
bigot with distaste for Native Americans passed the
Indian Removal Act of 1830 which forced
Indians to migrate West, many of them dieing from exposure
in their forced travel West!
In
1866 another American President Andrew Johnson a confirmed
bigot himself, vetoed Freeman's
Bureau a bill
which was designed
to protect the interests of former slaves and
Civil Rights Bills
that were designed to protect slaves from Southern Black
Codes , laws that placed severe restrictions on
freed slaves such as prohibiting their right to vote,
forbidding them to sit on juries, limiting their right
to testify against white men, carrying weapons in public
places and working in certain occupations.
The
1950-60’s inter-racial marriage outlaw couples, murder,
tolerance and fighting for equal rights
We
know the infamous David versus Goliath'ish
story of Rosa Parks. One December evening, a woman left
work and boarded a bus for home. She was tired; her
feet ached. But this was Montgomery, Ala., in 1955,
and as the bus became crowded, the woman, a black woman,
was ordered to give up her seat to a white passenger.
She refused to stand up and remained seated and that
simple decision eventually led to the disintegration
of institutionalized segregation in the South, ushering
in a new era of the civil rights movement.
If
it were 1958, the recently California wed gays would
have been arrested upon their
return home! Yes, in 1958 bi racial couple Mildred Jeter
and Richard Loving crossed the Virginia State lines
to get married legally only to be arrested upon their
return for violating a state ban on inter racial marriage.
Upon their sentence and eventual banishment from the
state the presiding judge an educated man, made loud
and clear his opposition to the marriage and agreement
with the law.
"Almighty
God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and
red, and he placed them on separate continents. And
but for the interference with his arrangement there
would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that
he separated the races shows that he did not intend
for the races to mix."
It
was only after several appeals and nine years later
that the US Supreme Court made their ruling and inter-racial
marriage laws were abolished in the 16 states that prohibited
them.
Two
years prior to the abolishment of inter-racial marriage
prohibitions the majority spoke loudly against bi racial
marriage as Gallup polls found that 42% of Northern
whites and 72% of Southern whites opposed inter-racial
marriage. Even today polling suggests that, 20% of Americans
still believe that inter-racial marriage should
be illegal.
If
we look at the civil rights struggle,
it took almost 100 years,
3 crucial Constitutional Amendments and
many lives lost in the struggle which served to illustrate
the injustice, most often against the popular vote,
to win enough support needed to get to
the 1964 Civil Rights Act,
One
of the hardest decisions of the Eisenhower and Kennedy
presidential administrations was integration of schools
and interstate bus lines: ordering the National Guard
to protect school children from being lynched, and bus
travelers from being bombed. This majority was violent.
We
are not even talking about the huge price in which Jews
paid at the hands of discrimination in Gods name. German
majority followed the hatred and discrimination of their
so called civilized and charismatic leader Adolph Hitler
whom massacred thousands with the backing of his brainwashed
people and again in the name of God.
Gay
Rights turn, its been decades and
the
fight is turning a new corner
1969
marked the beginning of the Gay Rights movement sparked
by Stonewall and still as early as 2003 laws outlining
sodomy as illegal are finally beginning to crumble.
I am sure that some of us were shocked to learn that
many states actually still have these ridiculous laws
actually making it illegal for gays to make love? And
many were even more shocked to hear the passionate opposition
in the rulings. Hold on?! There are laws denying gays
the right to follow their natural instinct to make love
to each other? I may be considered to be an outlaw?
We
are now in the midst of historic times, folks! Times
our children's children will be reading about in shock
and horror much as we do now with the discrimintaing
history of the past.
Discrimination
is alive and kicking
After
all this way and the horrible prices in which minorities
had to pay it is clear that while we have come a long
way, we are still not a non discriminating nation or
world. We have deep rooted ignorance and propaganda
often in the name of God, running through the most powerful
veins in this great nation. And here we are today with
an American President whom will someday be looked at
queerly for his blatant discrimination and disregard
for equal rights for all American citizens. One has
to wonder if it were the early part of the century how
would our President tolerate “us” queers. What price
would we have to pay for his discrimination? Should
we be grateful that we are in these times? Among other
oddities of his term in office, his legacy of discrimination
will definitely stand out in the history books.
While
gays have been the victims of hate crimes for years,
fortunately we will never know the extent of hatred
and prices that blacks and Jews were forced to pay in
their fight for equality. And by no means can we even
put our suffering in the same category as these wonderful
brave people, but we have to thank them for paving our
way with their innocent lives, towards a future without
discrimination. We are not going to be tortured at the
foot of a burning cross or put in a gas chamber for
simply being born this way, but the only reason we can
stand up today against the evils of discrimination is
because of them.
What
will happen?
We
as a society have no right to discriminate in marriage
any more than we have the right to discriminate when
someone votes or when someone wants to hold office,
the people who would forbid gays from marrying in this
country are those who would have made Rosa Parks sit
in the back of the bus.
Just
as blacks became liberated, can sit anywhere on any
public bus, and as women can vote or run for public
office…. We will gain legal marriage rights
. Not Civil Unions or Domestic Partnership
Rights, but full fledged Marriage Rights!
It’s
simple. You cannot stop progression. The Government
has the obligation to protect its citizens and provide
the same rights to all people despite their differences.
Popular opinion states that some people are lesser citizens
than others, and some differences are so profound that
they set whole groups of people apart for discrimination
and while it may not be now, gays will eventually win
the right to legally marry and have the same benefits
as any other American couple straight or gay.
An
interesting link from Barbara S Gamble. Direct evidence
indicating majority trends have in fact used its direct
legislative powers to deprive political minorities of
their civil rights.
Thanks
to Polly Karr and Moni from Curve Speak!
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