Is gay the new black? Debate from marriage ban

[Shantell]

The gay rights battle is viewed by some as the last frontier for equal rights

AP: Associated Press updated 10:53 a.m. PT, Sun., Nov . 30, 2008

NEW YORK - Gay is the new black, say the protest signs and magazine covers, casting the gay marriage battle as the last frontier of equal rights for all.

Gay marriage is not a civil right, opponents counter, insisting that minority status comes from who you are rather than what you do.

The gay rights movement entered a new era when Barack Obama was elected the first black president the same day that voters in California and Florida passed referendums to prevent gays and lesbians from marrying, while Arizonans turned down civil unions and Arkansans said no to adoptions by same-sex couples.

Obama's victory a triumph against racism
Racism was defanged by Obama's triumph, leaving gays as perhaps the last group of Americans claiming that their basic rights are being systematically denied.

"Black people are equal now, and gay people aren't," said Emil Wilbekin, a black gay man and the editor of Giant magazine. "I always have this discussion with my friends: What's worse, being a black man or a black gay man?"

"Civil rights have come much further than gay rights," he said. "A lot of people in the gay community have been condemned for their lifestyle and promiscuity and drugs and sex, so it's odd that when they want to conform and model themselves after straight people and have the same rights for marriage and domestic partnership and adoption, they're being blocked."

In a cover story for the Advocate magazine titled "Gay is the New Black," Michael Joseph Gross wrote, "These past few years we've made so much progress that we'd begun to think everybody saw us as we see ourselves. Suddenly we were faced with the reality that a majority of voters don't like us, don't think we're normal, don't believe our lives and loves count as much or are worth as much as theirs."

Yet even some gay leaders are reluctant to directly tie their fight to the African-American legacy. They acknowledge significant differences in the experiences of gays and blacks, ranging from slavery to the relative affluence of white gay men to the choice made by some gays to conceal their sexual orientation, which is not an option for those with darker skin.


http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/the_state_of_black_...

[TJ Crawford]

The article hit the buzzer by stating the two are different things.

Racism has not gone anywhere. America IS an institution socially constructed by this man-made "race" phenomenon based on what phenotypes people present. Evident in institutions, lack of health care resources, and other disparities such as the death row inmates nationwide, racism has not be defranged by any MIXED President.

The President is a mixed man, not just "black" and the "one drop" rule came from a racist ideaology that once someone lays down with a black they cannot claim to be part of the "white/pure" race...that implies that blacks are still viewed as animals or less than human in my opinion.

I cannot go home and wash off being black...I cannot sit in the streetcar and pretend to be another race. Lifestyle is a choice and not a civil right. However, whether I agree with it or not, no one deserves to be treated with disrespect because of their personal choices.

[Shantell]

I still can't accept that people are actually believing this nonsense--that "gays are the new Blacks." It's as if someone sits down and comes up with these stupid ideologies. People get discriminated against/made fun of for so many things in society: in the workplace, in health care, in the legal system and especially in their own families, etc...For example, fat vs. skinny, light-skinned vs. dark-skinned, tall vs. short, uneducated vs. educated, poor vs. rich, country-speaking vs. articulate, blondes vs. brunettes, foreign language speakers in America vs. English speakers in America, old or inexpensive car drivers vs. luxury/expensive car drivers, natives of a state or city vs. newcomers to a state, "good hair" vs. permed, weaved, or "natural" hair, etc...You name it--I'm sure we can find some comparison. You are absolutely right that no one deserves to be treated differently, but I feel that what someone does or chooses to do in the bedroom is their own personal business!!! Thanks for the intelligent response!!!