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Is gay the new black?
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Quack Addict



Joined: 31 Mar 2008
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:53 pm    Post subject: Is gay the new black? Reply with quote

It must be gay week at Dave's. Here's another thought provoking article.

"Gay is the new black" is one of the mottos of the movement to redefine marriage to include two people of the same sex.

The likening of the movement for same-sex marriage to the black civil rights struggle is a primary argument of pro same-sex marriage groups. This comparison is a major part of the moral appeal of redefining marriage: Just as there were those who once believed that blacks and whites should not be allowed to be married, the argument goes, there are today equally bigoted individuals who believe that men should not be allowed to marry men and women should not be allowed to marry women.

It is worth noting that the people least impressed with the comparison of the gay struggle to redefine marriage with the black struggle for racial equality are blacks. They voted overwhelmingly for California's Proposition 8, which amends the California Constitution to define marriage as being the union of a man and a woman.

One reason given is that blacks tend to be socially conservative. But another, less verbalized, reason may well be that blacks find the comparison demeaning and insulting. As well they should.

One has to either be ignorant of segregation laws and the routine humiliations experienced by blacks during the era of Jim Crow, or one has to be callous to black suffering, to equate that to a person not being allowed to marry a person of the same sex. They are not in the same moral universe.

There is in fact no comparison between the situation of gays in America in 2008 and the situation of most black Americans prior to the civil rights era. Gays are fully accepted, and as a group happen to constitute one of the wealthiest in American life. Moreover, not being allowed to marry a person of the same sex is not anti-gay; it is pro-marriage as every civilization has defined it. The fact is that states like California already grant people who wish to live and love a member of the same sex virtually every right that marriage bestows except the word "married."

A certain number of gay men will feel better if they can call their partner "husband" and some lesbians will enjoy calling their partner "wife," but society as a whole is not benefited by such a redefinition of those words. Society as a whole does not benefit by removing, as California did, the words "bride" and "groom" from marriage licenses and substituting "Partner A" and "Partner B."

But hoping that the more radical gays and straights of the gay rights movement will ask "what benefits society?" before "what makes some gays feel better?" is useless.

And so, the movement appropriates the symbols and rhetoric of the black civil rights struggle when that struggle and the movement to redefine marriage have next to nothing in common. How can a seriously moral individual compare forcing a black bus rider to sit in the back of a bus or to give up his seat to a white who demands it, or prohibiting a black human being from drinking from the same water fountain or eating at the same lunch counter as a white human being, or being denied the right to vote, or being prohibited from attending a school with whites, let alone being periodically lynched, to either the general gay condition today or specifically to being given the "right" to redefine marriage for society?

The vast majority of Americans, including those who oppose same-sex marriage, know that the homosexual is created in God's image every bit as much as is the heterosexual; and acknowledge that the gay man or woman has a right to love whom he or she wants and that commitment has the right to be given legal protections.

But radically redefining the most important institution in the life of a civilization; and routinely labeling as the moral equivalent of racists every individual who does not want children regularly asked whether they will marry a boy or a girl when grown up, and who rightly fears that every traditional religious community will be labeled as a hate group � these are not commensurate with civil rights.

Gay and straight activists who liken their demand to redefine marriage to black suffering under Jim Crow merely cheapen historic black suffering. Most blacks know this but for the sake of their political coalition won't say it. They should. Rosa Parks is in a different moral category than the protesters against Proposition 8.

By Dennis Prager
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Gopher



Joined: 04 Jun 2005

PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Short answer: yes. The liberals have assumed power and this is one of the things they bring with them.
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Ukon



Joined: 29 Jan 2008

PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gays have all sorts of issues in our society that differ from the civil rights issue, but are nevertheless quite bad.

Coming out as a teen in San Francisco is far easier than coming out in the rural south...gay men can hide it better obviously, but the fact that they have to hide who they are is pretty bad.

Also, this social conservative attitude towards gays bites us black people in the ass(and latinos) because the gay black men will end up marrying a white women and having gay sex on the side due to the stigma attached....the popular term for this is called being on the "downlow".

That and the issue of sharing needles goes a long way towards explaining why black women in the US have far more cases of AIDS than women of other races.
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Ukon



Joined: 29 Jan 2008

PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:48 pm    Post subject: Re: Is gay the new black? Reply with quote

Quack Addict wrote:


But radically redefining the most important institution in the life of a civilization; and routinely labeling as the moral equivalent of racists every individual who does not want children regularly asked whether they will marry a boy or a girl when grown up, and who rightly fears that every traditional religious community will be labeled as a hate group � these are not commensurate with civil rights.


Most of the opposition against it are some of the most retarded reasons I've ever heard. Basically it amounts to "I think it's weird/I don't like them/ it's yucky man on man!" or "I'm religiously against it".

I'd gladly classify it asoutright discrimination to restrict the rights of others that should have been in place in the beginning......if the bible told these people to hate arabs, would that be a reasonable position?

And Marriage doesn't have anything to do with civilization...marriage really shouldn't even have anything to Do with government except for concerns dealing with property ownership. It exists in any grouping of humans in one form or another.
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caniff



Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We need to hear from the gay Republicans to have a more balanced view. They seem, after all, to make up a significant number of the elected officials in the U.S. They should stand up and let their voices be heard (but not in the hypocritical way, hopefully, which has marked their rhetoric up til now).

Last edited by caniff on Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:35 am; edited 1 time in total
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ED209



Joined: 17 Oct 2006

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 2:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Marriage has constantly been redefined by society.

Take it away Olbermann

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=ChanTFSmqao
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Kuros



Joined: 27 Apr 2004

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gopher wrote:
Short answer: yes. The liberals have assumed power and this is one of the things they bring with them.


Civil liberties are back in style!

Woohoo!
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laogaiguk



Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 6:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kuros wrote:
Gopher wrote:
Short answer: yes. The liberals have assumed power and this is one of the things they bring with them.


Civil liberties are back in style!

Woohoo!


You mean I have to stop hating people who don't want to change my lifestyle and couldn't care less about what I do and just want to live life as they want to not harming anyone? Does that mean I have to start hating myself and crappy life again?
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huffdaddy



Joined: 25 Nov 2005

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 6:53 am    Post subject: Re: Is gay the new black? Reply with quote

Quack Addict wrote:
Moreover, not being allowed to marry a person of the same sex is not anti-gay; it is pro-marriage as every civilization has defined it.


I've always wondered, if the religious right wanted to be pro-family, why don't they just make divorce illegal. But I guess that would take away their freedoms and actually effect their lives. Hypocrites.
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bacasper



Joined: 26 Mar 2007

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 6:58 am    Post subject: Re: Is gay the new black? Reply with quote

huffdaddy wrote:
I've always wondered, if the religious right wanted to be pro-family, why don't they just make divorce illegal. But I guess that would take away their freedoms and actually effect their lives. Hypocrites.

Getting a little OT here, but I always wondered how so many of them can be pro-life while supporting the death penalty.
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Gopher



Joined: 04 Jun 2005

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kuros wrote:
Gopher wrote:
Short answer: yes. The liberals have assumed power and this is one of the things they bring with them.


Civil liberties are back in style!

Woohoo!


Hyperbole.
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Kuros



Joined: 27 Apr 2004

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gopher wrote:
Kuros wrote:
Gopher wrote:
Short answer: yes. The liberals have assumed power and this is one of the things they bring with them.


Civil liberties are back in style!

Woohoo!


Hyperbole.


The Republicans have been the anti-civil liberty party ever since Truman closed FDR's terrible legacy of Korematsu by providing blacks equal rights in the military by Executive Order.
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Gopher



Joined: 04 Jun 2005

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 11:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Segregation? Do you mean Republicans like D. Eisenhower and E. Warren, Kuros? How about R. Nixon?

Quote:
In 1969, despite civil rights reforms like the landmark decision declaring that segregated schools where unconstitutional, the 1964 Civil Rights bill and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, many African Americans lived without the full protection of the law, equal access to public facilities, or equal economic opportunity. [R.] Nixon viewed this situation as not only unfair to African Americans, but as a waste of valuable human resources which could help the nation grow.

Among the most pressing civil rights issues was desegregation of public schools. Nixon inherited a nation in which nearly 70% of the black children in the South attended all-black schools. He had supported civil rights both as a senator and as vice president under Eisenhower, but now, mindful of the Southern vote, he petitioned the courts on behalf of school districts seeking to delay busing. Meanwhile, he offered a practical New Federalist alternative -- locally controlled desegregation.

Starting in Mississippi and moving across the South, the Nixon administration set up biracial state committees to plan and implement school desegregation. The appeal to local control succeeded. By the end of 1970, with little of the anticipated violence and little fanfare, the committees had made significant progress -- only about 18% of black children in the South attended all-black schools...


PBS.org

In any case, I disagree entirely, especially where the Democrats appear as the pro-civil liberties party in your construction. No need to review JFK and LBJ and their non-intervention in the South throughout the 1960s. If so, check out M. Belknap's Federal Law and Southern Order -- great read by a law professor who dabbles in history.

A. Schlesinger described JFK as "a realist cloaked as an idealist." B. Obama's comparing himself to JFK may not be so far off the mark after all. And I wonder how civil liberties will play in, say, the Obama Administration's relations with the Chinese and Israeli govts.

Sure, though. We can expect the Obama White House to score some easy and relatively cost-free points here at home. Granted. As far as the rest of it, including this kind of rhetoric: "hyperbole" seems appropriate enough to me.
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Kuros



Joined: 27 Apr 2004

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 11:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gopher wrote:
Segregation? Do you mean Republicans like D. Eisenhower and E. Warren, Kuros? How about R. Nixon?

Quote:
In 1969, despite civil rights reforms like the landmark decision declaring that segregated schools where unconstitutional, the 1964 Civil Rights bill and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, many African Americans lived without the full protection of the law, equal access to public facilities, or equal economic opportunity. [R.] Nixon viewed this situation as not only unfair to African Americans, but as a waste of valuable human resources which could help the nation grow.

Among the most pressing civil rights issues was desegregation of public schools. Nixon inherited a nation in which nearly 70% of the black children in the South attended all-black schools. He had supported civil rights both as a senator and as vice president under Eisenhower, but now, mindful of the Southern vote, he petitioned the courts on behalf of school districts seeking to delay busing. Meanwhile, he offered a practical New Federalist alternative -- locally controlled desegregation.

Starting in Mississippi and moving across the South, the Nixon administration set up biracial state committees to plan and implement school desegregation. The appeal to local control succeeded. By the end of 1970, with little of the anticipated violence and little fanfare, the committees had made significant progress -- only about 18% of black children in the South attended all-black schools...


PBS.org

In any case, I disagree entirely, especially where the Democrats appear as the pro-civil liberties party in your construction. No need to review JFK and LBJ and their non-intervention in the South throughout the 1960s. If so, check out M. Belknap's Federal Law and Southern Order -- great read by a law professor who dabbles in history.

A. Schlesinger described JFK as "a realist cloaked as an idealist." B. Obama's comparing himself to JFK may not be so far off the mark after all. And I wonder how civil liberties will play in, say, the Obama Administration's relations with the Chinese and Israeli govts.

Sure, though. We can expect the Obama White House to score some easy and relatively cost-free points here at home. Granted. As far as the rest of it, including this kind of rhetoric: "hyperbole" seems appropriate enough to me.


Eisenhower granted. JFK was an asshole.

But look, the GOP has been not so good on these issues within my lifetime. Within the past thirty years, they've dropped the ball. As you mentioned on the other thread, Gingrich used the whole gays in the military issue to halt Clinton while he was trying to work on the economy.
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Gopher



Joined: 04 Jun 2005

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 11:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kuros wrote:
...the GOP has been not so good on these issues within my lifetime. Within the past thirty years, they've dropped the ball.


Agreed.

This represents a major part of the conservative party's image problem today. Most of the current mess stems from the W. Bush Administration's mismanaging this war. And Republicans need to get back in touch with A. Lincoln, too.
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