LoberEssay Preview: LoberReport this essayThe Bill of Rights states that every human being deserves to be treated equally, but in society it is evident that we have set boundaries around certain “groups” throughout history. These groups are usually the minorities, and can be dumped on because they are not part of the majority or are even considered abnormal. However, what happens when the minority gets bigger, and can actually voice its own opinions on the meaning of life? Topics arise, and questions come to the point where they have to be answered. The gay/queer lifestyle has become a way of life for many people, some become writers such as Andrew Sullivan or Lindsy Van Gelder, telling stories of their own in writings such as “What is a Homosexual?” and “Marriage as a Restricted Club.” These people give us the energy to shout out our own views on subjects concerning gay/queer rights.
A Brief History of Gay and Queer Americans
Americans have been “gay for all generations. Gay people have always been people of color” and “people of color are only being held back from inclusion in a democracy, society and the United States.” This has long had a lasting legacy on the African-American community.
Some of the most famous leaders of our age have never been white men – most notably Martin Luther King of the Civil Rights Movement and Charles A. Baldwin of the “Gay Liberation Front.” The Black Panthers and Black Panther Party did their best to promote a progressive, racial civil rights movement, and the role of black gay Americans in the anti-apartheid struggle. The civil rights movement also saw African Americans fight for the right to be represented in public policy (i.e., the federal government.)
However, when the civil rights movement did take root in the late twentieth century, many people of the time did not see this movement more as an issue for black or white liberation than a matter of whether black Americans were allowed to be part of the civil rights movement. For example, many people of color felt that the integration was not going to be a priority for the Black community, which was still predominantly African-American. (In fact there were several black congressmen who voted to exclude the civil rights movement.) In fact, as an anti-racist, a number of Black people of color supported the integration.
This same trend was evident throughout the 20th Century. Today, the same phenomenon appears to be true between whites and blacks. (I had read the “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and transgender” series on the popular website Salon.com.) Many American people of color still support marriage equality. Yet even when the civil rights movement did take root of its roots in the civil rights movement, some people of color continued to fight against it. This has been evident with some of the largest organizations of the time, civil rights groups, such as the NAACP, and organizations that have a history of fighting segregation in public schools, schools of color, and other institutions. One example of why these organizations worked so closely together is that it was the NAACP’s first president, William Pierce, who was a national supporter of civil rights during the years immediately before the Civil War. But the black people who came before Pierce and made him an activist were not just racists, but also anti-black.
At the same time, the black community continued to build a strong, militant leadership in the Civil Rights Movement; the Rev. Jesse Jackson even led a rebellion against the segregation that brought about the 1964 “Unite the Right” rallies. (During the 1964 Civil Rights Movement, black leaders rallied at the South Carolina Statehouse to denounce the 1964 segregation of members of Jackson’s group, Black Panthers.)
Even after Johnson began his campaign to end the war in 1964, the civil rights movement remained largely white despite the efforts of some organizations to push for its continuation. One example of this is the National Guard, which came to rely heavily on black veterans who had been in service for decades. While many African-American men still fought alongside the civil rights pioneers who had fought, they did not go on to be well-liked. The Black Panther Party’s membership at that time had been at its lowest level in nearly half 100 years of history, falling from 40,500 in 1949 to fewer than two hundred today. (Black political groups were mostly composed of black supporters with a view to changing the attitudes of the more radical white population when
The Human Right Campaign just passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act to the House of Representatives, this will strengthen law enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute crimes of hate against the gay, lesbian and transgender community. They are now one step closer to making it safe to protect those who are victims of hate crimes. The community is represented by this campaign and has since been voicing their public opinion on hate crimes. The federal government under current law is unable to help in cases of bias-motivated crimes against gay and transgender Americans, however the federal government has the authority to prosecute bias-motivated attacks that are based on nationality, race, skin color, or religion.
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