Gay civil rights is not Black civil rights and the two should not be confused.
You can tell a black person is black the moment you lay eyes on them. Black people can't readily hide their identity and all of a sudden stop being black. A black person
can identify with being a difference race, but unless they go through extensive bleaching and plastic surgery they cannot easily hide or change their pre-defined genetic disposition. There was no escape from discrimination in the 400 or so (and continued) years of oppression faced by people of colour. They weren't simply fighting for the same rights under state and federal law, they were fighting for their very survival...
their right to be recognised as human beings, not savages or animals. Now I'm willing to accept that this may offend homosexuals and their supporters, but this much is true... Gay people have definitely suffered segregation, discrimination and violence, however, there has never been the blanket denial of their
humanity en mass.
If I were a gay man living in a place where homosexual acts were illegal then I would simply stop performing homosexual acts in public. I could, If I so chose, hide it and be considered normal. What I did behind closed doors is nobody's business but mine and my partners. YES I would feel aggrieved that I would be forced to suppress my homosexuality in public but I would at least be safe and
still able to do these things albeit in the privacy of my own home. Now wanting to have a normal life with my partner would be tricky and it would SUCK that I couldn't go out with them and do the kind of things normal couples do. I completely get that, and, I agree with the fight to make things like that possible. BUT STILL, YOU CANNOT HIDE BEING BLACK IN PUBLIC. THIS IS NOT THE SAME STRUGGLE. The very skin on a black person's bones is what was disqualifying them from being considered human. The muscles, the bone density.. their mental faculties!!!
I know this sounds bigoted.
I understand that one should not have to hide who they feel like they are to suit the whims of others, even though it may be causing them offence. I know that Gay people in the past faced exile, torture, alienation and sometimes imprison and even death for letting the world know they're sexuality. And although I know that this following statement will cause offence I still champion it:
Gay people only faced these struggles when they made it publicly known that they were gay. Note the absurdity that stems from this following analogous sentence:
Black people only faced these struggles when they made it publicly known that they were black. Like I said...
this is not the same struggle."I have gay friends who are married. The states in which they reside might not recognize their unions, but their friends and families do, and they generally live their lives in peace. No one is turning water hoses on them. They are not being attacked by police dogs. There is no Bull Connor or Ku Klux Klan. They are not being lynched en masse, drinking at separate fountains, or being ordered to the back of the bus.
This is not to say that gay Americans who wish to have the full benefits of marriage afforded to heterosexual couples don’t face adversity. That’s a major part of the current debate. But it is to say that any hardship they face can’t compare to what black Americans faced 50 or 150 years ago.There have been instances during the gay-rights movement that arguably could be compared to the black civil rights struggle, like the Stonewall riots of the 1960s or Matthew Shepard murder in 1998. Suicides and other problems related to public attitudes about homosexuality have also unquestionably been a horrible ordeal. Still, with the possible exception of the mistreatment of Native Americans, there has been nothing quite like the systematic exploitation and institutional degradation experienced by earlier black Americans.My purpose here is not to belittle the fight for gay marriage, only to note that those who keep attempting to draw a reasonable comparison to the struggle of African-Americans are in many ways belittling the black experience in the United States."--- Cherry picked from:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-gay-marriage-isnt-like-the-civil-rights-struggle/ ... (There are many sources equivocating the two struggles but I chose this one because the author makes a good point concerning my own personal view on how the struggles are not one and the same.)
You know Gay Rights is a tough subject to debate but I feel like it's no comparison to the struggle of black people. I mean I personally feel offended when I see two men kiss or hold hands... but I feel offended when I see someone pick their nose in public, I feel offended when I see people making out in public in general, I feel offended when I hear people chewing loudly, I hate when people don't cover their mouths when they sneeze or yawn and I want to strangle loud snorers.
The act offends me not the person.
I've met many gay men and women and genuinely had a blast talking and working with them, most of the time never knowing they were even gay. Even when it's come up that they like the same sex it's never changed anything. They're usually lovely people who understand what it's like being oppressed and picked on, experiences a lot of people go through in life without being a minority... just a human.
To me a man is a man... I don't see the need to put "Gay" in front of the "man" because what is really outwardly different between us except who we choose (or don't choose) to love? Gay people are just people... not some new race or species.