MLK Day Special

This is a re-posting of my column on Politics is Power.

Today as the nation commemorates Martin Luther King Day, we can look back with pride at how far we have come in the quest for that "more perfect union" the Constitution calls for. At the same time, we can see just how far we have left to go. While racial equality continues to make strides, if unevenly at times, we must not forget that other forms of discrimination continue to exist.

I make no secret of my very strong opinion that President Obama has abandoned the support pledged in his presidential campaign to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) voters. Whether this is due to political expediency, cowardice, or simple ignorance of the problems GLBT people face, I am not in a position to know. I do know however that gay people continue to be treated as second-class citizens in the eyes of the law and for much of society.

Across our great republic, many of the gains that GLBT people have made in recent years are being rolled back. While federal hate crimes protection was passed last year, it had to be ensconced in a defense appropriations bill in order for it to receive enough votes to pass in Congress. The military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy, which the President pledged to overturn, remains in force a year into his presidency. DADT stipulates that if a member of the armed forces is discovered to be gay, they are automatically discharged. Instead of a repeal, there is now serious consideration of implementing a "separate but equal" system in which GLBT service members would be forced to use separate facilities from straight soldiers. Does this sound familiar? Elsewhere, Legally enacted marriage rights in California, Maine, and elsewhere have been withdrawn at the hands of vicious and hateful campaigns. The travesty of having a majority of people vote to withdraw the rights of a minority has become a reality in this nation. I cannot think of another time in American history that such a thing has been so calculatingly directed at a group of people.

I cannot help but wonder how history would have turned out had civil rights for black people been left up to a vote of the people of Mississippi or Arkansas or Alabama in, say, 1955. What would race relations look like today if Martin Luther King had accepted the argument that GLBT people face so frequently: "Now is not the time"? Somehow I doubt our society would have been able to make as much progress as it has (though I agree there are still many miles to go).

Straight people need to understand that sexual orientation, like race, is largely an inborn trait, as the vast majority of scientists and psychologists agree today. Trying to suppress it or change it leads to untold psychological suffering and heartbreak, often leading people who undergo "change" programs to attempt suicide. If discrimination because of one's race is supposed to be unacceptable in our society today, why should a group of people (generally estimated to be around 10% of men and 5% of women) who happen to be attracted to someone of their own gender be treated differently?

Gay people don't want to overturn society or destroy the family. They don't want to corrupt and recruit your children. They don't want to destroy religion. They don't want to force unwilling religious groups to marry them or change their faith. Most simply just want to be left alone like everyone else and able to live their lives free from fear; fear of discrimination, fear of gay bashing, fear of losing their jobs, fear of being denied the right to be with their partners or their children because their relationship has no legal recognition.

Today, over forty years after King's assassination, his dream of racial equality is still in the process of being achieved. But people are still being prejudged and discriminated against for traits that they were born with and have no real control over. Such legalistic double standards are SO last millennium.

Postscript:
MLK never really addressed GLBT rights, since they only first became a true national issue the year after his death with the Stonewall Riots of 1969, which is seen as the founding of the modern gay rights movement. However, his widow the late Coretta Scott King became a strong advocate for GLBT equality. I leave you today with some quotes by Mrs. King on the subject.

"Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood... This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group."

"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people. ... But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people."

"Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriage."