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The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don't agree with. -Eleanor Holmes Norton
You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.-Pearl S. Buck
Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.-Robert S. Kennedy
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.-Thomas Jefferson
Three days ago the first African American man was voted President of the United States. An landmark moment that illustrated just how far the American people have come on the road to equality.
...And on that same day, African Americans showed just how far they still have to go as a people to show that same equality to others. According to MSNBC.com, 7 out of 10 African Americans in California voted for Prop 8, a law which effectively denies Gays and Lesbians the right to marry. I am not going to argue for or against homosexuality. Your beliefs or your beliefs. What I do have a problem with is government forcing those beliefs on to others.
Not that long ago in the U.S. interracial marriage, the marriage between two people of different race, was against the law. It wasn't until 1967 was it completely erased in every state. How can I compare these two laws? Both times the government put stipulations on something that was none of their business.
I am a heterosexual, christian black female. I am also a staunch supporter of the seperation of church and state. I don't want the government telling me what I can do in my house and I will lobby for my neighbor to have that same right. The right for two people to commit themselves to the one they hold most dear is not something the government should have the right to sanction or not.
The idea that we as African Americans would help to deny another group the equality that we celebrated just a mere three days ago? That's just sad.
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1 comments:
Good post. I'm really shocked that Prop 8 didn't pass in Cali. That pretty much puts this issue of gay marriage on life support for the next 15-20 years. If it can't pass there, it's gonna have a hard time passing somewhere else. I agree. Like I said, I am pro-hetero, but that doesn't mean someone else should be denied my right to marriage. In the same way, I don't have to acknowledge anyone's relationship (and for some couples, gay and straight I don't), but then the question is, Who am I and what do my thoughts matter as it pertains to someone else?
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