Cartoon by Kevin Siers
Here’s a video from back in August in which a Missouri Pastor spoke during a Springfield City Council public hearing on amending the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance to include sexual orientation and gender identity protections. His fire & brimstone filled speech takes an interesting turn at the end.
What did you think?
Grace & Peace,
From Aspiring Humanitarian, Relando Thompkins, MSW
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While I’m a strong proponent of equal marriage rights, I’ve never felt comfortable with the LGBT community comparing their unequal treatment to the plight and historical struggle of Black people in America. It’s simply not the same.
Thanks for sharing both your comment and your discomfort here Aminata B.
I think If we’re going to have honest movement toward truth telling and reconciliation in addressing issues of inequity, I don’t think we can be truly honest about dealing with inequity without addressing racism. I think If we look at any ism across our other social identities through the lens or race, the outcomes and experiences can be significantly more challenging, and as you’ve said, there’s a historical component to racism that plays a role as well.
Sometimes when comparisons come into play, those comparisons may cause us to feel as if our experiences are being invalidated.
For me, when thinking about comparing the plight of the LGBT community with that of Black people in America, I am unable to separate the fact that there are, and have been Black people in America who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender.
To me, looking at people in the LGBT community as being entirely separate in that comparison excludes the experiences of people of color in that community who have to learn to survive with racism, and deal with homophobia and other effects of heterosexism that can come from people who are white, and institutions run by people who are white, as well as from other people of color within their own communities.
One of the things that I appreciated about seeing this video personally, is the way the speaker highlighted how religion has been used historically to be oppressive to people of color, and how he was able to make another connection about how it has also been used to oppress people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.
I think a lack of awareness of this connection only serves to perpetuate the problem, and can put us in a position of oppressing others (or members of our own communities) as we’ve been oppressed if we’re not careful.
It is exactly your points that updated my view, Relando. I realized 1) that my plight was not being invalidated by the comparison, and 2) the METHODS are even more similar than the similarities in the oppression itself.
Prejudices, oppression, and ignorance often trade on isolation of the oppressed and the inconsistency of their demands with the status quo. But, that’s the point entirely. The status quo does not provide equal rights. Inequality in public policy must not be tolerated. It isolates us from one another, and thereby diminishes the “public” –the community– we value.
It could be argued that Black civil rights would not have succeeded without individuals from other social strata who realized that anyone oppressed is oppression of all of us.
Wow great points Michael. I’m drafting a follow up post for Monday using my comment to expand on this topic and make further connections. I hope you’re able to check it out when it goes live.