Jul

United we stand divided we fall rings true for GLBT civil rights fight

Civil rights fights have been the battlefront, for a war that never ends in America. The last battlefront for this war is the civil rights of GLBT Americans. If we look back in history at the battles that have been fought and won between American citizens and their government, they have not always been peaceful, though the people seeking rights sought them in a peaceful manner.

Women March in NYC for the right to vote 1913

The woman’s suffrage movement was one of the first civil rights fights back in 1918. Women all over the nation were fighting for their civil right to vote, but in many cases faced the opposition in fear of physical harm. When looking back at that struggle we as Americans think how silly our country was to withhold something as simple as the right to vote on the notion that women were too simple to be able to understand what would be at stake with voting rights.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony would be proud of the progress that women have made not only on the voting front but also within the job market. Women not only have the right to vote now but also to hold any office in this great land. We are very close to having our first women president in office as seen in this past election with Hillery Rhodham Clinton’s race and lets not forget Geraldine Farraro who ran for the office of vice president.

The woman’s suffrage movement and the Abolitionism movement went hand in had as women saw themselves on the same level as Slaves in the context of civil rights. Stanton and Anthony both organized the countries women and made them understand the importance of their right to vote and the urgent nature of abolishing slavery. Neither Stanton nor Anthony got the chance to see the first woman use her right to vote on Nov 2, 1920, Nor did they live to see slavery abolished, but their work lives on in every civil rights battle since they began.

Abolitionist movement flyer for impending meeting.

As for the Abolitionism movement; the rights of slaves to be free would not be so easily won without major conflict. The battle for the slaves would end in bloody battles fought in the civil war (the war between the states) that would have the north and Lincoln being proclaimed the winner. Being the winner on the fight to abolish slavery would not mean however that the slaves would gain the right to vote, it only meant that they could live free without a “master” to serve. The slaves in the United States would see their freedom prior to the women gaining the right to vote, so the civil rights battle raged on.

Once the slaves were free, the woman gained the right to vote now the freed slaves had to contend with a segragated south and the lack of voting rights. Flash forward to the 1950’s when a young black preacher named Rev Martin Luther King entered the scene after hearing about Rosa Parks being arrested for sitting on a bus in the “white section”. Black folks still do not have the right to vote, nor do they have the right to live unsegregated from their Anglo counterparts.

Right about now is when you are saying to yourself ” enough with the history lesson what does all this have to do with the GLBT civil rights fight of today?” Well Im getting there but all this background is important to speak about because all the civil rights fights tie together.

Civil Rights march with MLK in front.

Now back to the Rev. Martin Luther King jr and Rosa Parks; Rosa was a good woman who was only on her way home from work after a long hard day, she was tired and sat on the bus when the bus driver moved the “colored” section back one row and asked her to give up her seat to a white man. The key here is finally someone was tired, not only physically but also mentally of the bully tactics that were bieng used to keep the south segregated.

We all know the story about how segregation was struck down and the right to vote was won due to the efforts of Rev. King and his followers, we also know about his assassination and the impact that it had on this great nation. But do you see the parallels yet in any of these struggles to those of GLBT Americans? There were GLBT people who gave their lives for the civil rights fight of the 1950’s. Bayard Rustin(March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) though he did not give his life in the fight, he was along side Rev. King during the civil rights fight. Bayard was not only a black man he was a GAY black man. Let us not forget the freedom riders who were a mixture of black, white, male, female, gay and straight students who set out from Washington DC in 1961 bound for Mississippi.

Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving the plaintifs in Loving V. Virginia

The next battle front in the civil rights fight was that of segregation in marriage laws. Many Americans today do not understand why until 1967 there were 40 states that had laws on the books prohibiting mixed race marriages. The federal government in the case of Loving v. Virginia stated that the laws were unconstitutional and love could not be legislated. Many states held their interracial marriage laws on the books for many years after the Loving case, as a matter of fact the last law was struck down in the year 2000 in Alabama.

This brings us to the civil rights battle of today, where GLBT people are fighting not only for the right to marry but the right to exist in a society with DOMA laws and DADT rules. If you have stayed with me this long you should by now see the parallels if you did not see them before. The civil rights battles have been going on from the founding of the colonies in America. The last hurdle to overcome is the battle of marriage for GLBT people. Many would say that we need to battle DADT first but I personally believe it is the marriage battle that should be won then all else will fall into place. Humor me for a moment longer and I will explain. DOMA (the defense of marriage act) that was placed by President Clinton in 1996 (not Bush) was enacted when it was feared that Hawaii would gain civil marriage for GLBT people. President Clinton also enacted the DADT rule for the U.S. Military. If the DOMA law were to be repealed and we as GLBT people gain the right to marry on a federal level then the military can no longer enforce DADT because marriage equality would be legal making it also legal to state who you are married to. Benefits would have to be extended, once again making it hard to enforce the DADT rule. So with the repeal of DOMA and the enforcement of marriage equality on the federal level then the last hurdle would be past.

But now what about the title of this piece you ask? The one thing that all the civil rights fights had in common was that the people involved in the fight worked together. The women united, the blacks united, everyone worked together. Then you get to the GLBT fight for equality and it seems that the longer we fight the longer the acronym becomes for our identity. We started out as simply Gay then we went to Gay and Lesbian, then we got to Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgenders, but now we have GLBTQ the q being for queer or questioning. Just as our letters are to define us as cells within the grand rainbow that we are, they also serve to splinter us and cause us to all work in different directions.

Equality Fighters 1969 post Stonewall

While we all see lambda legal as the place to turn for legal opinion on on the struggle and HRC as the champion of champion groups to go to for the inside story, the actual people who are on the ground working their hearts out sacrificing their own time and in many times family lives for our rights are ignored. Every state has an equality group, (some more than one) every state has a pride (some more than one) and in many cases the equality groups do not work with the prides and the Pride groups will not work with other equality groups.

We as H&W recently came up against this very problem when trying to get the Marriage Equality Tour on the road. The tour was envisioned to bring the equality groups together as one group going cross country to show people that we not only deserve equality we demand it. When writing to or speaking with most of the local equality groups we have gotten a great warm reception where they are more than eager to help us get all this going. Pride groups have been a different story, and it seems as they are more about the party than the political struggle we are all fighting for. Have we forgotten that we cannot party until we have something to celebrate? Have we all forgotten what the Prides were started for? The gay Prides were started after Stonewall because of the need to show UNITY! Do we all know how to throw a party? of course we do! But we need to remember that there is still a battle to be won. We may be all battle weary but now is the time to UNITE and fight the oppression together. If we stay divided while the right wing is united against us then we are divided to a fall.

So when will we stop being the G & L & B & T & Q communities and go back to being the cohesive GLBT community to stand up and fight together and gain our equality through our strength in numbers?

Heck if 10% of the people in the United States are gay and lesbian and 10% are Trans and aprox 20% are Bisexual then we have 40% nearly a majority. Lets get together and work on something that matters for all of us!

Equality is written into the constitution, we all just need to remind people of that fact.

Time to work together toward a common goal and stop the Rainbow infighting!

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We deserve equality, we demand equality and H&W are putting their life on hold to gain it for everyone! Unity is the only way to get equality, Unite today with H&W.