What irks me into anger is the opinion I read of some religious yokel who stated, and I quote loosely, “Gay marriage is not a civil rights issue. Black people have no choice. They are born black. But gay people choose to be gay.”
This insults everyone.
First of all, I have never met a single Gay person who has chosen to be Gay. I have met some Gay people who have chosen to repress their sexuality and turn to food. This renders them elephantine and certainly date-free. I have met Gay people who took a long time to come out of the closet. This is not a problem, just a journey. But to say that someone chooses to be gay? No wonder there are so many homophobes. They must wake up each day and wonder, “Is today the day I’m going to act on my minor homo-erotic impulses and choose to become a big devil-worshipping homo?”
And even if being gay was actually a choice, well, is it such an awful choice? Considering overpopulation? Actually, given the state of our air, living a gay lifestyle is probably the sanest choice. But friends, you, the Miss Informed, it is not a choice.
Further bad taste:
Saying that Black people are born Black so they have no choice, while being true, just sounds kind of tacky and ill stated.
But let’s move past the victimization of Black people for a moment, which I would never deny or pretend has not been absolutely horrific in our country. Black Americans were treated the worst way possible. And when I imagine slavery, I am filled with murderous rage. I hate it when someone tells me that I have to get up before 10 AM. I cannot imagine someone threatening to whip me if I balked at having to plow the back forty. So, yes, the deal for Black people was rotten and the prejudice, especially in the deep south, let’s face it, has been almost insurmountable. But during the last forty years, at least ideologically, if not materially, it has gotten better. I believe the material will come. Though I do not deny that when you run the numbers on Black wealth compared with White wealth, any human accountant hangs his head in shame. It’s disgusting.
Black people and all Women, with the support of all kinds of other people, have fought like hell for full, equal citizenship in every way. And it has been won. Again, only ideologically. But still, it has been won. So WHY THE FUCK on earth are Black people so against Gay people sharing the same rights? I have to tell you, we Gay people are pretty furious about this. Though the original statement of the religious yokel above made no mention of Black ideological violence against Gay people, I had to add it here. The question of civil rights for Black citizens compared with Gay citizens is no longer the immediate discussion. The real trouble, now, when considering Black citizens and Gay citizens is that Black citizens, by a large majority, want to disenfranchise Gay ones, which eclipses the whole discussion. SHAME, shame, SHAME on you, Black Homophobes who hide behind the cloak of religion. You can’t do that. You must stop it. Today.
5 comments:
I once remarked, in group therapy no less, that I hoped we could have some public validation of the horrors of slavery similar to what the Holocaust Museum was for Jews. Boy, did I get several pairs of feet all the WAY down my throat!! How they were NOTHING alike, etc, etc. There were no black people in the group but there were several Jewish. Why does every group that has ever suffered think that their suffering is so different from the suffering of other victimized people? And it's always the same refrain - that somehow the other group deserved it.
Odd logic. If being Black was an option would it then be okay to remove Black people's right to marry who they want?
Here's the thing: People are using religion as a shield. If my religion told me to hit you on the head with a shovel, that still doesn't make it right and cannot be considered constitutional. I can go ahead and hit MYSELF with a shovel in the head all the goddamn day long, but I wouldn't dare inflict that on someone else.
Hi all.
Well, Rebecca, I find this to be true, too. One of the reasons why I never feel particularly awful about being gay. I mean, all sorts of people are hated. I'm nothing special.
Dan, your remark about "Even if it was a choice", shouldn't people have the same rights is something I was thinking about, too, but I forgot to put that in. Thank you for bringing up what is so true. So clear. And so---
Vanessa---religion is rough.
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