IronLionZion wrote:Craven de Kere wrote:Dissimilar in circumstance yet very similar in that both are confronted by visceral prejudices. IMO, that similarity is profound in nature.
Indeed. But dissimilar in that one was a struggle against
segregation and a history of
slavery. The gay rights movement, on the other hand, is primarily a struggle to win over the
acceptance of society in general and to secure some symbolic, but rather inconsequential legal rights in marriage. That, IMO, is a dissimilarity profound in nature, Please, do not even attempt to compare the stuggle against slavery and its legacy to the stuggle for Steve to wed Steve.
Forgive me for derailing the thread, but your comments here betray enormous ignorance, ILZ.
I do not challenge your right to find the gay rights movement's co-option of tactics and such from the civil rights movement irking, ILZ - becaus I make no claim to understand the full experience of black people in the US.
However, to dismiss the struggles of the gay movement as:
"
acceptance of society in general and to secure some symbolic, but rather inconsequential legal rights in marriage. That, IMO, is a dissimilarity profound in nature, Please, do not even attempt to compare the stuggle against slavery and its legacy to the stuggle for Steve to wed Steve.[/quote]"
is outrageous. You should be more careful to know of what you speak before you do.
Are you unaware of the history of extreme violence against gay men (in particular men)? Of how many gay men have been, and still are, beaten up and murdered purely for their sexual orientation?
Of how much employment discrimination they have, and still do, suffer?
Of how much psychological trauma discrimination still causes? Of homosexuality as a risk factor in suicide?
Forgive me - you have only known the sitaution of gays in the USA over the last 20 years, where there has been some real progress - as there has been in many other western countries.
I doubt that this progress is anywhere near as profound as the surface appearance might make it seem, by the way. You only have to see the response of many otherwise sensible and decent posters here to homosexuality to see that - and of the backlash against the advances gays HAVE made that is in train as we speak.
These are just some examples...
And, acceptance is no small damned thing, by the way...