Gays v. Blacks and the Civil Rights Movement

I don't think people really understand the meaning of "Civil Rights".

Let me break it down for you.

IT DOES NOT MEAN BASIC RIGHTS FOR BLACK FOLKS.

Did you get that? No? Read it again. And again. And a-fucking-gain.

Sorry I had to use a little bit of profanity but I’m going to need for my people to get that “civil rights is a black people only thing” out of their heads. Yes, African Americans started the Civil Rights movement but the fight never ended. Not just for blacks but also for other minority groups such as Asians, Hispanics and the GLBT community. Yes, the gays are fighting for their rights too.

Let me break out the Wikipedia because my brain is mush from being up since 3AM and it’s after 11pm, and I gotta be back up at 3AM again.

Civil rights are a class of rights that protect individuals’ freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one’s ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression. They include the ensuring of peoples’ physical integrity and safety; protection from discrimination on grounds such as physical or mental disability, gender, religion, race, national origin, age, or sexual orientation; and individual rights such as the freedoms of thought and conscience, speech and expression, religion, the press, and movement.

There you have it. So when you hear someone likening the gay rights fight to the black civil rights movement, they’re only expressing that from a minority viewpoint. Of course their fight isn’t the same as the black civil rights movement, where our mothers and fathers and grandparents were hosed, beaten or lynched for us to sit anywhere on the bus, to vote, to speak freely, to walk in the front of restaurants and sit at the counters, to share water fountains (ew, germ alert) to run for office and become the President of our country. We’ve achieved all of that and more but we still have a long way to go. The gay community, while not to the same extent of being hosed and lynched, are fighting for some things that we have. Benefits, marriage, adoption, tougher laws against hate crimes, the end of DADT. They want their voices heard just as we wanted ours heard. We are ALL American citizens and deserve to have our God-given rights as such without being discriminated and singled out for being different.

So again, my fellow African-Americans or Black people, however you want to refer to yourself: stop claiming “civil rights” as just a black thing. It’s not.