Let's call it what it is - Gay Apartheid.
Now some of you might think that is a loaded and unfair word. I have chosen the word very carefully and deliberately. Apartheid is when a group of citizens of a nation is by law separated from all other citizens and the rights, benefits and protections all others are granted.
Having DOMA and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as laws of the land are apartheid laws. They set us apart from all other American citizens. State after state has singled us out in their Constitutions to create a separate body of law for LGBT citizens. States have created laws to forbid us from adopting or participating in the foster care system. Those of us who have foreign national partners are refused to right to co-habitate in America.
Creating civil unions and domestic partnership laws to avoid marriage is a failed attempt to sustain a system of 'separate but equal' that didn't work in the segregationist South and won't work for us. So lets be honest about this as we see an enormous number of laws on the books specially denying LGBT Americans the rights, benefits, privileges and protections granted to all other Americans: we have created and are continuing to expand on a system of Gay Apartheid. There is no other way to look at it.
Interesting read...I don't agree with certain parts, like the comparison of marriage and DADT to the South Africa's 46 years of mess.
Sorry, but SA's issues were far worst than our right to marry. Maybe I read this wrong, but still it's a great piece.
Please check it out, here
2 comments:
Sure, South Africa had it worse. But the California case highlights the fact that it's one and the same.
What the court did was interesting, they created not one but three classes of people. One class is the heteros who can marry who they wish. Another class is those gay people who've already married, and the third class is those gay people who now cannot marry.
There's another court challenge coming, I can tell you that just by what the CASC did.
In fact here in RI our legislature declined to pass a gay divorce bill. The party in question is more likely than not going to file a discrimination suit against the state. I can't wait to see how that goes down.
Honestly, I don't agree with calling it apartheid. I am all for gay rights but that comparison is EXTREME. Apartheid was just EVIL. It was WORSE than southern segregation and I don't say that lightly.
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