Amen, brother!

I opened the paper this morning and it was as if somebody overheard my conversation with Congressman Bobby Scott at the NCDC forum last night. An article by Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP and professor at UVA, appeared in today’s Pilot. Bond articulates the point that I and others have tried to make about civil rights:

“Civil rights” are positive legal preogatives – the right to equal treatment before the law. These are rights shared by all.

Gay and lesbian rights are not “special rights” in any way. It isn’t “special” to be free from discrimination. It is an ordinary, universal entitlement of citizenship.

I have been particularly concerned that black ministers are using their positions within the community to try to divorce gay righs from civil rights. Coretta Scott King was willing to take them on, saying in 2003:

I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people…. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.

Likewise, Bond:

For some, comparing the African-American civil rights movement and the movement for gay and lesbian rights somehow diminishes the long black struggle for equality with all its suffering and sacrifices. People of color ought to be flattered, however, that our movement has provided so much inspiration for others, and that our tactics, methods, heroines and heroes, even our songs, have been adopted by or served as models for others.

The NAACP opposes the federal marriage amendment, and we oppose efforts to write bigotry into Virginia’s constitution, too. Sexual orientation parallels race — I was born black and had no choice. I couldn’t and wouldn’t change it if I could.

Like race, our sexuality isn’t a preference — it is inborn, and the Constitution protects us all against discrimination based on immutable differences.

[...]

The so-called “marriage amendment” to Virginia’s Bill of Rights should be defeated. Let us maintain our determination to fight on until all our brothers and sisters enjoy the blessings of liberty and justice.

Amen, brother!

Vote NO, Virginia!