Monday, October 15, 2007
Nonviolent Protests for Equal Rights
The gay and lesbian communittee has been stiving for decades to get the government to pass laws that will allow equality of all people no matter their sexual preferences. The main focus has been the right to gay marriage. Through the years of struggle there have been many ways supporters have protested their rights. As of late there has been an increased focus in the area of non-violent protests and resistance. One specific example of this took place in Englewood, Colorado on September 25, 2007. Kate Burns and Sheila Schroeder were arrested under the charge of trespassing after entering the Denver Clerk and Recorder Office, being denied a marriage license, and refusing to leave. One other example of this type of non-violent protest took place all across the country on October 7-13, 2007. In this instance the supporters were all straight people who "came out" to support equal rights for homosexual Americans. Over the course of the seven nights, groups of staight Americans from numerous cities in the United States held overnight vigils in support of gay and lesbian rights. Whether by homosexuals or straight Americans, support for equal rights is definetly growing. Though these non-violent protests may not have any immediate effects, it atleast causes people to think and question what is right. I believe it is good what people are doing in support of allowing equal rights, especially in the area of marriage, but I am still in the majority of 2/3 of Americans that believe that the right to gay marriage should remain unprotected.
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5 comments:
It is great that people are standing up for what they believe is right, and they seem to be going about it the same way other equal rights were created, but I still think this issue goes beyond equal rights and segregation.
I understand their desire to protest but it is not like there are seperate water fountains for gays. We don't make them sit on the back of the bus or anything like that. I don't think this type of issue should be compared to the other major protests that have occured in American.
Sweetness, I think you are right about this issue being deeper than just equal rights; there is a moral issue involved for most people. But I don't think that the issue of gay marriage deals with the problem of segregation at all.
M4rylu, I think that you may have misunderstood my blog post. Maybe it was simply the tone of my post, but I didn't even compare these protests to other major protests of the past. Though somewhat similar, I don't think that the gay rights movement can be compared to the civil rights movement. They are both different and focused on seperate issues of equality.
Your posting is historically inaccurate. Stonewall was not about gay marriage. It was about keeping cops from harassing gay and transgender people who just wanted to assemble amongst each other in peace.
Gay marriage is a recent afterthought. In the not too distant past, many in the gay community did not want gay couples to mimic straight couples, and were particularly incensed that marriage -- which was perceived to be a broken, patriarchal, sexist institution -- should ever be practiced by gays and lesbians.
Times have changed for everybody.
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