Gay Rights @ MindSay

A master strategist and tireless activist, Bayard Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. He brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the American civil rights movement, and helped mold Martin Luther King, Jr. into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence.

Despite these achievements, Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era..

Today, the United States is still struggling with many of the issues Bayard Rustin sought to change during his long, illustrious career. His focus on civil and economic rights and his belief in peace, human rights and the dignity of all people remain as relevant today as they were in the 1950s and 60s.

Rustin’s biography is particularly important for lesbian and gay Americans, highlighting the major contributions of a gay man to ending official segregation in America. Rustin stands at the confluence of the great struggles for civil, legal and human rights by African-Americans and lesbian and gay Americans. In a nation still torn by racial hatred and violence, bigotry against homosexuals, and extraordinary divides between rich and poor, his eloquent voice is needed today.

Bayard Rustin with Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1956 (Credit: Associated Press)

In February 1956, when Bayard Rustin arrived in Montgomery to assist with the nascent bus boycott, Martin Luther King, Jr. had not personally embraced nonviolence. In fact, there were guns inside King’s house, and armed guards posted at his doors. Rustin persuaded boycott leaders to adopt complete nonviolence, teaching them Gandhian nonviolent direct protest.

Apart from his career as an activist, Rustin the man was also fun-loving, mischievous, artistic, gifted with a fine singing voice, and known as an art collector who sometimes found museum-quality pieces in New York City trash. Historian John D’Emilio calls Rustin the “lost prophet” of the civil rights movement.


http://rustin.org

.Article in Jesus Land Times... otherwise known as a newspaper in Arkansas.

 

.Dear Mr. Messick, .Before I say what I'm going to say, I thought I should let you know that I am a Christian. .Now I must say this... there is a separation of Church and State for good reason. There are hundreds of different religions in America. If Christianity was the minority, how would you react when other religions voted for their own "agendas"? I can see how you feel about abortion. Sure, vote against abortion... it's not a religious point. Nowhere in the bible does it say anything about stopping the growth of a fetus into a baby. So sure, speak out against abortion. It would be your own personal view and not just what the bible tells you. .As far as gay rights (which, by the way, you call "the homosexual and abortionist agenda"--so very obviously entirely different things, making you look incredibly ignorant and foolish) denying other people the right to live normally because your religion says what they do is wrong is not only hypocrital and anti-Christian, it's also in violation of the very clear Separation of Church and State. Religion has no business in politics. There are too many religions in America for one to rule all. This is not a theocracy. It shouldn't be. Everyone should be able to believe what they believe--the right to argue and disagree and be as different as they want to be. You see, a lot of the rights homosexuals want are things like laws keeping employers from firing them because they're gay, landlords from refusing them because they're gay--just the right to live. You may not believe it, but in your state it is totally legal to fire someone for being gay. Also, homosexuals would like the right to serve openly in the military, something that is proven to have absolutely no effect on morale or cohesion. In the military, it's not only legal to fire someone for being gay, it's encouraged. .As Mr. White said before me, we are all sinners; thus, no one is better than anyone else. Who are you to judge someone else for how they live? You yourself are living in sin, according the bible from which you preach. Condemning someone for committing something seen by our religion as sin is anti-Christian and a sin in itself. It is a sin to judge another human. .See, so much is wrong with voting on religious reasoning. Look inside yourself to vote, rather than in the bible. If you stop putting words in God's mouth and just listen to what he has to say, maybe you'll get it right. .Sincerely, A Concerned Fellow Christian   .(I couldn't help myself. I randomly found the article and had to sign up so I could bitch at him.)

be considered wrong? as far as im concerned..love is NEVER wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

support LGBT rights...unless you are a close-minded asshat..then you can just fuck off..and consider this..its technically gay if you play with youself

Domestic partnerships are now permitted  in Oregon making it one of a few completely gay friendly states in America I feel quite giddy with pride.

 

So awhile ago, a friend I made in one of my classes revealed to me that she does not like gay people, and she wants to take away someone's right because of her religion (which really has no place in discussion about someone's rights). In short, she wants to ban gay marriage.

Here's our following discussion:

Me: Do you think everyone should have equal rights?
Her: Uh.. Can you elaborate on that?
Me: Does one person deserve the same rights as another person?
Her: ... Uh, yeah..
Me: Is a gay person not a person then?
Her: .... Well... Uh.. Gay people are weird. Like, they have weird thoughts!
Me: Do you think I'm weird?
Her: No, why?
*Class starts, I don't answer*

Now, I have two things to say to that:

1. Since when did gay = weird? I'm bisexual, and she doesn't think I'm weird (yeah, maybe I'm not ONLY attracted to females, but I would think that I still count). I think that what she said was, well, wrong. Yeah, maybe there are gay people who are weird, but hell, there are weird straight people too! Gay =/= weird.

2. How can being weird even be used as justification for taking away someone's right? How can one even decide that someone is weird- what's weird to one person may not be for another. What if I turned to Maryam and said, "You're black your skin doesn't have the same skin pigmentation as mine- you're weird, stop talking to me." She would be offended as hell. I'd like to note that I don't really believe that she's weird because of her race, I'm just making a point.

Anyways, I wish I could have said that to her, I really do, but we were watching a movie and I didn't feel like sparking an argument. Anyways, I am just shocked that someone would be so ready to take away someone's rights based on orientation.