Legal rights ≠ equality or acceptence or, bigots are pimples

I can’t recall a larger social issue for the gay community since Stonewall than that of the fight to legalize gay marriage across the country. A good look at this blog will tell you I’m in favor of legalizing gay marriage. This post is not an argument for giving up that effort. It’s a reality check for my brothers and sisters.

Lately the tone of discourse on the topic of same-sex marriage has caused me to wonder if gays are hoping that when we win the right to marry we will also enjoy an increase in acceptance and general social equality. I hope not, because I think just the opposite might occur.

We are already seeing an increase, ending soon I hope, of extremely violent and anti-social crimes being committed in the name of one god or another. When those on the far religious right feel that their power is being taken away, that their passionate beliefs are being challenged and even being marginalized, when they begin to realize that they are losing their choke-hold on the population they panic. In their panic they are lashing out in sometimes violent ways.

Religious extremism has killed a security guard, a doctor, Olympic athletes and over three thousand workers in two high-rise office buildings in New York. Religious extremists would like to turn this country into a theistic state so every time an American soldier has to kill an armed and dangerous enemy soldier, it can instead be portrayed as a war between Christians and Muslims. And hasn’t that played well throughout history. Religious extremists want to tell you what to think. The rest of us are begging you to think for yourselves.

The more that gays are out there, the more attention is called to the gay community, the more these wing-nuts will see us as a worthy target of their frustration and anger. How long before we hear about crosses being burned on the lawns of gay couples? Bigotry is not always a silent, festering sickness. Bigots can be like pimples, both pop if squeezed hard enough. The output of both is pretty disgusting.

I don’t mean to rain on the progress being made by gay people across the nation. I just want to send a warning message: Don’t mistake the courts granting marriage rights in some states as a sign that society is becoming more accepting of everyone who identifies as LGBT. Paul Lynde was accepted by my peers though it was clear he was a complete queen. Openly gay people have enjoyed acceptance in small numbers, better if they’re artists and entertainers. But there remains a general reluctance to accept gays in every day life. The Average Joe doesn’t want us in his church or on his bowling team. On his TV set, OK. Living next door with his husband? Not so OK, even though they’d be the first people he asked to watch the family cat while they go on vacation.

Let’s get the right to marry in all 50 states. That’s a worthwhile and acheiveable goal. But it won’t be the end of the road by any means. Gays have been demonized by the religious right (an attitude that has managed to infect even the generally liberal) so well and for so long that it will take several more generations before being LGBT is of minor interest to the general population. Unbelieveably, there are still racists, and how much longer have Blacks enjoyed acceptance by that same Average Joe?

We still have a long row to hoe. We shouldn’t let a bad case of social acne slow us down or defeat us.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 and is filed under abuse by others, news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.