Alveda King (niece to MLK) is enraged that the NAACP has broadened its mission statement to support the freedom to marry for all. Alveda stated, “To equate homosexuality with race is to give a death sentence to civil rights, no one is making them sit in the back of the bus.” With all due respect, Ms. King, for the record, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) did not equate anything to “them!” You are the one grabbing the race card, inserting that mistruth, and attempting to stir-up division! Second Ms. King, please allow me a moment to school you a tad on our “bus.”
Hitler had special concentration camps and protocol for gays where he and his followers ordered and assigned them to the most difficult of all jobs. Twenty-four seven gays were taunted, tortured, prodded, poisoned, stripped, whipped, beaten, used as horrific disfiguring medical experiments, their fingernails pulled, they were starved, went days without water, and had thick splint-filled wooden sticks shoved into their anus and penis until the majority bled to death.
Unfortunately, not much has changed since. All throughout history (including today) gays are taunted, teased, humiliated, tortured, mocked, ridiculed and murdered. A recent article stated that in Iraq gay men’s anuses are super-glued while forced to drink diarrhea inducing liquid resulting in a very slow and painful death. In Jamaica, there is government sanctioned brutal rape to “cure” lesbians. In over 75 countries, gays are imprisoned should they simply live honestly. Many that have (and continue to) assault and murder our gay brothers and sisters are repeatedly given an insignificant penalty or found “not guilty” and still today, we hear pastors, politicians, teachers and preachers condoning hatred and violence toward gays and lesbians with little to no concern, consideration or care.
Sadly, however, we do not need to look outside of our own back yard to see this type of repulsive abuse. Every day across the U.S. gay couples and their houses are robbed, egged, vandalized, and burned by hate-motivated arsonists. Every day gays are brutally beaten, sodomized, burned, mobbed, assaulted, bashed, intimidated and killed as acceptable “punishment” simply for the way they were born. It was not that long ago here in the U.S. that gays were imprisoned, and while there, used as medical experiments. Gays endured endless months of water torture and gruesome shock therapy to “cure” them. Today every minute in our nation a crime is reported from a gay person being harassed, bashed, bullied, and often including death threats – and these are just the ones on record. Incalculable acts of gay bashing are never reported due to shame, humiliation, and embarrassment, threats if they do, and the list goes on. Gay people cannot, to this day, peacefully walk in their (long awaited and much deserved) pride parades or get married without hearing insults, slander and verbal attacks from scores of deluded people with bullhorns. Trust me Ms. King, if we had a choice, we would happily sit in the back of the air-conditioned bus!
Lastly, Alveda, though your uncle may not have officially went on record supporting equal rights for his gay brothers and sisters, his wife (your aunt) Coretta has made it abundantly clear numerous times that they both believed in, and supported equal marriage for all! Alveda I have a proposal. How about instead of using your time, energy and money preventing loving, monogamous, faithful and devoted gay couples their civil right to legally marry, you put all of your time, money and energy into making your fourth one a success – deal?
JasonjDOTbiz 
Jason: We have been waiting for this. So very well said. Thank you!
Alveda King has a point. The NAACP was set up to be a racist organization, and thus should remain as such. Take, for instance, the rape case in which an African American, US Army drill sergeant was convicted of 18 charges of rape… The NAACP said in response that the conviction was, “an attack on the leadership of the African-American male”[1].
So, you’re complaining about the wrong thing. You should be complaining that the NAACP is trying to remain relevant when its roots are deeply planted in racism. When an organization that is for the “advancement” of a particular race, that is racism,
[1]: http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-30/news/mn-53918_1_drill-sergeants
Mike, thank you for your input. I understand your position (which brings forth an entire different conversation altogether) I however wanted to isolate the simple fact that an organization (whether racist or not) attempted to do something for the common good of all man and someone who once was treated like an outcast, and now enjoys all the benefits of an equal society, is fighting to marginalize and suppress another minority group currently being treated like one.
It’s pointless competing to see who has got the best record for the ‘most abused’. Point scoring is not a good way forward. Oppressed minorities like Blacks, Jews and Gays should be supporting one another. By fighting as we are here, we hand victory to our oppressors.
Nevertheless, Ms King paints an inaccurate picture. In most of America, LGBT can be sacked from our job LEGALLY just because we are gay. We can be evicted from living accommodation LEGALLY because we are gay. LGBT children can also LEGALLY be expelled from their school if it’s discovered they’re gay. We can LEGALLY be refused service in most of the country, and we can be disinherited by our families and disowned by our erstwhile friends. Over 40% of America’s homeless youth have been kicked out of home by their religious parents from the age of 11 upwards, thereafter suiciding from the age of 11 upwards at up to 6x or more the national rate of youth suicide. No-one has ever been kicked out of home by their parents for being black.
Blacks don’t have to keep their race a secret – since obviously they can’t, but gay people usually have to until it’s safe to leave home. Blacks don’t have to live in constant fear that someone will find out they’re black. Once it’s discovered someone is gay however, all the above things can and do happen across the country, even in the few states where it’s NOT legal to discriminate against LGBT minorities.
Now, name me ONE state where you can be LEGALLY sacked, evicted, disowned, disinherited, expelled from your school, or refused goods and services, just because of the colour of your skin. Just one.
Not to make light of the dreadful slave trade, but blacks had it easy compared to LGBT, because apart from the Nazis, there isn’t a government on the entire planet seeking to exterminate blacks, but there are 10 countries with the death penalty for being gay. For example in Iran, over 4,000 homosexuals have been put to death by their government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Methods of execution include being thrown off the tallest building in the city, hanging (and that includes LGBT children), beheading, 1,000 lashes, and being stoned to death. In Africa, you can burn a gay man alive on the street by throwing a tyre round his neck and dousing him petrol and then lighting it, and no-one will stop you. Crowds film the burning and upload to social media. Google it. In Jamaica LGBT teens are forced to live in the city sewers to escape persecution and violence. In Russia, if you are shot in the face or bashed, the police arrest YOU for “homosexual propaganda” and let your attackers walk. King don’t need to care because she’s not a faggot.
In another 70 countries, homosexuals are imprisoned for up to 14 years to life for being in a relationship with their same sex partner. Even in countries like Australia where I’ve been legal since 1985, and the USA, it is perfectly legal to sack someone if you find out they’re gay, you can also disinherit them, disown them, evict them from living accommodation and refuse to sell them food, healthcare, education and transportation on religious grounds since religion is exempt from anti-discrimination law, and religion is the worst scourge of the homosexual there is, including the odious Shariah Law. Likewise, the Catholic Church alongside most Christian and ALL Muslim schools routinely sacks any teacher and expels students found out to be gay. In any case, most of the world doesn’t even have the protections of anti-discrimination law.
Bad is it was, African Americans’ suffering lasted only three centuries and they now have equal rights, whereas LGBT have been persecuted relentlessly for thousands of years and continue to have no rights in nearly half the world. LGBT can’t even walk down the street holding their partner’s hand without some rude asshole calling out “hey faggot” for NO REASON.
This singling out of LGBT is born of malice and religious animus against us. If they really insist on denying our legitimacy, then let religious owned businesses put up signs saying “no faggots”. At least we’re spared the inidignity of being turned out of their stores.
Some say we should go to another shop if turned away by one that didn’t serve people of our race or gender or sexual orientation or religious belief. Sounds fine until you have to drive 40 miles into the next town, because you happen to live in a one-horse Bible Belt town with one foodstore, one doctor, one school, one pizzeria, one printer, one florist and one wedding venue.
And yes, the word ‘faggot’ is every bit as offensive as ‘nigger’.
Thank you, Derek. Great post and I too would love to see all marginalized communities fighting for their brothers and sisters. It wasn’t just woman that fought for equal voting. It wasn’t just blacks who fought for desegregation and it certainly cannot just be gay people fighting for our rights. Every race, religion and human being needs to believe, and fight for, their neighbors equality.