It's a different set of rights. People who are homosexuals should have every right in terms of their civil rights, to be employed, to do anything they want. But that's not really the issue. I know you talked about it and I think you got into it a little bit early on. But when we're talking about a redefinition of an institution, that's different than individual civil rights.... But here is the difference. Bull Connor was hosing people down in the streets of Alabama. John Lewis got his skull cracked on the Selma bridge.
Let me just be the first to say that I could really care less about the careless, insensitive bleatings of Mike Huckabeee. His glib, holier-than-thou, My-God-can-beat-up-your-God pronouncements are truly the stuff of...well, not exactly legend, to be sure. His dismissal of gay rights and his refusal to see the homosexual struggle for equality in the same light as African-Americans is both insulting and demeaning. Then again, he does seem to be faithfully reciting what appear to be the prevailing Right-wing talking points when it comes to gay rights. So much for Christian charity.
For some reason, Conservatives seem to feel that, if you're not being violently repressed, then there's in fact no repression and everyone enjoys complete freedom and equality. This argument doesn't begin to hold water unless you happen to believe that homosexuals are somehow less than human. The longer Conservatives continue down this path, the more I'm beginning to think that this is exactly where their ignorance and prejudices have led them.
For Conservatives to seriously posit this argument sets a very dangerous precedent, especially when you consider that, according to the FBI, 16.6% of all hate crimes in the US result from what they refer to as "sexual-orientation bias". Even more disturbing is that
[A] 2007 study by the University of California, Davis, found that "[n]early four in 10 gay men and about one in eight lesbians and bisexuals in the United States have been the target of violence or a property crime because of their sexual orientation."
Huckabee's brand of insensitivity and clueless is not unique to him. Indeed, it's seems to be endemic among the wingnuts on the Far Right, who simply cannot seem to fathom the reality that the struggle for gay rights is every bit the civil rights struggle as what convulsed our nation in the '60s and '70s. That overt, visible violence isn't being visited upon homosexuals in the same manner as it was upon African-Americans hardly diminishes the validity of their struggle. Bloodshed does not validate a struggle; it merely means that those engaging in the bloodshed need to be put away...and for a very, very long time.
Personally, I'm tired of Huckabee's brand of bigotry and ignorance. This from a man who's an ordained minister. Huckabee talks the talk of Christianity while seemingly feeling no corresponding responsibility to also walk the walk. Do not pass "Go". Do not collect $200. Go to Hell. Go directly to Hell, Rev. Huckabee...and take your fellow hypocrites and haters with you.
