Is Marriage for Same-Sex Couples a "Civil Right"?
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Is Marriage for Same-Sex Couples a “Civil Right”?
A fairly common definition of "civil right" looks something like this: The protections and privileges of personal liberty given to all U.S. citizens by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Some Blacks are offended when LGBT people equate the movement for marriage equality for same-sex couples with the African American civil rights movement.
When white LGBT people overshadow the voices of Black LGBT people and discuss the ability to marry as a matter of "civil rights," some Blacks may feel like the comparison diminishes the stain on our nation that resulted from centuries of slavery, lynching, segregation, and discrimination. We should remember, however, that many LGBT people are members of our community, the Black community, and were an integral part of our Black civil rights movement.
Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), Deputy Director of the 1963 March on Washington, was an openly gay Black man. In his position as advisor to Dr. King he is credited as the true logistical mastermind of the event. Rustin initially began working with King during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1956, and became a key movement strategist. Though the FBI pressured March organizers to abandon Rustin, they recognized the essential quality of his leadership and stood behind him. Rustin represents many Black gay community members whose service to the extended Black family has been indispensable.
"When I picketed for Welfare Mother's Rights, and against the enforced sterilization of young Black girls, when I fought institutionalized racism in the New York City schools, I was a Black Lesbian. But you did not know it because we did not identify ourselves, so now you can say that Black Lesbians and Gay men have nothing to do with the struggles of the Black Nation. And I am not alone.
When you read the words of Langston Hughes you are reading the words of a Black Gay man. When you read the words of Alice Dunbar-Nelson and Angelina Weld Grimke, poets of the Harlem Renaissance, you are reading the words of Black Lesbians. When you listen to the life-affirming voices of Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, you are hearing Black Lesbian women. When you see the plays and read the words of Lorraine Hansberry, you are reading the words of a woman who loved women deeply."
Visionary writer Audre Lorde, from her essay entitled "I Am Your Sister."
Many white gays and lesbians stood arm and arm with Black Americans in Selma and Montgomery.
Arguments against marriage equality for same-sex couples today are very similar to those used decades ago to create and expand interracial marriage bans on both the state and federal levels. Without trying to establish a hierarchy of which is worse, our country's civil rights laws place the prohibition against gender-based, racial, or religious discrimination into the same provisions.
"Human rights for all human beings is why gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered Americans deserve the same rights and protection under the law as other Americans. Gay and lesbian couples who make a life-long commitment to one another should receive the same legal rights and benefits of marriage that other couples receive.
Gay and lesbian couples in long-term committed relationships deserve to be able to visit each other in the hospital, share health insurance coverage and get equal pensions and other survivor benefits if one spouse dies. There are those who want to make gay and lesbian civil unions or civil marriages a moral and religious issue only…but in our secular society, religious institutions are under no moral, religious or legal obligation to perform or bless gay unions." - Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL)
Coretta Scott King, Civil Rights Leader
"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people." (Coretta Scott King, Reuters, 3/31/98)
"Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fla., and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions." (Coretta Scott King, Chicago Tribune, 4/1/98)
