THE NEXT CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT? Jonathan Rauch

[Eve notes: Rauch wrote this a few weeks ago, in reply not to our question here but to this piece in the Massachusetts Patriot-Ledger. Just FYI.]

I agree that the black civil rights struggle will always be the civil rights struggle in America, in the sense that it was unique: a more comprehensive fight to eradicate a greater evil than any other movement for full civic inclusion. Thank goodness there is no exact parallel. And, yes, being gay, like being Jewish or Catholic, has behavioral elements, which being black or female does not.

But is it offensive to see important resemblances, as well as important differences, between black and gay civil-rights efforts? That's going too far.

Gay people are forbidden by law to serve our country in the military. Even many military personnel these day will tell you that the ban isn't necessary or even particularly useful. It's about dislike of gay people and an aversion to serving next to them. Sound familiar?

Gay people are forbidden by law to marry anyone we love. Many people believe that this ban is crucial to keeping marriage in one piece, but I don't think it is. Here the parallel to black civil rights is admittedly more strained, because no one ever thought that integration would redefine the schools. But it's a very severe hardship to be deprived of marriage and of any reasonable legal substitute for marriage (which would not entail "redefining" marriage, by anyone's lights). Indeed, after abolition, African Americans could always marry at least each other.

Until a few months ago, in many states gay people were forbidden by law to carry on loving sexual relationships in their own homes. What could be more far-reaching or more demeaning? No one ever tried saddling any other group with that prohibition.

And then there is the terrorism. Thugs routinely commit assault to keep homosexuals in their place. For many years, this was taken lightly by the police--whom the victims were often afraid to seek help from. Who else, in America, has known the fear that a broken skull might be the price of casting a "wrong" look or kissing the "wrong" person on the street?

So clearly gay people's efforts to bear adult burdens and enjoy adult prerogatives--marriage above all but not only--is a civil rights struggle: one comparable to earlier struggles for religious toleration (remember what happened to the Mormons in America?) or for women's right to vote and own property independent of their husbands.
posted by Eve at 3:55 PM | link

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