I Think We Gays Already Know Something About Outreach [View All]

I think we gays know something about outreach and politics, just ask Mary Cheney and Candy Gingrich.

I think we know gays know something about outreach and dialogue at the dinner table, around the hearth and with our “friends,” that our straight friends who encourage us to “just reach out and all will be worked out eventually,” don’t.

Some have said that the gay rights movement is “not identical to the AA civil rights movement.”

Others have said, if we don’t engage our opponents, nothing ventured nothing gained, “why just look at the AA civil rights movement.”

To be clear, as I understand it the two have civil rights in common. Therefore, to quote then Candidate Obama they are “parallel” civil rights movements.

There is one difference though, as this story illustrates, bigotry is an irrational prejudice, but the underlying social impetus that keeps anti-gay bigotry reinforced in society comes from the pulpit of many - not all- denominations and the group norms are reinforced every week. That's quite an uphill battle for gays.

Many Churches spoke up against the immorality of racial bigotry, whereas today, many Churches speak up against the immorality of homosexuality. The prejudice is ingrained, reinforced and gives a sense moral superiority to even the most unlikely speaker.

That’s what came to mind when I read about the girl in this story.

This Christmas story is a good illustration of ingrained bigotry and why outreach is not a simple matter of dialogue and why if we wait to change minds and hearts before we fight to change laws, we will wait till the end of time.

http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/
My Christmas 2008
Timothy Kincaid
December 26th, 2008