Similarities Between Civil Rights And Gay Rights
The Civil Rights & Gay Rights Movements
“History matters because it repeats itself. If we understand the past, we will have a better understanding of what is yet to come.” Any student taking a history class has probably had this statement pounded into their brain. However, many wonder how much truth really lies within these words. Comparing the Civil Rights Movement to the Gay Rights Movement proves that this statement contains truth. Although there are a few differences between these movements, the concepts are extremely similar, and are both fighting for the same purpose: equality. These movements share similarities in their goals, their aggressors, and the involvement of religion.
The basis for both the Civil Rights movement and the Gay …show more content…
However, it does not. The preamble states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” but yet we are left here, to this day, still fighting for equality.
Unfortunately, one of the similarities the two movements share is the use of violence to combat them. Although the violence during the Civil Rights movement was more frequent and widespread, violence still poses a problem in the gay community. African Americans were the targets of violence by lynching, beatings, and murders, while violence against gays tends to be more passive aggressive and not as apparent. However, physical violence still plays a part in the harassment of homosexuals. Those that are merely believed to be attracted to the same gender can be beaten or even killed. But the real killer is not the physical violence, but the emotional pain. The expression “words can kill” becomes too literal when discussing the hatred against gays. According to Life Site News, people who identify as homosexual are five times …show more content…
Although children who identify as homosexual are not sent to a different school, they are still treated differently in certain areas. In the Rolling
Stone article, “One Town’s War on Gay Teens,” it claims that there is a “suicide epidemic” occurring in Anoka County. The mass amount of suicides began after Michelle Bachman and the school board declared that they would be instating a policy that made it so staff could not discuss or address anything involving homosexuality. Unfortunately, this included bullying. If a student was being bullied because of their sexual orientation, the staff would not be able to say anything, for fear of losing their jobs. If a student reported bullying, the teacher’s best advice was to ignore it. This mirrored the Civil Rights Movement in that many times when children were bullied or beaten for the color of their skin, the best advice administrators could give was to ignore it because of the laws in place in that time.
Religion was pulled into both of the movements. In the 60’s, whites found bible verses to justify their actions. Pastors preached in church that their hate-filled messages were the will of
God. Today, a major reason for not allowing gay marriage is because it is against
“History matters because it repeats itself. If we understand the past, we will have a better understanding of what is yet to come.” Any student taking a history class has probably had this statement pounded into their brain. However, many wonder how much truth really lies within these words. Comparing the Civil Rights Movement to the Gay Rights Movement proves that this statement contains truth. Although there are a few differences between these movements, the concepts are extremely similar, and are both fighting for the same purpose: equality. These movements share similarities in their goals, their aggressors, and the involvement of religion.
The basis for both the Civil Rights movement and the Gay …show more content…
However, it does not. The preamble states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” but yet we are left here, to this day, still fighting for equality.
Unfortunately, one of the similarities the two movements share is the use of violence to combat them. Although the violence during the Civil Rights movement was more frequent and widespread, violence still poses a problem in the gay community. African Americans were the targets of violence by lynching, beatings, and murders, while violence against gays tends to be more passive aggressive and not as apparent. However, physical violence still plays a part in the harassment of homosexuals. Those that are merely believed to be attracted to the same gender can be beaten or even killed. But the real killer is not the physical violence, but the emotional pain. The expression “words can kill” becomes too literal when discussing the hatred against gays. According to Life Site News, people who identify as homosexual are five times …show more content…
Although children who identify as homosexual are not sent to a different school, they are still treated differently in certain areas. In the Rolling
Stone article, “One Town’s War on Gay Teens,” it claims that there is a “suicide epidemic” occurring in Anoka County. The mass amount of suicides began after Michelle Bachman and the school board declared that they would be instating a policy that made it so staff could not discuss or address anything involving homosexuality. Unfortunately, this included bullying. If a student was being bullied because of their sexual orientation, the staff would not be able to say anything, for fear of losing their jobs. If a student reported bullying, the teacher’s best advice was to ignore it. This mirrored the Civil Rights Movement in that many times when children were bullied or beaten for the color of their skin, the best advice administrators could give was to ignore it because of the laws in place in that time.
Religion was pulled into both of the movements. In the 60’s, whites found bible verses to justify their actions. Pastors preached in church that their hate-filled messages were the will of
God. Today, a major reason for not allowing gay marriage is because it is against