The Spirit of Stonewall - Time to March in the Streets Again!

As the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots approaches I wonder if LGBT Americans really understand what second class citizens we really are?

The marriage issue is nice, but it's just one part of a larger picture. Without full rights as citizens, marriage won't really do the trick. I sometimes wonder why some gay activists decided to draw a line in the sand with marriage and not just go for Civil Rights. Gay marriage would be a no brainer if we were assured full rights and protections of the Constitution. Instead we have some rights but not all.

In most states a gay or lesbian employee can be fired just because of their sexual orientation. No protection, no recourse. That would qualify as second class citizenship to me.

An LGBT American can't serve openly in the military simply because of his or her sexual orientations. Sounds pretty second class to me.

An LGBT American can be harassed or even killed because of their sexual orientation with no protection under federal Hate Crimes laws. Why? Because we are second class Americans.

You see we have become complacent because many LGBT people are affluent. Having money does not give you more rights, it just lulls you into a false sense of equality. Just because a gay man is upper middle class in income doesn't buy him any more rights than other Americans.
It just means he can buffer the discrimination with a little more cash.

The cynic in me could go on for hours about the illusion that wealth brings privilege. It does until you run into the legal loopholes that say LGBT Americans are less valuable than their straight counterparts. Don't believe me, just see how money can't buy you access to a loved one who is hospitalized. If you are not "related" in the eyes of the law, you are out of luck.

So my point is that LGBT Americans need to wake up and realize that until we demand full rights we will never get them. Nobody is going to give them to us, we have to demand them and work to educate others to our plight.

We have an administration in Washington who is at least more sympathetic than the previous one, and it's time we made our voices heard loud and clear. On this 40th anniversary of Stonewall, we need to be back in the streets. It was marching and protesting that broughts full civil rights to other minorities in our country and the same will be true for us.