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Comment RSS Tackling Dummy - "Christians are the new Negro"
The rabidly anti-gay Ken Hutcherson, a former Seattle Seahawks linebacker, is pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Washington. I have speculated that "Hutch," as he likes to be called, took too many hits while wearing an ill-fitting helmet. Hutch has now turned to the stimulating pages of WorldNetDaily in order to proclaim; Church: Stop being 'evangelly-fish.' The main theme of Hutch's polemic is that gays are hijacking the struggles of African-Americans:
It has been said loudly and proudly that gay marriage is a civil-rights issue. If that's the case, then gays would be the new African-Americans. I'm here to tell you now, and hopefully for the last time, that the gay community is not the new "African-American" community. In fact, I think Christians are the new Negro – but that's an issue for a follow-up column.
In 2005, the Rev. Jesse Jackson stated that the fight of gays and lesbians wanting to marry should not be compared to the fight African-Americans faced for civil rights. The comparison of the plight of the gay community to slavery is a stretch; remember, gays were never called "three-fifths" human, according to the Constitution, and they did not require the Voting Rights Act to gain the same democratic rights as whites.
Actually, I think that Hutch is referring to Jesse Jackson's comments in February of 2004. That aside, Hutch is incapable of separating the social from the legal issues. Hutch is correct; the struggle of African-Americans for equality is not comparable to the struggle of GLBT citizens (including blacks) for equality. They are very different experiences. However, the only people who seem to be making that comparison are a few homophobic black ministers claiming that the comparison should not be made. If Hutch really wants this to be the "last time" that he claims that gay is not the new black, he simply needs to stop making that feigned comparison as an irrelevant argument to oppose marriage equality and the many other gay rights that he objects to.
Civil rights are, at least in part, protections and privileges that are sought in pursuit of equal protection under the law. For that reason, many black leaders, including Julian Bond — Chairman of the NAACP, have stated that gay rights are civil rights. Gays, at least those of white ancestry, are not the descendants of slaves. That is indisputable fact. It also seems indisputable that gays are denied certain civil rights including the rights to serve openly in the armed forces and the right to marry the person of their choice.
There is a perfectly valid legal comparison between the effort to have same-sex marriage recognized and the historical struggle for interracial marriage equality that resulted in the Supreme Court's decision in Loving v. Virginia. While it provides a compelling precedent, Loving does not serve as a comparison to slavery or any of the other countless injustices that African-Americans suffered.
Loving also provides a thematic comparison — one that should make Hutcherson deeply ashamed. In the original 1959 criminal case, the Lovings were prosecuted for miscegenation and pleaded guilty. The trial judge made a remarkable statement from the bench:
Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.
Mr. Hutchwerson needs to come to terms with the fact that his homophobic religious-based bigotry is strikingly similar to the legal intolerance that was used to oppress black people. When he is not voicing his manufactured angst about gays co-opting the black struggle, Hutcherson can be found opposing such things as diversity education. Hutcherson has been quite liberal in falsely spreading "recruitment" and "indoctrination" fears. He has no problem putting air to the dog whistle that he knows people hear as "child molestation." Much to our collective shame, there was a time in this country when that canine caller had a slightly different pitch. It promoted the fear that the black agenda was to rape helpless white women. The implications were disgraceful then and they are disgraceful now. When will Reverend Ken Hutcherson find his lost humanity?
All those blows he took to his head obviously damaged his brain. He's also a complete bigot.
As was referenced in the article, black men have for a long time as have gay men, been indicted with the broad brush of sexual aggression, immaturity and promiscuity.
Which was the impetus of Jim Crow and maintaining separation. Color was simply a means of achieving that separation.
But it is with that paranoia around black/gay sexuality, there are serious and correct comparisons to be made. A paranoia that is so intense that casual contact has resulted in street vigilantism against black and gay men.
"He made a pass" was a defense used as much against black men as gay men.
And law enforcers and the justice system has abused gays as well as blacks, and with as much distrust between each respective community.
There is so much in common that blacks and gays have, the list is actually quite long.
Take also the sexual exploitation of lesbians and black women. In the light of day, the white/straight world will reject them, under cover of prurient night, a different story.
The media has been unkind historically with how these communities have been portrayed. Initially ignoring their pain, but exploiting whatever was prurient to titillate already entrenched stereotype.
It might not have been stated that gays were ever 3/5 human, but it's an oft repeated reminder that they are 'an abomination unto God and shall be put to death, their blood be upon them', which is WORSE.
Meaning, at least black lives were still considered worth keeping them alive. Gay people didn't get that much consideration it was either incarceration or execution.
Finally, not SINCE slavery has a distinct minority been relegated to never marry or take custody legally of their committed life partner. Nor have as much unchallenged security over keeping their own children. This status has left gay couples literally without control over each other and vulnerable to the whims of someone who could be hostile. Self reliance and equal protection and access has been a long fought and long deserved right for gay people as well as blacks.
If any black people still like to think that this issue is strictly about sexuality which they argue can be changed, unlike color: they still haven't considered that no one should HAVE to change anything to have the assumed rights that each person and citizen has. Because this factor of sexuality is weighed with as much stereotype, misinformation and myth as black sexuality.
Regardless that heterosexuality/homosexuality are actually morally neutral, both can and should be channeled so that society supports the more positive aspects of committed relationships for both.
So let's call this issue what it really is:
Marital status, or lack of it, is another means of achieving a Jim Crow like situation for gay people as surely as color has for blacks.
Being Jewish, or one's religious affiliation certainly can be changed, yet it's still protected as a benign factor of a free life.
Conversely, genetic or biological legitimacy hasn't kept a human being from disenfranchisement and the worst of systemic bigotry and discrimination, blacks and women know about that.
Using either against gay people is as unconcionable as it has been against any other minority or women.
And as people like Ken Hutcherson have yet to appreciate, gays and lesbians, regardless of how brutally one or more of their number are lynched (something even a gay child cannot escape), no matter how many exemplary careers are destroyed, no matter how many gay people ease the burden of major social ills with their commitment to adoption and so on....gay people still conduct candlelight vigils, peaceful marches, accessing the courts and their elected official and due process of law for their many grievances.
In this too is the gay community showing the same considerable bravery and patience as did blacks of the civil rights era.
If there are blacks that cannot appreciate what there is in common, and express any compassion, empathy or support for this reality, then that is another American dilemma and unnecessary tragedy.
And a talented ally goes wasted at the expense of more commitment to prejudice than common good.
The Hutch has to be one of the most ignorant fools on the planet.
"When will Reverend Ken Hutcherson find his lost humanity?"
Unfortunately, the Ken Hutchersons of this world will never find their lost humanity, because they never had it to begin with.
It is time to accept that this world will only be made better when the Ken Hitchersons that inhabit it die off and become worm food just like the rest of us heathens.
I only regret that, in death, they will not have the consciousness to see the error or their ways.
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