How offensive is it to compare the gay rights movement to the civil rights movement?

Question

This isn't to argue the rightness or wrongness of being gay, just that not getting sexual satisfaction certainly is no where near the same as being forcibly enslaved and being denied the most basic things like education and facilities. PETA recently created a stir by comparing treatment of animals to slavery, which unfortunately has become a common guilt tactic used by extremist groups. While sexual orientation itself may not be a choice, two people having sex certainly is, and having sex is not simply an innocent physical trait like race. Sex isn't a birth right but a luxury or pleasure. Why is sexual satisfaction such a big deal when there are millions of single people who go through life without ever having any romantic pleasure, and there are also hundreds of millions of people with worse problems like poverty and famine. It's also wrong to discriminate against people for being fat, but I wouldn't compare it to racism because it would be like comparing getting chicken pox to cancer

Answer 1

as a man of haitian, african american & french decent, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most offended....i'd say a 50!!!

Answer 2

No. Because gays are fighting for the same civil rights that straight people enjoy. Lynchings--gay bashing. Voting--our opponents use fear in regard to gay issues to make people think that schools will be taught about homosexuality and that religious institutions will be sued if the state allows civil unions and gay marriages. Fountains none there. Interracial relationships were based on race, denying civil liberties now is based on sex and sexual orientation Matthew Shephard was beaten because he's gay and now we have a lot of dead children because of the blatant homophobia that is in our laws with DADT, Prop 8, DOMA and it's all aimed at limiting the rights of a majority, which is exactly what Jim Crow laws did Just because the same style of defense isn't being used, people are not being taken seriously with gay bullying, there are no protections in the job market for gay people in some states, some states can evict someone if they're gay. Stonewall was a time when people just got fed up and started fighting back, it was spontaneous, and the Civil Rights movement was organized, marching, using nonviolent protest--which built up from the labor movements--but we don't see the labor movement saying: They can't compare our struggle to theirs...It is the same struggle, same fight

Answer 3

I think comparisons are odious, and so I tend to flinch whenever emotive historical comparisons are made: between colonialism and the Holocaust, for example (a popular one at present). I don't think this is particularly ouitrageous, however, because 'civil rights' concerns legal discrimination against people on the basis of their identity or traits. Being unable to enjoy the same rights as heterosexual couples because the person with whom you are in love happens to be of the same gender does seem to me to fit into this category. This is not to say that all homosexuals in the US suffer as much discrimination as African Americans did (and still do). But lest we forget the amount of hatred and violence that is still directed at gay people in many parts of the US. Moreover, I think your reduction of the matter to the claim that "sex is not a birth right but a luxury or a pleasure" misses the whole point - this is not just about sex or what people do in their bedrooms. It is about relationships and identities that people carry with them all their lives. the desire to enter into mutual relationships is an essential human desire, and it is a part of human nature that it would be wrong to overlook.

But finally: I agree with you. there are much more pressing concerns than even civil rights in the US. So why aren't you asking questions about poverty and hardship? Instead of wasting time on something you consider trivial, why not take a stand on something that we agree is important.

Answer 4

The comparison is not so disimilar that it cannot be made.

The civil rights movement was and still is about people obtaining the rights they deserve. Gay people are asking that their rights be recognized just as people of color were some thirty years ago. What they may or may not do in the privacy of their homes cannot be presented as a valid argument to deny them rights.

How can you acknowledge in one sentence that it is wrong to discriminate against people who are fat, but then justify that it is okay to discriminate against gay people?

Discrimination is wrong, end of argument.

Answer 5

It isn't even gay rights. Gay means happy and care free. It is the homosexual rights movement if you unmasked it. Besides they already have rights. It is a comparison of apples and oranges. Homosexual rights verses human rights.

Answer 6

On the one hand, you seem to have some claim to knowledge about discrimination. And yet, you would deny people who are being discriminated against the right to fight back, but rather say that they should accept their fate and focus on the discrimination against others that you deem more important. I don't really agree. Sorry.

Answer 7

Both were being denied simple rights.

Both were discriminated against due to the way they were born.

If the gay civil rights movement was going on in the 1800s, I'm sure they would have been slaves too. They lynched gays like they did escaped slaves. It is society's current day and age that prevents it from happening today.

Answer 8

You have to realize that the people who think the gay rights movement is offensive are thinking with the same mentality as people who felt the civil rights movement was offensive.

Answer 9

On the contrary, being gay, lesbian or heterosexual for that matter is part of who a person is. And we do face discrimination in employment, housing and accomodations. So, it's not about sexual gratification or pleasure but treating ALL Americans with a certain amount respect.

Answer 10

the civil rights movement wasn't about slavery, it was about how African Americans, and women later, didn't have the right to do things that any white male could do, like vote. so comparing the gay rights movement to the civil rights movement isn't a stretch. the gay rights movement isn't about not getting any, its about how they cant marry one another and get the benefits of a married couple.

Answer 11

I wouldn't say I find that to be offensive. The fact that people are so easily judged is offensive. The fact that there really is no such thing as "freedom" is offensive. I say if you're going to judge someone, judge them by their character.