Incendiary Conservative Writer Ann Coulter Says Civil Rights Only For Blacks & Not Gays Is She Right Or Wrong?
Ann Coulter is a controversial writer and obviously she went on ABC to create an incendiary debate about various special interest groups in America. Coulter is incorrect, civil rights are human rights for all human beings regardless of our race. Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and women have also been discriminated against in America not just blacks. All a person needs to do is flip through a history text-book and learn about how Japanese Americans were forced into interment camps during World War II in America. Hispanic Americans are still encountering a lot of discrimination in relation to immigration. Asian Americans and Native Americans also encounter an incredible amount of bigotry in the United States.
However, one group which does have white privilege despite encounter discrimination are white homosexuals in America. Although Coulter did not discuss white privilege, I believe there is a kernel of truth to her argument that black rights and gay rights are different. Coulter is arguing in an awkward way I believe that white privilege needs to be addressed in relation to gay rights in America. White gay people did not have to sit at the back of the bus or be blocked from housing, education, health care, due to their race. White gay people weren’t forced to go to a segregated hospitals to get quality health care either.
Do people automatically think in their minds that gay rights include queers of colour? I think the answer is still no in North America because of the methodology and the strategy of the American gay rights movement is still very Eurocentric.
The American gay rights movement also has a problem with racism in relation to their viewpoints about people of colour. A simple google search of white gay male blogs such as Queerty, Towleroad, Perezhilton, and the bigotry against people of colour is littered on the message boards.
Let’s be honest here, in North America when people think about homosexuals the public representation in the public sphere is usually a white gay man or a white lesbian that is middle to upper class and has an endless supply of income. The image of a gay person in America is linked to white skin privilege which the white gay activist groups such as GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign do not acknowledge.
Another quandary for the mainstream white American gay movement is, some people of colour do not believe gay rights are human rights because there is a white image problem. In order for gay rights to progress in America, there needs to be more racial diversity and education.
There needs to be more prominent gay and lesbian leaders of colour that are allowed to have a platform to discuss gay rights on ABC news, CNN, NBC, Fox News ect.
Why would black heterosexual people in America suddenly care about gay rights when they only see rich white homosexuals on television, in print media or on the radio discussing gay rights?
Sydney Morning Herald Article: Gay Marriage Conscience Vote Will Stop Same Sex Marriage Becoming Legal In Australia.
Supporters of same-sex marriage are delaying a final vote in federal parliament hoping to shore up their numbers.
- ADVOCATES of same-sex marriage accept Parliament will defeat two bills later this year calling to legalise gay marriage but believe public pressure will ultimately prevail.
The Finance Minister, Penny Wong, one of the strongest proponents for a change to the Marriage Act, said yesterday that change would come.
”I think the campaign is not going to go away because, ultimately, it’s a campaign for people’s equality,” she said.
Same-sex marriage … proponent Penny Wong believes change will come. Photo: Andrew MearesA seven-member parliamentary committee split 4-2 against same-sex marriage yesterday with one abstention as it handed down a report which contained no recommendations, only information for all politicians to use to inform their final decision.
The committee chairman and Labor MP, Graham Perrett, along with fellow Labor MP Laura Smyth, favoured gay marriage while Liberal MPs Sharman Stone and Ross Vasta, and Labor’s Mike Symon and Shane Neumann opposed it.
The other member, the Liberal moderate Judi Moylan, gave no separate opinion.
Because both pieces of legislation are private members bills, time set aside to debate them is limited and no vote is expected until the end of this year at the earliest.
Priority will be given to the bill introduced by the NSW Labor MP Stephen Jones. The other is a Greens bill, sponsored by Adam Bandt.
”We’re short of the numbers at the moment but anything could change,” Mr Jones said.
The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, will vote against gay marriage but has allowed Labor MPs a conscience vote. Number crunchers estimate about 36 of the 70 Labor MPs will vote for same-sex marriage while 10 to 15 are undecided and the rest will vote against.
Tony Abbott will not allow a conscience vote and all Coalition MPs are required to vote against same-sex marriage. Backbenchers can cross the floor but any frontbencher who does so would have to resign from the shadow ministry.
Mr Bandt, who will hold off on his bill until later this year or next year, said the delay between the start of debate and the final vote would be used to increase public pressure on political leaders, especially Mr Abbott, to have a change of heart.
”I’m optimistic of achieving reform within the life of this Parliament with some more discussion and more persuasion,” he said.
Parliament’s standing committee on social policy and legal affairs received a record 276,437 responses to an online survey it conducted as part of its inquiry.
Church groups and the Australian Christian Lobby have fiercely campaigned against gay marriage, despite Labor’s bill exonerating the churches and any other religious groups from having to marry gay people.
Mr Perrett, who holds a marginal Queensland seat, said ”it is important to remember that God did not write the Marriage Act”.
With public opinion polls consistently showing majority support for same-sex marriage, Mr Perrett said it was incumbent upon MPs to respond to growing public support ”by categorically opposing laws that legitimise discrimination”.
Ms Stone and Mr Vasta said the Liberals had promised before the federal election not to legalise gay marriage.
”I do not accept that the view towards marriage has changed since the 2010 federal election,” Ms Stone said.
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