Gay Rights Can Make Social Justice Flow One More Time
I care deeply and personally about equal rights for gay people — the right to go to school, to work and to reside free from discrimination and harassment; the right to live my life free of anti-gay violence; the right to marry the person I choose; and the right to fully pursue happiness on my own terms. As a gay man, I have experienced discrimination socially and legally, and I understand the impact of this discrimination on gay men’s lives and health.
This has led me to become an activist in the gay rights movement. I work in this movement alongside many straight allies and I am frequently amazed by their conviction and commitment. Working with these allies and talking to straight Illinois legislators and residents while advocating for marriage equality, I have begun to wonder whether I would be an ally if I was straight. If I was an ally, would I be strong and vocal? Or would I be a silent ally, not overly concerned with gay rights because they were not my issue?
I’d like to think that I would be a strong ally, but I can’t be certain. Like most people, I view the world through the prism of who I am, regardless of how open-minded I strive to be. Most of the defining characteristics of who I am are privileged — I am white, male, well-educated and I was born into a middle class, two-parent family in the United States. If I grew up straight, would I have the same feelings about discrimination and oppression?
Many issues other than gay rights concern me deeply. I am not transgender, but I am concerned about and advocate for equal rights for transgender people. This was not an organic concern of mine, but it has nonetheless become an important one. It is important because I have learned a lot about the incredible discrimination, harassment and violence the transgender community faces, and also because I have developed friendships with transgender people who have educated me about their life experiences.
If I was straight, would I be a transgender ally? Would I have taken the time to learn about transgender issues? Would I be friends with many transgender people, and would I have heard their stories? I’d like to think so, but if I am being honest with myself, I doubt it. My only entry point to the transgender community has been through the broader LGBT community.
My experience as a gay man has, I believe, made me view transgender issues with more understanding and empathy than if I was a straight man. That same thought process can be repeated with many other social justice issues. Discrimination against gay men is rooted in large part on gender bias — the notion that men are superior to women and men should not act like women. That gives me a greater understanding of and empathy for discrimination and harassment based on gender. Similarly, the constitutional right to privacy and legal reasoning behind court opinions upholding a woman’s right to choose are similarly the foundation for landmark gay rights opinions.
More generally, my experience as a gay man has made me attuned to any type of discrimination or harassment based on characteristics that make a person “other” — race, religion, national origin, disability, physical appearance and the like. This understanding causes me to recoil when I hear gay rights activists and organizations say they are unwilling to speak up on broader social justice issues, concerned that they might offend some among their constituency or the people with power to extend them rights. We have been given a gift of understanding (and hopefully empathy), and we have an obligation to use that to argue for full social justice (of course, there are a wide range of theories on what exactly constitutes “social justice,” but the themes of equality, fairness, human rights and dignity, and providing for the basic needs of people are common strands of social justice that resonate among the theories).
To start, we need to educate our own community on the intersections between gay civil rights and broader social justice issues. The epidemic of homelessness among gay youth should open our eyes to the larger problem of people in our communities living without food and shelter. The growing HIV epidemic among African-American men should open our eyes to larger racial, economic and health care disparities. The plight of binational same-sex couples should open our eyes to the wider problems with immigration policy and discrimination against those of other national origins.
We need to understand that gay issues are social justice issues and that social justice issues which may not on their face appear to be “gay” issues still impact our community and our world. The existence of racism, ageism, ableism and sexism within the gay community (and it pains me to say, particularly among white gay men) tells me that we have a lot of work to do on this front.
Understanding the intersections among social justice causes is also critical to building support for gay rights through coalition-building. The gay community is a small minority. Gay voters, gay policymakers, and gay elected officials cannot advance gay civil rights alone. We need allies. Our allies are our friends and families. Our allies are also groups fighting broadly for social justice or for other aspects of social justice. For us to engage other social justice organizations in our struggle, we need to help them understand these intersections. We have done that here in Illinois to engage others in our fight for marriage equality. But it is not enough for us to simply engage them in our struggle. We need to understand that their struggle is ours too, and we should join them in their battles. Everyone knows the Martin Luther King, Jr. quote, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” for good reason.
The gay community is also in a unique position to promote social justice in communities that other groups might not be able to reach. Because gay people are of different races, nationalities, genders, abilities, classes, ages and almost any other characteristic you can think of, we can play an important role as ambassadors and educators on social justice issues to each of our individual communities.
Just as being a gay man was my point of entry into the transgender community, can we use discussions with our friends, family and colleagues about gay rights to be their entry point to broader social justice issues? Can we use our specific struggle to help people who know us but are not attuned to other social justice issues understand that the same discrimination and oppression we face affects many others in society in many different ways? Can we expand on our marriage equality advocacy to Republican and conservative Democratic legislators to educate them on other equality issues?
When I began my gay activism, I was focused on legal rights for gays and lesbians, which is not surprising for a lawyer. However, I have grown to understand that legal rights for gays and lesbians are only a small piece of the gay rights movement and that the gay rights movement is but one piece of the social justice movement.
As we sit on the precipice of achieving marriage equality rights in Illinois, I believe this is important to keep in mind. Marriage equality, while a monumentally important step, does not make our community fully equal. Until we move forward on gender identity, racial, gender, economic, disability, national origin and other issues that impact those within our community, our struggle for equality is far from complete. I hope that people who have viewedmarriage equality as their primary struggle will remain engaged in the fight for social justice and be an ally to others, within and outside our community, who have stood with us in the marriage battle.
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