Gay Rights Movement vs. Civil Rights Movement

Some gay rights advocates have heralded their movement as similar to the civil rights movement. I feel like this is an insult to the civil rights movement. I know, the person who just stood up for the confederate flag as not a symbol of racism is calling the gay rights advocates worse of an insult to the civil rights movement than the confederate flag. But hear me out as to why it is more like the anti-prohibition movement.

As I discussed in my last post, slavery was a horrible and even the North winning the civil war did little to change the perspective of white supremacists as to the fact that blacks were human too and deserved to be treated as such. The civil rights movement was getting the rights for blacks that they were legally given with the 15th amendment. At that point, blacks were not allowed to occupy the same public space as white people in many places, had to go to inferior schools, and were not permitted to vote even though they were permitted legally.

None of this is something that gays go through. I attend school and did attend school with homosexuals, homosexuals can vote and do vote, and I have seen gay couples in the same public places as heterosexuals. This is why I think it is an insult to the blacks' struggle. It is true that there have been instances of discrimination of individuals and businesses that are debatable as to treating everyone equal, but that pales in comparison to what the blacks faced. In fact, I doubt there has been any group in the United States of America whose individuals have not faced some form of discrimination similar to what homosexuals have faced as individuals.

Now this does not mean that I do not believe that there is no place for the discussion and legalization of same-sex marriage, but it does mean that I take a different perspective on the two sides of the argument. This is a lead in for my next (formerly previous) post about how the gay rights movement is more like the anti-prohibition movement.

What the Confederate Flag means to me

There has been a movement towards taking down the Confederate Flag among the South because someone posed in pictures with the confederate flag before committing a hate crime. (Imagine if people were taking down crosses because he was holding a cross in his hand while committing the hate crime) If this does not seem like a foolish enough of a reason to ban something, I would like to share what the confederate flag represents to me.

In the 1800's before the civil war, teachers usually point to the conditions of slavery in the south and condemn the plantation owners as inhumane. Then when we get to the early 1900's with the rise of regulation in factories to protect workers and vaguely go over how these regulations made life better for workers today. As far as I am concerned, nobody points out that life as a factory worker was not very different from being a slave in terms of treatment and living conditions.

This is an important fact to point out because the South seceded from the union when it felt like it had been unjustly served by other states and the federal government in retaining its rights as a state. It is true that it was related to the North trying to abolish slavery, but it is important to note that it was showing that states have the power to stand up to the federal government and other states when rights are infringed in similar ways as when the colonies were wronged by Great Britain before they became the United States of America.

The confederate flag is a symbol to me of the power of the people or states to stand up against federal government and other states when they work to infringe upon the rights of people and states. To me it represents the power of the people to stand up when their government created by the constitution no longer respects the rights that pulled us all together. This is a symbol borne by those who stand by the second amendment so that the people can be armed against their government when it ceases to serve its proper function. The confederate flag is a symbol that the government is responsible to the people for how it upholds its duties to preserve the liberties of the American people.

This is the reason why I think it is unwise to remove this symbol. As part of first amendment rights, I believe that it should hang as a reminder to government officials what they are really supposed to be doing. If it becomes illegal to sell or have the confederate flag it will be a horrible sign of tyranny against the people of the United State of America by its government.

The confederate flag has been used as a rally point for white supremacists as they try to restore the former status quo or as they plan hate crimes, but this does not mean that the confederate flag is a symbol of white supremacists or hate of colored people. Many groups rally under a benign symbol for hideous deeds, be it Crusades and the cross, radical Islam and the Koran, or violence against Christians churches and the rainbow flag. All of these are people using a positive symbol in a way to promote violence that is not represented by the symbol. The confederate flag is the same way. It is a symbol of people who are brave enough to stand up against powers that be when they stop upholding the purpose they were placed in that position of power.

The same goes for us today, as we look to the true meaning of symbols we can avoid discriminate against those who rally under them for non-violent reasons. I stand for the right of persons and governments to display the confederate flag. I hope it will be permitted to continue to wave across the nation as a symbol against tyranny from the federal government.