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Music Cues: Scott's thoughts about the Millenial March for Gay & Lesbian rights.
April 8, 2000
The fact that several hundred thousand people are converging on the
capital of the United States this weekend to call for equal rights,
specifically for gays and lesbians, is no longer considered remarkable. In
fact, there are many US citizens--unprejudiced, perhaps, but also
uninterested--who tell public opinion analysts that bigotry against gays and
others considered somehow "different" is beginning to disappear.
The state of Vermont, after all, has just passed legislation giving legal
standing to domestic partnerships. Both major party presidential candidates
say they welcome gay support. People may disagree over what legal steps are
wisest to relieve the effects of prejudice. But pollsters tell candidates
that appearing to be a bigot is unappealing public relations--at least for
the moment.
Then again, as you follow the news, you encounter the persistence of
prejudice.
Just yesterday, a man in Pittsburgh was arrested for shooting a Jewish
woman, two Asian men, and an Indian and black man. The technical term police
apply is "shooting spree." But though the victims may have been randomly
selected by a sick mind, it was their perceived "ethnicity" that made them
targets.
And a small detail in the dispute over the Elian Gonzales is that when Fidel
Castro's government began to leak information about how it was that Lazaro
Gonzales and his family left Cuba in the early 1980's, they made a point of
informing reporters that he had been suspected of homosexual activity.
Amnesty International says that there are several hundred gays locked up in
Fidel Castro's prisons, where homosexuality is still classified as immoral
conduct.
I wonder if any of the Miami activists who campaign against Fidel Castro's
many oppressions are joining the gay rights marches in Washington DC this
weekend, to show common cause?
Although the overwhelming number of letters and phone calls we receive are
kind, much of the crank stuff--slurs, nonsense, and a few outright
threats--are anti-gay, anti-Semitic or often, a merrilly-bigoted combination
of the two.
As one of Graham Greene's characters exclaims in The Comedians, "When the
world needs someone to blame, there is always someone to be found--the Jew,
the negro, the Catholic, the latest arrival."
Elmer Gertz, the staunch Chicago attorney who died this week at the age of
93, was once asked how he could defend accused murderers and sleaze
merchants as well as civil rights champions. "I remind myself of the
constitution," he said. "That freedom is indivisible."
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