There have been several
civil rights movements in the United States starting with the
simultaneous Black and Women's Suffrage movements for the rights of
blacks and women to enter the voting sphere currently occupied only by
white men. The Black Suffrage movement included some men of colour.
From Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern and African descent, with the
exclusion of Native American men, fell under the Black label due to the
varied dark colours of skin pigmentation.
In the end, the
black men in the Black Suffrage movement while agreeing that every man
should be equal believed it did not apply to women of any race. Women
of colour suddenly were left in limbo, not accepted within the Black
Suffrage movement due to their gender and excluded from the Women's
Suffrage movement due to their skin pigmentation.
Men of
all colours believed in the current gender roles of the societal binary
system which held that the man was the head of the woman and above her
in all financial, familial and religious decisions leaving little need,
they concurred, for Women's Suffrage as women already had freedom from
decision making. The equality idea suddenly had restrictions of
privilege. What were considered rights at the beginning of the equality
battle were now viewed as special privileges that women wanted. What
drew the men together, their eventual common ground, was the belief in
the traditional man.
This theme carried out within the
Women's Suffrage movement with traditional women who supported the
traditional gender roles began campaigning against the Suffragists.
They were called The Antis or the Anti-Suffragists. The term feminist
was used to describe the militant woman who was aggressive in the fight
to free women from the restrictions of the gender roles, never gave up
regardless of arrest or persecution like one would believe the "fairer
sex" the "weaker sex" were incapable of. A militant woman in the fight
for Women's Equality. A Feminist. A woman with a "man's" attitude
stepping into the masculine gender role. What many considered an
"abomination".
There was no equality all around within the
Women's Suffrage movement just as there is no equality all around
within the LGBT movement as there will always be overly militant
factions who prefer equality only for those who resemble them whether by
race, class, religion, education, marital status, gender identity,
gender expression and/or sexual orientation. Just as some gay people
of colour are today excluded by, or in turn exclude, gays of another
race, or trans sexual/gender and gender queer are excluded by, or
exclude, those of matching sex and gender, so did the women from the
late 1800s to 1900s.
It took women 72 years to get the
right to vote but not full equality and while men of colour had won
their right to vote 72 years earlier by breaking with the Women's
Suffragists, they found that was all they won. The second civil rights
movement began the fight to end the separate but equal stipulation to
both Suffrage movements. Both people of colour and women faced bias
through racism, classism and sexism with separate grade schools,
colleges, and employment opportunities.
Elementary
education was now compulsory since the abolishment of child labour in
the 1930s where the children of the poorer classes were finally seen as
more than products of their class and undeserving of the right to rise
above their station. Colleges on the other hand were still reserved for
the upper and middle classes. There were separate colleges for women
and men and again for men and women of colour. Such as Howard
University, Elmira Female College of NY, Barber-Scotia College,
Morehouse College and Wesleyan College, to name a few. There was no
true equality only levels of privilege.
At the same time
women won the right to vote in 1920, a Eugenics policy of sterilizing
certain mental patients, the poor classes of society and criminals was
enacted under the guise of 'improving the human gene pool" but was
initially focused on social class and intelligence. Racial segregation,
marriage restrictions, segregation of the mentally ill, and compulsory
sterilisation were all part of the Eugenics movement.
Nearly
every state had eugenics laws on their books with California leading
the way in compulsory sterilisations, which finally ended everywhere
during the second Civil Rights era. Psychiatrists used the captive gay
patients, the mentally ill, and the criminals, from prisons and mental
institutions as guinea pigs for shock therapy, compulsory sterilisation,
and libido-suppressing medication among others. As I said, there was
no true equality for anyone just levels of privileges. The highest
privileges going to those who were traditional men and women.
During
second civil rights movement there were two groups fighting for
equality. The Black civil rights movement fighting for equality of
people of colour and the Gay Liberation movement. The first commercials
against the "homosexual disease" were aired during the 1950s (Boys
Beware 1950s PSA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqIIeGmhL2Q&feature=player_embedded)
and the first steps to employment discrimination for gays were created
when Republican President Eisenhower signed an executive order barring
gays and lesbians from federal employment. Marriage restrictions were
already present due to the sodomy laws which not only made anal but also
oral sex illegal. Many today still assume that all gay men
exclusively perform anal sex and the sodomy laws should be reintroduced
to prevent same-sex marriage.
Many of the LGBT community
were also present in the Black civil rights movement and I dismiss any
clamour to say different. You can be any race and gay, you can be any
gender and gay, you can be any class and gay, and you can be any sex;
gender normative or trans and gay. Baynard Rusting, the black gay man
behind the organization of the march on Wasington DC with Dr. King Jr.
was right there fighting for equality for all.
Again,
there were tossed only privileges given to those who are traditional
instead of full equality for all. Men of any race are paid higher than
women of any sexual orientation. Men and women cannot be fired due to
race, religion, gender granting job security. Gay, lesbian, asexual,
bisexual, trans men and trans women have no employment security due to
sexual orientation yet those who are considered traditional as in
heterosexual and gender normative are protected.
We might
say that all this should have been covered under the civil rights, gay
liberation and women's rights movements but what really happened instead
was not a granting for full rights but a protection of the privilege of
those who are physically, psychologically and sexually traditional.
First by the inclusion of traditional black men, then by the inclusion
of traditional women and I am now watching the inclusion of traditional
gays, lesbians and gender normative post-operative transsexuals only.
When
the Republicans are the only ones starting to be inclusive to this new
civil rights movement, it usually means another compromise on equality is
on the way. After all, "radical" congressional Republicans backed
Black Suffrage and they were also the first major political party to
back Women's rights, even when they didn't fully agree on a personal
level. The new civil rights movement is already splintering again with
the decisions to wait until later for some groups of non-traditional men
and women to achieve equality with the delay of passage of ENDA and
repeal of DADT. The last few civil rights movements were more of a
"let's toss them a few things that seem like full equality so they will
vote for us" deal.
Why else would we be here again, still
fighting the traditionalist men and women for the dignity to be
ourselves? Fighting to retain reproductive control, sexual freedom,
marriage equality, employment security which were battles that began in
the US almost 200 years ago in the 1800s. Every attempt that is made is
met with the fretful squeal of "traditionalists" against full inclusion
of, what is now their privileges, so everyone can gain full equality;
"Another attempt to destroy the traditional family!"
Let's
not be deflected again. Support the American Equality Bill for full
inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights
Act (I hope gender expression is included): http://www.change.org/petitions/view/petition_for_full_equality_for_all_americans
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