Tag: civil rights

Posted on

Brendon Ayanbadejo on racial and LGBT civil rights

Brendon Ayanbadejo

Brendon Ayanbadejo pens an essay for Think Progress in support for LGBT rights in a manner that few can own as he does.

Many who oppose marriage equality repudiate the idea that this is a “civil rights” argument.  As readers of The Randy Report know, I’ve often said that when civil rights are assigned through a civil license issued by a civil government, we have an issue of “civil rights.”

Read just a portion of Brendon’s excellent op-ed:

The relationship we see between McGill and Marie — a young, inter-racial couple in the video — is no different from the relationship between my parents. And my parents’ relationship is no different from the relationship between two LGBT individuals. This video captures these similarities.

I’m an advocate for LGBT individuals because I believe they face the same dilemma many interracial couples faced in the 1960s and before. Today, many LGBT couples are discriminated against for simply being who they are. Some are kicked out of their houses; some are forced to live in fear due to societal pressures.

That’s why a new music video, released today by six-piece chamber rock band Great Caesar, is so inspiring. It’s a moving, courageous video for the song “Don’t Ask Me Why,” that draws parallels between the fight for racial equality and today’s struggle for LGBT rights. I was proud to support the band when they were raising money to make the video and I am even more proud to see the outstanding finished product.

Read the entire essay by Brendon at Think Progress.

Posted on

President Obama speaks on the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream” speech

From USA Today:

In his address to thousands who gathered on the Washington Mall on Wednesday to mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, President Obama paid tribute to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and to the anonymous millions who stood by King’s side during the civil rights fight of the 1960s.

Obama remembered those who could not marry the ones they loved because of so-called anti-miscegenation laws, African-American soldiers who fought for freedom abroad that they could not enjoy on U.S. soil and white Americans who could not stand by discrimination and sacrificed sometimes with their own blood.

“Because they marched, America became more free and more fair,” Obama said. “Not just for African-Americans but for women and Latinos, Asians and Native Americans, for Catholics, Jews and Muslims, for gays, for Americans with disabilities. America changed for you and for me. And the entire word drew strength from that example.”

Before Obama took the stage on Wednesday, former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton offered stirring tributes to King.

Posted on

Martin Luther King – I Have a Dream on August 28, 1963

50 years ago today.

Folks on the interwebs are playing the #Ihaveadream theme, so here’s mine:

I have a dream that passion, courage and conviction become the norm; that apathy for inequality falls away; that we reach a time where we wonder why equal rights for all was a difficult concept for some to grasp.

Forward.

Let it ring.

Posted on

President Obama sits on the Rosa Parks bus

Click to enlarge pic – Photo by Pete Souza

During his trip to Detroit, yesterday, President Obama visited the Henry Ford Museum and had the opportunity to sit in the bus where in 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to make way for a white customer. That moment sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and fueled the civil rights movement that made it possible for Barack Obama to become president.

Talk about a glimpse into the time and space continuum: from where it all began, to what “could be.”

The picture speaks for itself, but here’s what the President had to say about his visit:

“I just sat in there for a moment and pondered the courage and tenacity that is part of our very recent history, but is also part of that long line of folks who sometimes are nameless, oftentimes didn’t make the history books, but who constantly insisted on their dignity, their share of the American dream.”
(source)