Panel Voices: How does the LGBT movement relate to the Civil Rights movement?

Katina Banks, George Gramer, Elisabeth Long and Phil Nash weigh in on this week’s question. 

Katina Banks

Naturally, I identify closely with both of these social justice movements.

At a level, it concerns me that this topic maintains its cultural and political prevalence, particularly in its current form. I’m the first to appreciate the value of careful and meaningful analysis, to draw comparisons and contrasts for the sake of learning and improving. However, often the focus is whether and how the LGBT movement and civil rights movement are the same or different, and discussions devolve into opinions about the value of each movement’s existence. Comparing and contrasting the righteousness of campaigns aimed at securing equal rights for all citizens is at the very least unhelpful, and seems to me a colossal waste of time.

As we continue to witness advancements for the civil rights of LGBT people, it is relevant to consider how the LGBT movement relates to the civil rights movement. Like all relationships, it is complex and evolving. Descriptively, while there are obvious similarities and differences, the LGBT movement is to me a variant of the civil rights movement that came before it, seeking first and foremost equal protection under the law.

In many respects, the civil rights movement was a kind of blueprint for LGBT activists because its scope was comprehensive, including legal, political, economic and social objectives. Soon (relatively speaking), the LGBT movement matured and diverged in service of its specific goals and in response to the political landscape of the times, resulting in enhanced capabilities. I see the relationship trending toward greater convergence of issues important to both movements.

Katina Banks is a Denver native and the Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law. She serves on the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and the One Colorado Education Fund.

George Gramer

Any GLBT connection to the civil rights movement of the 1960’s is tenuous, at best. Perhaps too many 2013 GLBT activists want to create a gay rights supporter from a Southern Baptist minister gunned down 45 years ago.

There is a tight rope to walk between the GLBT community and the minority communities of the United States. All one needs to do is to look at exit polling on Proposition 8 in California.* Seven in ten African Americans voted for Proposition 8 (to eliminate the rights of same-sex couples to marry). Fifty-three percent of Latinos also supported Proposition 8.

The GLBT community is perhaps the most non-religious of America’s minorities. The very religious, Bible-based core of the African-American and Hispanic communities defeats some mutual understanding among all the parties. The Reverend Doctor King was a Southern Baptist minister. The reality is that King never spoke publicly about the issue of homosexuality, and almost 50 years later, the frame of reference is quite different.

Perhaps the bottom line is the question “Is the battle the GLBT community is facing on religious, political, and cultural fronts equal to what the Black community in American had to face in the sixties – and continues to face in some ways even today?” Kirsten West Savali answered that question early last year when she wrote, “No, but it cannot and should not be minimalized by that fact. Injustice is injustice, whether due to the color of our skin, the content of our character, or sexual orientation.”

*EDITOR’S NOTE: While one CNN exit poll reported majorities of black and Latino respondents voted for California’s Prop. 8 in 2008, it has been noted that those subsets of the poll were small and the survey’s methodology gave them exceptionally large margins of error. Later, a nationwide May, 2012 Washington Post-ABC telephone poll found that 59 percent of African-Americans and 61 percent of all “Non-White” respondents said it should be legal for gays and lesbians to marry, considerably more pro-LGBT than the 50 percent of that poll’s white respondents who supported same-sex marriage.

Iowa native George Gramer is the president of the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans.

Elisabeth Long

I cannot do justice to the oft-simplified relationships between the Freedom Movement and LGBT Movement, but as a younger white queer person who’s watched recent LGBT movements play out, what comes to mind are the ways in which white LGBT activists and community members use images and strategies of the Freedom Movement in action for LGBT civil rights.

I have seen white activists and white-led lesbian and gay organizations and media outlets appropriate stories and photos of the Freedom Movements in calls for policy change to include, recognize, and/or protect lesbian and gay people. While well-meaning, the comparison of Black Freedom Fighters with lesbians and gays fighting for gay marriage today does not do justice to the depth and lethality of racist violence, discrimination, disenfranchisement, and oppression experienced by African Americans, particularly those in the Jim Crow South. It situates anti-Black racism as something of the past, something that has been overcome, and in doing so invalidates contemporary experiences of racism, the ways in which racism intersects with transphobia and homophobia, and continued freedom movements for racial justice and liberation.

I hope the relationship between Freedom Movement and LGBT Movement is one in which history is honored and used to inform contemporary movements for all forms of liberation. When we celebrate our different histories and experiences while exploring the ways in which our struggles are linked, we are stronger than when we collapse our experiences into identical struggles separated simply by time.

Elisabeth Long is a sassy and sensitive queer femme-inist Pisces babe. She’s passionate about anti-violence and queer activism and enjoys nerding out on socio-cultural theory and rockin’ a hot pair of stilettos.

Phil Nash

Socially, the LGBT movement differs from its civil rights counterparts in one critical way. African Americans, Latinos, Jews, Muslims and other racial/ethnic/religious minorities are raised in families and communities that provide support, empathy and insight in how to deal with prejudice. Children growing up L, G, B or T usually do not.

Unlike other movements, we have had to build our communities from scratch to get a base of power. We have had to find each other, help each other cast off internalized homophobia, build a service infrastructure and get organized. In Colorado, that work began in the 70s and 80s. Our early LGBT rights victories followed, often after initial, heartbreaking defeats.

Today, the work is different. Many people of color have come out and assumed leadership roles in the LGBT movement while staying connected to their roots. We have had allies like Mayors Federico Peña, Wellington Webb and Michael Hancock bringing the LGBT community to the table.

Our politics today are a struggle between Old America, shaped in the last half of the 20th century primarily by white, heterosexual men, and 21st century America where people of color will be the majority within a generation. The 2012 election was the turning point, with women, African Americans, Latinos, and LGBT voters aligned with Barack Obama’s inclusive vision of America’s future, or perhaps just against the GOP’s “members only” America. The big takeaway: There’s enough social justice to go around. Just keep reaching across while reaching forward.

Phil Nash’s 37-year career in public affairs encompasses nonprofits, philanthropy, governmnent and advocacy. A former writer and editor at Out Front, Nash is a communications and marketing consultant with nonprofit organizations and foundations.