Hello? Birmingham?
Thanks goes to thathollygirl for alerting me to this story.
Birmingham mayor denies gay parade permit.
Larry Langford won't allow a gay pride group to march in Birmingham, claiming he believes personal lifestyles should stay private. I find this maddeningly ironic in light of his decision last month to spend city funds on 2000 burlap sacks for a Christian-based crime reduction program that involved participants wearing sackcloth and ashes.
Does Mayor Langford claim that Christianity is not a lifestyle? He seems to have no qualms about allowing-and even actively spending city money to promote-that lifestyle. Even though conservative, evangelical Christianity is the majority in Alabama, citizens were more than willing to speak out about the ridiculousness of Langford's sackcloth-and-ashes approach to reducing Birmingham's sky-high murder rates. Homosexuals and their supporters, however, are a minority, and I'm quite sure this discrimination will be mostly ignored.
Birmingham has a legacy of suffering under discrimination and prejudice. Have we learned nothing from Bull Connor and the Jim Crowe laws? During segregation, it was more comfortable for whites to turn their heads and say what was happening wasn't their problem. That's exactly what Langford is now doing to a minority of the new millenium: “My policy is don't ask because it's not my business, and don't put me in the position to make it my business,” he says.
I doubt Mr. Langford expressed the same views when, in 1999, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally on the steps of the Jefferson County Courthouse two days before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It's easy and socially acceptable to protest the discriminatory message of the KKK. It's ironic that it's also socially acceptable to promote discriminatory messages against homosexuals and their supporters, especially in a city that should know better.
I e-mailed it to the Birmingham News's editorials section editor, though I have little hope it will actually be published. Some places may have a liberal media, but Alabama isn't one of them. Also, the parallels I'm drawing are bound to anger people, especially considering Larry Langford is black. *shrug* The fact that people won't like it doesn't make it any less true. As Dukhat said in Babylon 5, "When one of us does a foolish thing, you should tell them it is a foolish thing. They can still continue to do it, but at least the truth is where it needs to be."
Seriously, Birmingham. It's time to wake up and smell the burning crosses rainbows.
Birmingham mayor denies gay parade permit.
Larry Langford won't allow a gay pride group to march in Birmingham, claiming he believes personal lifestyles should stay private. I find this maddeningly ironic in light of his decision last month to spend city funds on 2000 burlap sacks for a Christian-based crime reduction program that involved participants wearing sackcloth and ashes.
Does Mayor Langford claim that Christianity is not a lifestyle? He seems to have no qualms about allowing-and even actively spending city money to promote-that lifestyle. Even though conservative, evangelical Christianity is the majority in Alabama, citizens were more than willing to speak out about the ridiculousness of Langford's sackcloth-and-ashes approach to reducing Birmingham's sky-high murder rates. Homosexuals and their supporters, however, are a minority, and I'm quite sure this discrimination will be mostly ignored.
Birmingham has a legacy of suffering under discrimination and prejudice. Have we learned nothing from Bull Connor and the Jim Crowe laws? During segregation, it was more comfortable for whites to turn their heads and say what was happening wasn't their problem. That's exactly what Langford is now doing to a minority of the new millenium: “My policy is don't ask because it's not my business, and don't put me in the position to make it my business,” he says.
I doubt Mr. Langford expressed the same views when, in 1999, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally on the steps of the Jefferson County Courthouse two days before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It's easy and socially acceptable to protest the discriminatory message of the KKK. It's ironic that it's also socially acceptable to promote discriminatory messages against homosexuals and their supporters, especially in a city that should know better.
I e-mailed it to the Birmingham News's editorials section editor, though I have little hope it will actually be published. Some places may have a liberal media, but Alabama isn't one of them. Also, the parallels I'm drawing are bound to anger people, especially considering Larry Langford is black. *shrug* The fact that people won't like it doesn't make it any less true. As Dukhat said in Babylon 5, "When one of us does a foolish thing, you should tell them it is a foolish thing. They can still continue to do it, but at least the truth is where it needs to be."
Seriously, Birmingham. It's time to wake up and smell the burning crosses rainbows.