But There Are No Lynchings!

[jimkeller]

CNN is currently running a story about a 20th Century travel guide that listed safe places for African Americans to go. The story was very interesting to me, not just from a historical perspective, but because I immediately saw parallels to today's websites that are dedicated to listing safe places for lesbian and gay travelers

Comments

[stacymckenna]

I always find the practice of oppression one upmanship baffling. If you already feel marginalized, why would you want to ACCENTUATE that instead of finding ANYTHING that suggests similarities or commonalities with others? Why not start with "people treat me shitty because I'm different" as a basis for common ground?There are enough people who get treated shitty for one reason or another that if we could start there, and use it to come to "humans act like assholes when they don't know enough about each other" we might actually make some progress instead of staying mired in these asinine divides for generations/centuries/millennia.

Sometimes I seriously don't understand humans.

[jimkeller]

Amen, sister!

[gwendolynclare]

Indeed. Unfortunately, most people are primarily (or exclusively) interested in issues of equality that affect themselves.

[jimkeller]

For the left-off I part of the community, yes, passing off as something else is, in fact, nearly impossible. Though, that said, there are people in the world who don't notice, and I'm prepared to accept that there are more of them than there are people who don't notice skin color.

I am actually of the opinion that though I "pass," it's not safe to assume others can. (People who are straight but perceived as gay are victims just as much as the actual members of our community, so clearly there are visual/auditory cues people use to identify the LGBT community, even if those cues are fallible.) However, rather than point out the many holes in the argument, it's far easier just to accept it than to convince people that appearing "gay" isn't actually a choice.

[mlerules]

Very well said. May I pass this along (link to't)?

[jimkeller]

Certainly, but please don't imply that I sincerely think that gay issues are more serious than African American issues. (Not that I think you'd be inclined to make that error, but it bears saying anyway.)