by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: May 17, 2010

Gay issues of civil rights both parallel and differ vastly, if not completely, from racial civil rights in any society. This is because gay people can come from any racial group and thus represent all of the racial groups as well as their experiences in society. Gays can be oppressors, the oppressed and everything in between because the issue is of their sexual preference which is not always physically obvious as is their physical appearance or ethnicity.

In fact, many gays come from communities, racial and ethnic groups where they prefer not to identify their sexual orientation or to require any more rights than they already have. In this respect, gay civil rights can mirror the past movements where many did not want to stir up trouble and would have been happy to leave things alone.

The core civil rights of right to jobs, to vote and to marry, protections against all forms of discrimination and hate crimes, and ability to serve in the military must be fought for and provided for gays as they are provided for any other citizen. In that respect, gay rights are just like racial civil rights movements.

 But there are gays in the military as well as all aspects of society, who have discriminated against women and other races, and who have done so from positions of great authority because of biases and prejudices that are unrelated to their sexual orientation. In turn, others from all other social groups have discriminated against gays and lesbians. This is clearly solely based on sexual orientation.

Others can and will deny civil rights to lesbians and gays of color without even knowing about their sexual orientation. This means that race and gender are points of discrimination and denial of civil rights based on beliefs that are independent of beliefs about sexual orientation. Race and gender are simply far more obvious and readily perceivable identifying factors that lead far more readily to much broader discrimination and oppression.

In fact, if all discrimination based on sexual orientation is to be equated with race and gender, then sexual orientation will have to be as immediately obvious as is race and gender. This is not likely to happen, so no, there are no equalities in all issues of discrimination and injustice that cross the boundaries of race, gender and sexual orientation.

In addition, the amount and virulence of the mistreatment toward women and people of different races can far exceed the amount and

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