Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

[Imran Siddiqui]

Not everything has to be about gay people.

[MrFun]

Not everything has to be about gay people.

agree

[Elok]

Where did I say that they're exactly the same?

Right in the bit you quoted, towards the end:

Of equal importance to me at least, as an older black and gay man, is the realization that the Civil Rights movement of yesterday and the Gay Rights movement of today are one and the same. Intertwined. I recently read a comment saying, basically, that the black community had taken issue with people linking the two together. Quickly, I responded. Paraphrased, I told them that they are absolutely the same fight.

[MrFun]

Yeah - that was the one bit that I did not completely agree with the author on.

[Elok]

All right, then. I don't see anything wrong with acknowledging the part played by gay black people back in the day.

[Felch]

We do face legal discrimination here in United States.

World's smallest violin is playing just for you. How many people do you know that are in prison for being gay? When was the last time you had to answer questions about sexual behavior in a job interview?

[Uncle Sparky]

How many people do you know that are in prison for being gay? When was the last time you had to answer questions about sexual behavior in a job interview?

So... you're saying people are still being jailed in the US specifically for being black? I suspect in certain states you can fine people in prison for sodomy. And employers actually ask people what their race is? Your arguments fail.

[Felch]

Uncle Sparky, read the whole thread. You're missing out on quite a bit of context.

[Barnabas]

I guess it's still going strong in Argentina. And there's something distinctly unsavory about gangsta rap. I recall one song, popular when I was in high school, included the line "I got blood on my dick since I ****ed a corpse." If I ran Nike, I wouldn't want my shoes associated with that.

No, we don't have gangsta rap, but like most countries we have musical styles popular among the lumpen proletarian class.

[MrFun]

World's smallest violin is playing just for you. How many people do you know that are in prison for being gay? When was the last time you had to answer questions about sexual behavior in a job interview?

Keep playing this retarded charade of comparing drug users with homosexuality. It's good entertainment.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I suspect in certain states you can fine people in prison for sodomy.

No you can't. Not since Lawrence v. Texas anyways.

[Felch]

Keep playing this retarded charade of comparing drug users with homosexuality. It's good entertainment.

I'll keep it up, as long as you stop complaining about how tough it is to be gay. That **** is BORING.

[Uncle Sparky]

No you can't. Not since Lawrence v. Texas anyways.

Wrong. http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201108080012

...Nearly a decade after Lawrence, many states have continued to enforce laws prohibiting private, consensual sex between same-sex adults.

In Michigan, the practice of charging and convicting gay men under the state’s “Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature” or “Gross Indecency” laws still exists, with violators facing the risk of having to register as sex offenders and prison sentences of up to 15 years. According to Rudy Serra, attorney and Chairman of the Executive Clemency Council for the State of Michigan, police officers continue to aggressively prosecute LGBT people without legal challenge:
The legislature still has not repealed the sodomy and gross indecency statutes, even after Lawrence v. Texas, and ultra-conservative ("strict constructionist") judges still continue to enforce the "legislative intent" to criminalize gay sex, regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court says.

LGBT people in Michigan continue to be charged with crimes for public speech, in which they let another person know they are interested in private, unpaid sex with another adult. Bag-A-*** (undercover decoy cop) operations, where police officers pretend to be gay men cruising for unpaid, consensual sex continue in Michigan. LGBT people are still at risk of spending 15 years in state prison for acts that are perfectly legal in most other states...

Thank-you for playing.
The continued prosecutions don't include those convicted and jailed prior to Lawrence v. Texas.

[regexcellent]

Just because the laws haven't been officially repealed by the legislatures doesn't mean they are in force. If the police tried someone on that law they would not be able to get a conviction and therefore it isn't in force. For christ's sake Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, which is on your stupid map, is openly gay.

[MrFun]

In the first sentence from the excerpt quoted, it said that nearly a decade afterward, some states are still enforcing anti-sodomy laws.