We are faced over and over again with opportunities to ask what does it mean to be an LGBTQ community? As society changes the answer may change, and we need now as much as ever before to be doing the hard work to keep asking and sorting out the answers.
And from my perspective, the Mayor has shown by his statements following the incident and now today, that he is committed to doing things differently. This is good news for the residents of Pittsburgh! Thank you Mr Mayor!
The real questions to be answered surround the officer’s actions. Were they justified? Did he break any policy, rule or protocol? If he did not- how is the City going to assist the residents of Pittsburgh in understanding that, and if he did, what is the City going to do about it?
This specific conversation is focused on Race and Media: a Discussion of Fruitvale Station and 12 Years a Slave. Panelists are Billy Jackson, NOMMO Productions; Luqmon Abdus-Salaam; Darius Prier, Duquesne University; Liana Maneese; and Njaimeh Njie, Ya Momz House.
This means that the GOP knows it can’t win when it comes to marriage equality, but they are going to use rhetoric about “not giving up the fight” in an effort to keep these folks strongly behind the GOP. In other words, appease the base even though you know it is all over.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s was one piece in a larger struggle against racism which is and must be ongoing. Today LGBTQ persons label ours as a civil rights movement is to accomplish legal and legislative changes similar to those which were achieved by the African American Civil Rights Movement.
The big deal for us, in Pennsylvania is getting two bills, HB 300 and SB 300 passed to provide protections from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations. If you’ve been a long-time reader, you know this bill has been a passion for me since 2008.
Both individuals suggest that the vote of the people trumps all else, which is not the way it works in the United States, no matter how much these homophobes wish it did. We live in a Constitutional Democracy. Here is what is meant by a Constitutional Democracy
These two aspects make this decision potentially one of the most damaging decisions since the founding of our Country and the birth of our Constitutional Democracy.
It is possibly the advocates role to help that history keep from being forgotten, and our job to embrace lessons from past struggles so that we can employ then anew in new struggles against the same old power structure of oppression.