Basic Freedoms
In an opinion piece in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Sexual orientation must be the right that religious affiliation is), columnist Thomas Shapely has put down in his paper an important truth about the "gay rights" struggle, something pretty obvious that nevertheless eludes great numbers of people.
These days, a lot of anti-gay types like to "argue" that gay rights are fundamentally different from, say, black rights because being black is an "immutable" attribute and being gay, in their estimation, is not. [One doesn't quite understand how it is that they know this, but there you go.]
This, of course, cleverly misses the whole point:
Denying basic rights and liberties to gay people is wrong, regardless of whether sexual orientation is "mutable" or "immutable".
NB: I am not "arguing" this point–there is no "debate" to be had about civil rights equality for gay people, although some people steadfastly refuse to feel shame in "debating" my equality.
Here is some reporting from Mr. Shapely's piece that represents the "debate":
Testimony at a crowded [Washington state] House committee hearing last week showed that doing the right thing may not be popular. House Bill 1515 drew fervent opposition from, among others, the Christian Coalition and the Rev. Ken Hutcherson, the charismatic African American pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond.
Hutcherson said he was "really appalled" that the law might put on the same plane the discrimination suffered by those with a minority sexual orientation and that suffered by African Americans.
Rabbi James Mirel, whose people have suffered their share of discrimination, didn't share Hutcherson's concept of a civil rights caste system. Supporting the bill, Mirel noted the week had marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. "Discrimination is never benign," he said.
Later, Mr. Shapely gets to his point:
What if sexual desire is a matter of choice?
If so, Rep. Toby Nixon, R-Kirkland, asked the definitive question. Because it's the evangelicals' mission to change people's religious faith, Nixon asked Higley [lobbyist for Washington Evangelicals for Responsible Government], is religious faith "immutable, or can it be 'self-identified'?" Hint: Isn't religion itself a choice, and isn't religious choice protected?
We ban discrimination on the basis of choices in ideology, creed and religious faith. If it's wrong to discriminate on the basis of which ideology one chooses to follow or which god one chooses to worship, it's wrong to discriminate on the basis of whom one chooses to love.
Whether sexual orientation (heterosexual or homosexual) is something we're born with or whether it's a choice, is absolutely irrelevant to any consideration of equal rights for gay people.