What's the story about glass houses? Take II

This story on CNN is just a sample of a current theme. Some people feel the GLBTetc Community is pressing their story as the new subjugated class beneath the minority, a role previously considered the exclusive domain of the Black community. People might want to sing the blues, as this writer implies, and no one might want to live them, as he concludes, but I feel they shouldn't have to first live the blues to be qualified to sing them. No one owns the minority card, and certainly no one is exempt from it.

It's easy to pit any struggle with an "us v. them" theme. It's boys v. girls, natives v foreigners, legal immigrants v illegals, insured v. uninsured, black v. white, gay v straight, and any other of the millions of divisions we can create. In reality, life isn't this clairvoyant and simple to divide. Black v white forces us to decide between two choices. Are asians black or white? What if there were two interracial couples. Would their children be cast to different races based on their appearance? In truth, this is our historical precedent. Are transgendered and intersex people forced to pick one gender over the other today as in the past?

The written column I chose to nettle over serves as an example because it covers so many of the themes in question. For example, one of the issues near and dear to my heart is ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT). Created 16 years ago, this prevents people from disclosing they are gay in the military or asking others if they are. It's a terrible policy forcing some people to be less than honest about their personal lives with their brothers in arms on a topic that has no bearing to the job at hand: protecting our nation.

Because Group A had to wait 80 years for their military rights to be addressed fully, Group B is forced to wait a similar period as well. At least, that's what one writer at least would have you believe. While we should not have waited to desegregate the military racially, it is not sensible to continue bad inefficient policies because of an imaginary time frame under the auspices of equality.

Which group has had it the worst historically speaking in America: the GLBTetc Community or blacks? I'm sorry? Indians? Women? Asians? No no no, this writer insists there is only a parallel between the GLBTetc Community and the Black Community. Because those are the only two who have suffered in this nation. Ever. And within the GLBTetc community, the writer alleges, there is only a black-white divide. Poppycock. I refute his claim and suggest he meet a larger audience. There are racist GLBTetc community members. There are non-racists as well. There are even members that associate only on the lines of race whether that is black, white, or some other.

This line of division is evident in the general population as well. There are still pockets of black communities. And Chinatown isn't just some clever marketing slogan. People like having similar interests. Boystown, Chinatown, and black only communities are historically reinforced communities from when we legally pressured people to live in Us v Them focused communities. Does this mean the writer would rather have us bust up communities where the majority is a particular demographic? Maybe. There is nothing wrong with there being a Chinatown or even a Boystown within a city. It would be wrong if there was still a cultural pressure (conscious or otherwise) that pressured such a community into existence from the greater community.

The nation has never fully encapsulated race issues. Only in the recent history of this nation (which some trace back to 1619) has there been a black identified president. We can't cover all the divides between us without becoming exhausted. Already we have a red v blue fight, big state v small state, big city v rural farmer, banker v the taxpayer that bails them out. Does the GLBTetc Community need to continue and further address race relations? Yes. Yes it does. Does the greater community at large? Yes. Yes it does. It is easy to see the continued conflict of race issues by merely reading the newspaper.

This doesn't make the fight any more personable or relevant. It doesn't benefit the nation. Racism and race conflict still happens despite our best efforts to overcome it. So too does Sexism, homophobia, and every other form of the us v them fight taken to an extreme. In time, I'm sure we will live in a more idealised world. One where the only us v. them theme is the united us against the divided them. Can we wait 400 years for this to happen for a continued pattern of equality between two minorities? Yes we can. Should we? Hell no!