November 17, 2008.
I am not sure how to express my concerns with the wonderful protests against Prop 8, but several people have said the same thing — we older people should consider what the young ones seem to want.
That is valid. But, how much thought has gone into concentrating on marriage as the “solving” of our civil rights problems as homosexuals? And how getting equal rights for homosexuals in marriage is affecting those citizens who do not want marriage but, under our Constitution and Bill of Rights, deserve equal rights — which come to us as individuals, not as a group, class, race, etc.?
I of course am following the thoughts of one of our movement pioneers, Don Slater (co-founder of ONE, Inc. in 1952 and The Homosexual Information Center in 1968 — and also ONE’s funding arm, ISHR), whose thinking and activism seems so far to be on target. The one item he seemed to disagree with regarding the CA court decision is the idea of homosexuals being a “suspect class.” He said and I agree, (even though he, like most of the second group of our pioneers as opposed to the founders, who were Communists was a conservative Republican while I am a liberal Democrat), that if we appear to be asking for special rights, it will delay our victory. And he was consistent as he opposed hate crime laws and affirmative actions.
