Rosa Parks stays at the front of the bus

Barb Davis White; barbdaviswhiteforcongress.com

The fight for LGBT rights have been long compared to those of the Black Civil Rights fights of the 1940's, 50's and 60's (and beyond). I tend to agree with this comparison. I'd also extend the LGBT fight to further into history with Woman's Liberation of the 50's and 60's (and beyond), but also Woman's Suffrage (1920 and before).

These fights have been the oppressed versus "the man" (in most of the cases, "the man" is old, white men). "The Man" tries to strip rights away from "the other." In the case of LGBT, other is defined by their sexuality.

So I can't help but take big offense to the following statement made by Barb Davis White (pictured above).

"Rosa Parks did not move to the front of the bus to support sodomy.”

White was at a legislative committee meeting discussing Gay Marriage in Minnesota. White, a self-proclaimed "tea-bagger" (yeah, I know so sexual...), goes on to say that allowing a white man to marry a black woman (and vice versa) was more fundamentally (and spiritually) sound because the only difference between a white man a black man is skin color; but the differences between men and women is too great!

Denying two consenting adults anything, is wrong. Just because I happen to be in a type of relationship that wasn't "popular" when god sent his words down to the few men who wrote The Bible; doesn't mean I'm wrong.

What does the bible say about interracial marriage?

Deuteronomy 7:3–4

3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.

I can take quotes and greatly exaggerate them too! But I won’t, this passage from Deuteronomy was talking about intermarrying with people who are of a different religion, so they won't turn you away from god... but taken out of context, one can see how it’s that fear of the other, that is being highlighted.

So that brings me to the title of this post... why did Rosa Parks take a seat at the front of the bus and refuse to move to the back? In her autobiography, Parks says why she didn't move, "... the only tired I was, was tired of giving in." She said nothing about being gay or black, just tired – tired of oppression.

The connection between Gay Rights and Black Civil Rights, is strong, and I believe that it is just a continuation of the same fight, the fight against oppression. I want all oppression to end, I don’t care about the color of your skin or who you sleep with or which god you pray to or if you have differenting ability; all I care about is that you are afforded the same rights granted to the majority of people in the United States (i.e. straight, white men). I’d have to say the Rosa Parks would agree that oppression of any kind is wrong; and White should look closely at what is causing her homophobia.

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