In the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., please take a moment to remember the struggles of so many seeking equality before us, and take note that many are still seeking equality.

There’s a great post at The Bay State Banner that talks about heroes of the Civil Rights Movement that can teach us all about how we need to continue our struggle for LGBT equality.

According to the post:

I think it’s important to have Dr. King in this part of our memory of American heroes in part because he challenged America to be her best. So frequently, when we think about American heroes we tell the story as though America has always been great and that there’s one story of American history. But Dr. King’s contribution is in part that he recognized the faults in the American story. The other part it is just as Dr. King recognized the faults of the country, and loved her nonetheless, I think that an important part of remembering Dr. King is remembering his faults. I don’t mean his personal faults, but I mean his political faults. The way that he failed to include women; the way that he turned his back on one of his gay associates because he was gay; the way that he sometimes gave into scare tactics.

Read more here!

But many of the tea-baggers claim that’s not true.  They say their movement is about less taxation, less government and less governmental spending.  But is that really ‘taking back America’?  I mean let’s think about this for a minute. The U.S. has one of the lowest tax rates of any nation in the world, yet boast one of the best infrastructures.  We supposedly have some of the best medical care available, yet we’re the only industrialized nation that allows our citizens to go bankrupt or lose their home when they become seriously ill.  We’re suppose to be the land of opportunity, yet we have over 30 million homeless youth living in the the U.S. today.

So is the tea party really about taking back America?  If yes, who are they taking it back from?

I think it’s perfectly clear where the members of the tea party stand on issues such as LGBT equality and Civil Rights. They believe both threaten the very freedoms and liberties that white, straight Christians have taken for granted since the pilgrims first set foot on U.S. soil before we were a nation.  They now believe that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should be repealed and that there are no such thing as ‘gay’ rights.

This is (or at least it shouldn’t be) representative of America.  That’s why I’m asking you to join our Facebook page – Give Back America!

According to the page:

Tired of hearing how white Christian members of the tea party are going to ‘take back America’? Who exactly are they taking it back from? The poor? People of Color? Members of the LGBT community? The U.S.A. is now and always has been an immigrant nation. We should not give absolute control to those who have enjoyed white privilege since their ancestors first stepped foot onto this land.

This country was founded on the premise there would be liberty and justice for all…not just the majority!

The time has come to “Give Back America”!

That’s right, give it back to the Native American people who were raped, diseased and murdered as their land was stolen. Give it back to those who are here because their ancestors were brought here by force to build a land of opportunity that’s only largely been accessible to White Christians. It’s time to give it back to our LGBT brothers and sisters who have been denied the right to marry, parent, hold a job or live where they choose because discriminatory laws, made by white Christians have legalized discrimination.

It’s time to give it back to the female population that stands for a woman’s right to choose.

It’s time to give this nation back to the people who have gone bankrupt or lost their home from becoming ill. This is the ONLY industrialized nation where that can even happen!

Taxation is NOT an issue in this country as the U.S. boast one of the lowest tax rates of any nation yet has one of the best infrastructures on the globe.

Join us in our campaign to “Give America Back”! Let’s all enjoy the benefit of living in a nation built on the concepts of equality and freedom of religion!

This is everyone’s country…Let’s give it back…Stop the HATE!

The reception of African American and GLBT leaders will take place on Monday, March 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Equality Forum office, 1420 Locust Street, Suite 300, Philadelphia.

“Dr. King’s dream inspired all Americans and had a profound impact on the gay civil rights movement,” stated Malcolm Lazin, Executive Director, Equality Forum. “Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King were outspoken advocates of gay equality.”

“We had marched with Martin Luther King, seven of us from the Mattachine Society of Washington in 1963, and from that time on, we’d always had our own dream about a march of similar proportions,” said Gay Pioneer Jack Nichols.

Openly gay Bayard Rustin was the lead organizer of the March on Washington in August 1963.  In October 1963, openly gay James Baldwin and Dick Gregory with his wife were the first nationally prominent blacks to protest for voters rights in Selma

“The Budnik photograph will remain in the Equality Forum office as a reminder of the debt the GLBT civil rights movement owes to Dr. King,” said Temple Professor Debra Blair, Chair of Equality Forum’s Board of Directors.

Equality Forum is a national and international GLBT civil rights organization with an educational focus. Equality Forum coordinates GLBT History Month, produces documentary films, undertakes high-impact initiatives and presents the largest annual national and international GLBT civil rights summit.

For more information, please click here to visit the Equality Forum!

For more on the Marches from Selma to Montgomery, click here!

Elder Dallin H. Oaks refers to gay marriage as an “alleged civil right” in remarks prepared for delivery at Brigham Young University-Idaho, a speech church officials describe as a significant commentary on current threats to religious freedom.

In an advance copy provided to The Associated Press, Oaks suggests that atheists and others are seeking to intimidate people of faith and silence their voices in the public square.

“The extent and nature of religious devotion in this nation is changing,” said Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a church governing body. “The tide of public opinion in favor of religion is receding, and this probably portends public pressures for laws that will impinge on religious freedom.”

Oaks’ address comes as gay-rights activists mount a legal challenge to Proposition 8, the ballot measure that overturned gay marriage in California. His comments about civil rights are likely to anger gay rights activists who consider the struggle to enact same-sex marriage laws as a major civil rights cause.

In an interview Monday before the speech, Oaks said he did not consider it provocative to compare the treatment of Mormons in the election’s aftermath to that of blacks in the civil rights era, and said he stands by the analogy.

“It may be offensive to some — maybe because it hadn’t occurred to them that they were putting themselves in the same category as people we deplore from that bygone era,” he said.

Read more of this Associated Press post by clicking here.

Now this is amazing.  White people, (the LDS church has very few black members, I’ll get to that in a minute) claiming their struggle for religious freedom (and by religious freedom they must mean spending tens of millions of tax-exempt dollars on supporting a political agenda and dictating who is entitled marry), are being oppressed by LGBT Americans, who don’t have the same rights or equality?

This is so wrong at so many levels I’m not sure where to start.  Just in case you aren’t familiar, the Mormon Church used to preach segregation.  It was their firm belief that being a person of color was a punishment from God and people of color were lesser than white people…and that was up until 1978!  It was in that year former President Jimmy Carter threatened the LDS church with taxation if they did not stop preaching segregation, and amazingly enough, God spoke to the elders, and within weeks of the taxation threat, told them being a person of color was no longer a punishment from God, therefore they should be accepted into the church.

Secondly, how is anyone, who enjoys full benefits of marriage, employment, housing, etc….you know, all the rights, liberties and freedoms offered to everyone in America except for those of us in the LBGT community, going to claim they are being oppressed…and compare their oppression to that of what people of color experienced during and prior to the Civil Rights Movement?

This statement is not only stupid and delusional, but it’s extremely disrespectful towards anyone of color, and it demonstrates the lengths people will go to in their attempt to prevent American citizens who are a member of the LGBT community from ever enjoying full equality and maintain our second class citizenship.

It is with my most sincere hope, the community of color in this country stands up against this distasteful ignorance.  I sincerely hope this becomes the straw that broke the camels back with the Mormon church.  Hopefully Americans are smart enough to see through blatantly false and degrading statements like this and recognize that this mentality is twisted and wrong.

I never quite stop being amazed at the hate, intolerance and bigotry that comes from those who oppose equality for LGBT citizens, but this is over the top, and I again hope, that over the top, the Mormon church finds an edge, with a very steep decline that drops a long way down.

Why is it so hard for folks to say that gay rights are African-American rights because lgbts of color are touched by both communities? Why is it so hard for folks to say that there are times in which the black and gay struggles intersect?

That is why I am so damned weary of this argument about “is gay the new black” or “can gay rights movement compare itself to the civil rights movement.”

Read more at: Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters!

Find out what Congressman Lewis has to say about LGBT rights and marriage by listening to an interview, with host James Hipps, at gayagenda.com!

Read the rest at Freedom to Marry!

Get the rest at Black is Beautiful, Gay is Good!

And it has seemingly spooked the Religious Right, or at least its media arms, so much so that they felt it necessary to seek out quotes from movement leaders that would remind everyone that, though nonbelievers exist, they are a small minority and that this is still a Christian nation.

Read the entire post at Right Wing Watch!

Tonight’s topic is the Obama Administration’s White House Agenda for Civil Rights!

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