Congressman John Lewis: You Cannot Separate . . . Civil Rights

A profound note of thanks to Congressman John Lewis of Georgia for his unambiguous willingness to affirm that gay rights cannot be placed in a separate category from other human rights, including the rights of people of color. Representative Lewis spoke today on NPR's "Fresh Air" program (transcript courtesy of Box Turtle Bulletin at www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2009/01/19/8179).

In response to questions about whether he agrees with those who content that it’s wrong to make a connection between the African-American civil rights movement and the gay rights movement because discrimination based on race is completely different from discrimination based on sexual orientation, Congressman Lewis stated,

Well, I do not buy that argument. I do not buy that argument. And today I think more than ever before, we have to speak up and speak out to end discrimination based on sexual orientation . . . . And so I go back to what I said and wrote those lines a few years ago, that I fought too long and too hard against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up and fight and speak out against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The written statement to which Congressman Lewis is referring is an op-ed piece he published in October 2003, in which he stated the following:

I have fought too hard and for too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation. I’ve heard the reasons for opposing civil marriage for same-sex couples. Cut through the distractions, and they stink of the same fear, hatred and intolerance I have known in racism and in bigotry.

Congressman Lewis's conclusion:

You cannot separate the issue of civil rights. It is one of those absolute, immutable principles. You’ve got to have not just civili rights for some, but civil rights for all of us.

I am deeply grateful to Congressman Lewis for this statement. For too many of us today, the joy we should experience on seeing a promising new president move to inauguration is mixed with profound sadness at the recognition that we continue to be treated as second-class citizens in a land rightly celebrating the triumph of the civil rights movement on behalf of a group of citizens subjected to centuries of unjust discrimination.

When some of those same citizens refuse, in turn, to acknowledge what denial of basic human rights does to another demeaned group, it hurts. A great deal.

But when people of color of the stature of Congressman Lewis speak strongly about the injustifiability of discrimination against gay citizens and the parallels between our struggle for human rights and that of African Americans, a little light breaks into the gloom--for me, at least.