Taking a stand for inclusion

[LostInTime]

Charleston City Paper
BY WILL MOREDOCK

In the South, racist whites streamed out of the Democratic Party and into the GOP, where they have been caucusing ever since. The Democrats — especially in the South — paid a high price for reaching out to blacks, but it is the Democratic Party that has transformed race relations in America in the last half century.

Today, something like that is going on again, this time with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Despised, persecuted, and excluded in ways much as blacks were in the past, LGBTs are fighting for acceptance and power, even as states pass laws curtailing gay marriage and other rights.