Huckabee: Gays Haven't Suffered Enough for Civil Rights

[Natasha]

Huckabee: Gays Haven't Suffered Enough for Civil Rights

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/11/huckabee_gays_havent_suffered_enough_for.php
Michael Crawford
November 19, 2008 2:00 PM

On The View yesterday former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee shows just how clueless Republican leaders are about all civil rights issues and not just LGBT civil rights.

After a sickening acknowledgment of the historic election of Barack Obama as our next president in which Huckabee talks about how much he remembers segregation, Huckabee says that gay rights are not civil rights because gays have not been the victims of violent attacks in the ways that African-Americans have.

[Kaweah]

While I agree with Gov. Huckabee that the LGBT civil rights struggle shouldn't equate itself to the black civil rights struggle, he seems to think that the only civil rights struggle there is, has been, or ever will be is the black civil rights struggle.  And that simply isn't true.

The LGBT demand for equal rights under the law is a legitimate one.

[tekla]

I don't even know were to begin with the things that Huck things that are not correct or not true.

[Sephirah]

So... you have to first suffer and be violently attacked in order to be treated like a person and a human being?

That's just sad on so many levels.

*walks off shaking her head*

[lady amarant]

Damnit this kind of thing makes me SO very angry! 

Stats that agree with each other are hard to come by, but whichever set of numbers you take at face value, hate-crimes against homosexual and transgendered people tally to a huge number.

* Hate-crimes against transgendered  and homosexual people in the US is on a par with those against Muslims, if you believe FBI stats ( http://transadvocate.com/hate-crimes/truth-in-numbers-hate-crimes-statistics.htm )

* According to the Harvey Milk Institute, you have a one in 12 chance of being murdered if you are trans, as opposed to 1 in 18,000 for the average person in the US. (http://www.hrc.org/issues/1508.htm )

* Homosexual people are 15 times as likely to be murdered and trans people 16 times as likely as the average US citizen. ( http://www.angelfire.com/on/otherwise/epidemic.html )

Our statistics over here, especially amongst black lesbians and both trans-men and trans-women living in townships are even scarier, but unfortunately I couldn't find any good references online. Joys of South Africa's limited internet.

So the next time some arse tries to tell you it's no different from "christian bashing", or tells you that you're no more at risk than (s)he is, tell him to go stick these numbers where the sun don't shine!

Mike Huckabee is an arsehole.

Some other links
http://www.gpac.org/50under30/
http://www.ralliance.org/HateCrime2004.html
blog post at feministcritics.org

~Simone.

[debbie j]

yawn Huckabee never had a clue  nor will he ever have a clue  eoungh said

[NicholeW.]

Lemme see, this fellow decides who deserves to be brought up to the level of a white, middle-class, conservative, born-again Christian on the basis of how much he feels they have suffered as a group.

How long would he expect someone to remain on a cross before he thought they deserved some recognition for that?

What a moron.

Nichole

[Sandy]

Wouldn't you love to stick him in a dress and say that he couldn't take it off or change back to male until he'd been bashed a few times?

Walk a mile in my heels, Huck!

-Sandy(watadork)

[NicholeW.]

Wouldn't you love to stick him in a dress and say that he couldn't take it off or change back to male until he'd been bashed a few times?

Walk a mile in my heels, Huck!

-Sandy(watadork)

Personally, no Sandy. I don't think a moron needs to suffer any more than I think anyone else needs to suffer.

For you and me that's a positive idea (except on really cold days with no tights on! ) For him, prolly not so much.

I'd just be pleased to see he'd gotten a clue.

Nichole

[RebeccaFog]

it'd probably help to send him a list of the known dead and the survivors of attacks.

And throw in the list of URL's Simone made.