Well, 144001, I am an African-American male, so I speak from experience. Wealthy black males faced all kinds of discrimination across the United States. In the Deep South it was encoded in law; elsewhere it was enforced by custom and practice. Discrimination existed with respect to housing, school attendance, joining particular social organizations, etc. I knew many well-off black Americans who encountered this. I did also and though I was not wealthy I was considered middle-class. I will add that I have lived both in the American North and South.
It seems to me that you are willfully, deliberately and adamantly blind. You acknowledge that discrimination exists, but would rather that nothing be done about ending it. You talk about knowing gays, but as long as they stay in the closet, that is fine. Let them freely associate with one another just as long as neither you nor your children have to rub shoulders with those identified as such. You may well deny this but the words you have used say otherwise. You are neither gay nor a person of color and so know little or nothing about life as either. I speak from life experience as both an African-Armerican and gay man. You have no wish to identify with either group. That is your loss.
As for your contention that the majority of African-Americans do not support gay rights, that is a most sad and unfortunate truth. Many have no sympathy for LGBT people even when they are related to them by either blood or marriage. Just because they feel that way doesn't make them right as you seem to think. However, that is changing and the African-American community is being forced to address this. "Those who would deny liberty to others do not deserve it for themselves," Abraham Lincoln once wrote. That applies to anyone, regardless of race, creed, or color.
Your use of the phrase "homosexual agenda" to describe the fight for equality is offensive, but I am glad that you have done so because it shows that your arguments against it are indeed specious, as I said. They appear to be correct and even wise on the surface. A closer examination of them reveals their weakness. The weakness lies in that you imply that all people in a particular group are alike. Stating that there is a "homosexual agenda" and that gays seek to 'push their agenda down the throats' of uninterested people are two examples of this. Your words imply that this is somthing all LGBT people want and do when that is simply not the true.
As for saying that your attitude is "condescending", I stand by that. When you cite the teaching of Black history as justification for people like you rejecting affirmative action even though there is no correlation between them, that is the condescending attitude I was referring to. Affirmative action was used to advance the interests of other groups besides African-Americans but you have chosen to ignore that fact. Gay marriage is another example. There are many gay and lesbian couples living together without the benefit of marriage who prefer to keep it that way just as there are many straight couples who do. You have chosen not to acknowledge that as well.
I may make a wrong assumption here but your presence on this board makes me think it might be true. You either are one of Jehovah's Witnesses or once were. As such then your words show the kind of narrow-mindedness and non-sequitur logic we have come to expect from them. They also are a most intolerant group with no respect for the opinions of others, going so far as to expel from their organization any who profess contrary views. I know that you have written that you "don't dislike gays" for pressing for an end to discrimination, and you say you "understand the motivation for their political agenda." That is a good start, but that is all it is. Even the WTS does that. I hope that this discussion will open your mind to other possibilities.
Quendi
