statement<\/a> expressing \u201cacute dismay at today\u2019s ruling,\u201d referring to the court\u2019s decision on the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n\u201cThe court has done America a grave disservice, and we will work with our coalition partners to undo the damage inflicted by this retrogressive ruling,\u201d the statement read. <\/p>\n
The gay rights movement, however, has not always used its resources to combat racial inequality, even among its own. Marsha P. Johnson, a transgender woman who was a leader in the Stonewall Riots of June 1969 that sparked the movement for LGBTQ equality, was found dead in 1992 in the Hudson River. Despite evidence of a struggle, police ruled the death a suicide. The case was not reopened until 2012. If Johnson were a gay, white male, her case would have galvanized the gay community. The danger is that as more states accept same-sex marriage, as the LGBTQ community becomes more broadly accepted, it can be seduced into the mainstream and forget the plight of the oppressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, in a society in which they were supposed to be safe,\u201d James Baldwin once said. \u201cThe anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The LGBTQ community frequently defines itself as the new civil rights movement. This week\u2019s ruling reveals the falsehood of that claim. As long as the LGBTQ community continues to co-opt the language of that previous and ongoing struggle, it must also remain true to the principle of equality and justice for all\u2013not merely one\u2019s own.<\/p>\n
The LGBTQ community is dominated by white men of privilege. Its disregard for poor people of color is matched by its heedlessness of transgender people within its own ranks. Transgender people are at the highest risk for hate crimes. A 2011 study by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force found that 78 percent of its trans-identified participants experienced physical assaults. For African-American transgender women, the violence was even worse. <\/p>\n
LGBTQ organizations and activists will continue to fight for marriage equality in the 37 states in which marriage for gay and lesbian couples is illegal. But if marriage equality is the end goal of the LGBTQ movement, those involved run the risk not only of becoming part of the elite, but as well the forces of oppression they once had to fight.<\/p>\n
Todd Clayton is a graduate student at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He is an LGBTQ advocate and freelance writer.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Todd Andrew Clayton<\/p>\n
Todd Andrew Clayton.\n<\/p>\n
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This article originally appeared on: TruthDig<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.truthdig.com\/report\/item\/a_tempered_celebration_20130627\/ Posted on Jun\u00a027,\u00a02013 By Todd Clayton The dismantling of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) by the Supreme Court was accompanied by the court\u2019s gutting of the Voting Rights Act, legislation that moved the country incrementally closer to racial equality. The court dealt one blow for justice and another for injustice. The twin decisions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-45828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}