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Loading ...Three equality riders arrested in Alabama
10.17.2008 2:40pm EDT
(Florence, Ala.) Three Equality Riders were arrested for trespassing today at Heritage Christian University. They were on campus to deliver letters describing their personal experiences and advocating for the safety and acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students.
Prior to the arrests, an HCU administrator read a letter stating that the university was officially declining their request for dialogue.On Thursday, Equality Riders met with one student from HCU who described the climate on campus as a “homophobic panic.” He explained that students and staff were discouraged from speaking to members of the Equality Ride.
“The way we were treated today is a clear indication that gay and transgender people are not welcome at this institution. The school’s choice to arrest us shows just how far they will go to suppress the message we bring,” said Jarrett Lucas, Equality Ride co-director. “HCU trains missionaries to go beyond the walls of their school to spread the inclusive gospel of Christ, but today they chose not to uphold the principles they preach.”
The visit to HCU is the sixth Equality Ride stop this year. Now in its third year, the Equality Ride has visited over 50 schools, most of which have been welcoming. At other schools, participants have hosted public forums, participated in panel discussions, and taken part in worship services and Bible studies.
The goal is to inspire further conversation and to empower students, faculty, and administrators to make their school welcoming to all students, a statement from Equality Ride said.
The three women arrested were Caitlin MacIntyre, 19, of Houston, Tex., Katie Higgins, 26, of Charleston, S.C., and Taueret Manu, 21, of the Bronx, NY. The remaining Equality Riders are standing vigil in hopes that students will come out for conversation.
Soulforce Q is the young adult division of Soulforce, a social justice organization that works to end political and religious oppression of LGBTs through nonviolent resistance.
While you might not agree with their tactics, at least they are trying make a change. Nothing would ever happened, if we just sat around bitched. We need and have to fight back in some way. Whether being open and educating people. Writing letters or metting with congressional people. Supporting groups like HRC. Remember ACT UP? Not many people liked their ideas. But would we have ever gotten aids drugs without them? Sometimes people have to suffer alittle discomfort in order to change things…..
Comparing the struggle of a blacks to gays is totally imbalanced.
We were taken from our country, stripped of our identities, familys… have any of you read the willy lynch letters??
As a black lesbian women, I face three strikes.
I support the black community, the gay/lesbian community, yes we are all fighting to make a presence, be heard, be respected.
But No, you cannot compare Dr King to our homo struggles. Black struggles and gay struggles are two totally different playing fields.
If you did not live your life as an african american you will never understand what we face.
Yes being gay someone might talk shit about, may even beat you up. But alteast, if your not black, you can still trace your family back generations. You know exactly where your familys from, you might even have little trinkets passed down…. as black people we have been divided, have you ever gone grocery shopping in the hood? Black people are oppressed and the world around us media, music, the food we eat, the things we buy do nothing but degrade us, humiliate us, and work toward eliminating the black race.
To compare homosexual struggles to race struggles and saying minor details are the only difference you need to do some research on the treatment of black in america since the early 1800s
Toni, I think that you actually believe the things that you’ve written. You know that pretty much every nationality has been enslaved at one time or another. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems that the black folk are the ones that are complaining about it. You know that there is actually slavery that is taking place this very day.
Everyone, yes everyone has struggles that they must face and overcome. I tend to think that it makes each person stronger as they overcome and see the light at the end of the tunnel.
And you are right, I do not know what it is like to be as a black man. I do know what it is like to be a white man, though. That, you do not know.
Toni Said: “We were taken from our country, stripped of our identities, familys… have any of you read the willy lynch letters??”
To my knowledge, the removal of blacks by force from Africa ended almost 150 years ago. I very much doubt than any living today can claim these atrocities happened to them. A very sad and regretable chapter in our nation’s history to be sure, but one cannot live in the distant past and cite this as the source of all evils within the present-day black community, nor can it be an excuse for the ills that trouble the black community today.
“But No, you cannot compare Dr King to our homo struggles. Black struggles and gay struggles are two totally different playing fields.”
No, they are not. And interestingly enough, the late Dr. King and his wife did compare our struggle with the black struggle. Coretta King stated this publically, so even if you do not accept that it is similar, the leader you refer to did.
“If you did not live your life as an african american you will never understand what we face.”
I understand quite well. My eyes and mind are open, and I see what happens. As a white man I may never have to experience these things on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean we cannot understand or empathize. Gays too are oppressed, denied opportunities, harassed by the police, the victims of discrimination, ridicule and violence, hated by some for being different. I have also experienced racial discrimination by members of the black community for being white. Yes, I think I understand quite well.
” But alteast, if your not black, you can still trace your family back generations. You know exactly where your familys from,…”
Ever read Roots? It may not be an easy process, but it is possible, tho maybe not for everyone. You should be able to trace you family back at least 150 years since the end of slavery when families were not sold away from one another. My family on my father’s side was traced by to their arrival in this country back in the 1700’s but this has absolutely no bearing on me or where my life is today.
” as black people we have been divided, have you ever gone grocery shopping in the hood?
Shopping, no but I have spent quite a bit of time in “the hood” as one of my dearest friends is black and was raised in the worst ghetto in Tampa. Instead of bemoaning his fate and relishing his victimhood, he chose to educate himself and is now a chief meteorologist. Yes, the odds may be against you, but there is also something to be said for ambition and the drive to excell beyond the settings of one’s childhood.
“Black people are oppressed and the world around us media, music, the food we eat, the things we buy do nothing but degrade us, humiliate us,…”
Not sure what the media is doing to oppress you, perhaps you would care to enlighten us so that we may further understand your plight. Music? I am a fan of classic rock and metal and I have never heard a song of that time oppressing, degrading or humiliating black people. In fact, one of my favorite muscians from that time is a black guy named Jimi Hendrix…you may have heard of him. Bob Marley is also a favorite and his music was even more positive towards black people. Listen to Buffalo Soldiers then tell me how this hurts the black people. The only genre of music I can think of that degrades blacks (women expecially) is possibly rap music, which is a genre predominated by blacks. Far as food, if it offends you, then don’t eat it. Again, I don’t understand exactly your meaning here so please enlighten us.
“and work toward eliminating the black race.”
I am part Cherokee so if you want to talk genocide, take it from someone whose people have had it FAR worse than the black people. You say your ancestors were brought here by force, yet this was once the red man’s country, taken from us by that same force. The land your ancestors were forced to cultivate was ours, the land where you presently live was ours. Native Americans were slaughtered wholesale with some tribes disappearing entirely and our culture for the most part obliterated from the lands of our ancestors. What few survivors there were were relegated to reservations and people from my tribe were removed from our native lands around North Carolina and forced-marched to Oklahoma. If you want to know what real suffering is, research the treatment of Native Americans (North and South America)
since the 1500’s when white people first arrived.