Betraying a Minority

The Constitution of the United States of America declares: “…all men are…endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” This line has inspired hope to thousands of people in the world looking for a better home. It is a line that promises every man, woman and child liberty. That is what America has come to symbolize—an offer to the entire world to be free. Going back on that promise is treacherous. If America truly abandons gays, I think that we will commit a serious moral crime: betrayal.

That’s why I was shocked when I read the “Gay Rights” editorial in October’s issue of The Blue and Gold. The conclusion to Matt Call’s side reads: “Gays are on their own and will not be supported by the American government.” This seriously offended me. If the freest nation on the planet refuses to help the minorities of mankind—gays included—then who will? The American nation was founded on the promise of equal rights and freedom. To turn our back on minorities such as homosexuals shows a hypocritical example to the world and further diminishes our international pride.

The sentence “Gays are on their own and will not be supported by the American government” displays the same attitude that caused the early Mormon pioneers so much persecution and forced them to find homes in America’s no man’s land, because they were abandoned and unsupported. In the early 1900’s, that attitude was seen in the ill treatment of the Irish immigrants who had to suffer mobs, because they were abandoned and unsupported. In the 1960’s, that attitude was the fuel for discrimination against African Americans—and I don’t think I need to rehearse a history lesson for that example.

This last example comes close to home for me because my father is Haitian and my mother is Puerto Rican. They went through severe social disrespect because they were of different races. To deny gays the right to a civil union and marriage would be like denying whites to marry blacks.

History is trying to teach us something about equality and freedom, and we are ignoring the lesson. I would not have been born if this “[This minority is] on [its] own and will not be supported by the American government” attitude had triumphed. Today, that attitude is trying to attack the rights of homosexuals. We should not let it have yet another chance to cause years of discrimination, persecution, and disrespect, as it has in the past. Let’s remember the important principle that America was built on—the one many of us have memorized since first grade: “…that all men are created equal.”

Can I get a “Hallelujah, amen”?