For all the comparisons that could be made about gay rights and the civil rights fights of the 50s and 60s, one major factor is missing.
NONVIOLENCE! Martin Luther King, Jr.,
C.O.R.E, the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and others were at the forefront of the fight and all of them preached nonviolence as the method of choice. It was a choice as they chose peace. It was understood that more hate would not stop hate.
Gay rights activists today could get peace with Church folks if they made the choice for nonviolence, civil disobedience and peace but instead many have chosen violence which anti-gay religious groups will use against us to show that “gays are violent”. Everyone looses when violence is used. How I could get this message around the USA to every homo out there so they choose nonviolence, learn nonviolence, and protest in nonviolent ways? Someone please tell me.
Sadly, this counter protest in Mass. was a perfect example. Pro-gay marriage groups yelled at church protesters, called them names, and disrupted their rally. So now the anti-gay marriage folks went home disliking and hating gays even more. Please show me how this is going to change anything for gays. Groups like Mass Equality are not helping the struggle for rights when they make people hate us more. The goal should always be to bring the truth in love, not more hate.
from the article:
About 100 members of MassEquality shouting “Bigots go home” faced off with the anti-marriage demonstrators.
If Mass Equality had counter protested in silence, handing out stories of gay couples and the need for gay marriage they could have educated our opponents and perhaps changed some minds through education and love. Instead those people left hating gays even more. Those anti-gay protesters are now more threatened by gays than before the protest. Everyone lost in this event. In violence, everyone loses.
If they had chosen nonviolence, this all would be different. There are 100 more reasons to choose peace for every one reason to use violence. (no matter what they shout at you, no matter what they say about you, there is no reason to call them names)
MassEquality said it will counter future anti-gay rallies with a similar show of force.
Here is the scary part of this article, they plan to do this again, so rather than anti-gay people just hating us, and believing we are out to destroy marriage, they will think we are violent too! MassEquality is not helping us, they are hurting us this this type of protest. They should try peace, try nonviolence, they should hand out educational papers to opposing protesters. They should bring the anti-gay people coffee, offer to sit with them and talk, learn from each other instead of calling people “bigots”. If you want change, you must be the change. If you want people to stop calling you evil things, then you need to do the same. You want respect, you must show respect.
Quote:
“The aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is the Beloved Community”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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taken from here........
http://joebrummer.com/WordPress/?p=495