MLK

[cottmann]

Monday, January 16th is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the USA.

While his impact was most felt in support of Black America, the rest of us owe him a vote of thanks.

All of us have benefited...."

Being neither Black nor American, I'll withhold my vote of thanks until the benefits of his support for the all the rest of us are explained.

And let's not forget Hedda, who apparently among her many delusions thinks she's some black woman on a bus

You are drawing an extremely long bow there, Rainwalker. Most of the black community is, I'm told, absolutely furious with the suggestion that black civil rights had anything to do with gay "rights". They may have been in parallel but they are certainly not successive. Other countries (remember them - there are people other than star-spangled bumpkins?) seem to have developed gay rights movements without having any acquaintance with the good ol' US of A

Liberation and equality are far from any reality in Bush's America; in fact the lights are going out and America is on the edge of a new dark age.

Much as I have little time for Bush (and not much time for Americans generally), the previous comment strikes me as close to complete nonsense

I am a proud American celebrating our countries continuing struggle for equality for all.. But, what does this thread have to do with "Gay Thailand"????

[cottmann]

We are all in this together and MLK was a leader of the civil rights movement which lead to the woman's movement and to gay liberation.

Conscious that there is a distinction between legal liberation and social acceptance, I think that this is an overstatement that conflates several issues. The Civil Rights movement was essentially a US phenonomen because the desegregation and other oppressive conditions that American Blacks were fighting against did not exist in most other countries - apart from South Africa perhaps. It may have led in the US to Gay Liberation and to Women's Liberation, but it must be remembered that the 1960s was a decade of counter-culture movements (anti-racism, anti-segregation, anti-sexism, anti-Vietnam war, pro-hippy, and anti-capitalism) that helped to create a climate which allowed gay liberation groups to gain strength.
I think that these efforts had little influence on Gay Liberation in the rest of the world. I understand that, while most of the countries of the former British Empire, including the USA and Canada, outlawed homosexual acts, that homosexuality was not illegal at that time in many other European countries, e.g., France (since 1791 and since 1810 in the Napoleonic Code) and Belgium (since 1762), and has never been illegal in many other countries - Thailand, Vietnam, The Philippines, Japan, etc.
In many European countries the G&L liberation movements began long before they did in the USA - in 1911 in The Netherlands for example where, although sodomy was not illegal there was social persecution. Successive European governments had begun to decriminalize homosexuality long before the American Gay Liberation movement, e.g., in 1933 in Denmark and Iceland and 1944 in Sweden, although they were not given moral sanction. Even in the UK, liberalization began long before it did in the USA. Homosexual acts between consenting adults were decriminalized for adults in the UK in 1967, two years before the Stonewall Riots that start the Gay Liberation movement in the USA.
Moreover, it is not at all clear that MLK was pro-gay liberation. There is no record of him issuing a public statement about discrimination against gays - although he did have a gay advisor - Bayard Rustin. It may well be that if Bayard Rustin had not be gay, the US would be celebrating BR Day and not MLK Day. It is interesting to recall that MLK's youngest daughter participated in a march in Atlanta in December 2004, in support of a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The Rev. Bernice King has said she doesn't believe her father died to give homosexuals the right to marry.
As for Women's Liberation, women such as the Pankhursts and Rosie the Riveter had been working for the inclusion of women long before MLK got involved in the bus boycott in Alabama.

[dab69]

since homosexuality has never been illegal in Thailand, this really has nothing to do with "Gay Thailand"

[elephantspike]

I'm letting it run here just for today to give it some exposure out of respect. It'll end-up in the Global Forum soon.

[Dboy]

Liberation and equality are far from any reality in Bush's America; in fact the lights are going out and America is on the edge of a new dark age.

The above statement is accurate. If you don't understand why, you're just clueless.

Dboy