by Nick Baez
Friday, June 24, 2011: the day that I became even more proud to call myself a native New Yorker. It was the day that the NY state Senate voted to allow same-sex couples the legal right to marry. It is hard to believe it took even that long, and even harder to believe that there are still many states in this country which not only do not recognize same-sex marriage, but also seem to go out of their way to deny same-sex couples even the most basic rights that I, as a heterosexual married man, enjoy every day.
In spite of the fact that progress in this country typically moves at a snail’s pace (consider, for example, the nearly 100 years that passed between the end of the Civil War and the signing of Civil Rights legislation in 1964), the decision by the NY government should have been universal cause for celebration.
Unfortunately, some reaction was vehement. Sadly, much of this negative reaction came from our own Latino community, as was evidenced by the handful of insensitive (and downright homophobic) remarks made in response to articles by Xeno Martinez and C. Adán Cabrera. It saddens me because such remarks, coming from Latinos, represent the ultimate form of hypocrisy: when those who are a part of a historically disenfranchised group subscribe to the same rhetoric that causes pain, marginalization, and further disenfranchisement. This type of hypocrisy manifests itself in two primary ways:
When Latinos are anti-LGBT
LGBT citizens have, for most of history, been one of the most persecuted and marginalized groups around. They have been denied basic rights that most of us enjoy, and they have been prevented from so much as adopting children. As Latinos, we should know exactly how that feels. However, some in the community perpetuate injustice against the LGBT community under the oft-regurgitated talking point that being gay/lesbian is a “free choice” (as if one wakes up one day and decides that being a part of a marginalized group sounds awesome).
Many in our community also insert the religious angle into the “free choice” rhetoric, believing that gays/lesbians make a “free choice” to live against God’s will. However, irrespective of whether or not one actively discriminates against our LGBT citizens, perpetuating a mindset that gays/lesbians somehow “knowingly and brazenly live in sin” creates very real harm and very real persecution.
When Latinos disparage our poorest citizens
Once again, within our community, we often see a mindset that perpetuates injustice against the poor. Often, Latinos who feel that they have “made it” in society accuse the poor of not trying hard enough to be successful. Such rugged individualism ignores the very systems of injustice that perpetuate poverty in the first place. Additionally, many Latinos buy into the myth that the poor are most to blame for this country’s economic ills, believing that their mythical abuse of welfare greatly contributed to the economic downturn. Ironically, these are nearly the identical arguments that have been used against the entire U.S. Latino community during times of economic distress (as was the case with the Mexican Repatriation during the Great Depression).
The moral of these stories is simple: if we as the Latino community are to be taken seriously as a global force in the 21st century, we must not actively or unwittingly engage in the very marginalization that we have been subjected to throughout our history.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.
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About Nick Baez
Nick, even though I am have completely different views than yours, I applaud your ability in making me view the other side of the spectrum. Have I changed some of my core beliefs? No. But do I empathize more with a group of people who have been treated unfairly? Most definitely. Thanks for the thoughts today. Well done.
Samantha
I’ve been waiting for this article to post on the BL page, but it hasn’t and I’ve got three yellers demanding my attention.
I knew this piece would be excellent, your work always is. The facts of it are so plain, so obvious, that it baffles how some might actually need to be reminded of them. I guess it’s human nature to turn around on the ladder and try to kick those on the rungs below yours. The attitude is so myopic and ignorant, I just can’t fathom it, but there it is. I agree that it is the utmost, the hallmark, the epitome of hypocrisy. You wield your “pen” like a scalpel blade, my friend. I stand and applaud this piece. Preach on, my brother! Preach on!
Excellent.
It won’t change anyone’s mind, this isn’t one of those gray issues. But if it would keep the hateful rhetoric down to a low buzz, I would appreciate it.
Very well said!
Hateful rhetoric? I think that the article was PRECISELY against hateful rhetoric!
It may not change the minds of the narrow minded who believe their “opinions” are “the right one”…… but I would like to think that at the very least it will open the eyes of those who base their opinion on misinformation. Great article that hit cords in all the right places.
I really enjoyed reading your article.
When we say we accept everyone’s way of thinking, versus actually doing so, is two different worlds all together. The perspective that each one of us has is totally different than what the actual object is of what we are perceiving. Thus nothing is what we think it is, since it is different in the eyes of every other person that is looking at it or pondering on its existence.
May I humbly refer to this point in particular as to what others see as the rule as it appears in this article?:
“Many in our community also insert the religious angle into the “free choice” rhetoric, believing that gays/lesbians make a “free choice” to live against God’s will. However, irrespective of whether or not one actively discriminates against our LGBT citizens, perpetuating a mindset that gays/lesbians somehow “knowingly and brazenly live in sin” creates very real harm and very real persecution.”
WOW! this is so well describes as the norm, in the such uncontested world of the ‘RIGHTEOUS” that hold the “WORD” as the beginning and end of every single thing that ever would dare to go against that ‘WORD”.
By providing anthropomorphic attributes to “GOD” , permits those that belief so , to give “God” the will to be ” for” or “against” something. , to be “sad” or “happy” , to “punish” or ” condemn” or any other human type of emotion that you can imagine. Actually “GOD” or what ever you belief in “GOD” to be is ” IMPARTIAL” to everything. It is just like Nature. The Sun shines on everyone, the rain falls on everyone, regardless of who they are or what they believe in.
People are who they are. Who is anyone to tell anybody else who they should be. Just “BE” and let others “BE”!
Conventional wisdom only rules while the majority of those living within the times believe it to be. Thus the world was “flat” for 1000′s of years” , only the clergy of ANY religion was fit to understand the “Holy Scriptures” of whatever the flavor of the day of control was inherently portrayed to be the “ONLY ” way to salvation, Black people were not capable of “Thinking” let alone doing anything else but be slaves, and please feel free to fill in the blanks on any other irrefutable belief that has ever existed since the beginning of mankind!
Hooray! to destroying the wall of ignorance, as it refers to this moment in time to the “Conventional Wisdom” that discriminate against the “LGBT Citizens” of the WORLD, …pay attention ..LOVE and COMPASSION is the FOREVER rule , it is the INFINITE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM that will eventually prevail.
Now – at the risk of sounding sarcastic (which isn’t my intent) – people like you should sit all of these other hard-heads down and get one of those big, mean megaphones and get right into the ears of these homophobes (point-blank actually) and read this blog to them… even if it just makes them go home angry. I don’t care. People like that need serious therapy. (Thank you Rev. Ruben Diaz.) I was just blogging these things over the past couple weeks. Glad to hear I’m not the only one.
A lot of people oppose gay marriage for religious reasons. Religion, as Napoleon mused, is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.