Fear of “special rights” for LGBT Americans to sexualize workplaces, schools, and churches set back the cause of equal rights decades. Those who opposed “special rights” did so more effectively than those who supported equality.
Pope Francis, just before departing the U.S., bestowed special rites on Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, whom some liken to Montgomery bus boycotter Rosa Parks who stood up for civil rights by sitting down and refusing to relinquish her seat at the front of the bus to a white man. For this “crime,” Rosa Parks was arrested in Alabama and became internationally beloved.
Rosa Louise McCauley, born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1913, was inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame in 2008. She died in 2005.
The civil rights movement in Alabama, and in broader America, circa the 1950s was seen as a just religious cause. Faith leaders from most denominations marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to end segregation, which had poisoned too many minds for too many years.
The gay rights movement had little support from mainstream faith leaders until the late 1990s. President Clinton’s promotion of the gay agenda met with resistance due to fears of special rights for gays. “Special rights” was always a loaded term. Even the presence of an openly gay professional man in a professional office was indicative of “special rights” to disgruntled or publicity seeking co-workers.
Publicity seeking comes to mind in the matter of clerk Kim Davis declaring her religious faith would not allow her in her capacity as a clerk to sign marriage certificates for same-sex couples in Rowan County, population 23,500, Kentucky. Publicity is publicity. Publicity can elevate a lowly unknown county clerk, like Davis, to a fundamentalist evangelical superstar who was blessed by a papal superstar.
Alabama Governor George C. Wallace got publicity by shouting the N-word in the 1960s. He denied saying it. Film from the era tells a different story. Wallace was bad publicity for Alabama and his political legacy, unless you happen to be a racist.
In 2015, clerk Davis is enjoying a bit of publicity based on a misguided view of religion. It is a religious view that condemns same sex relationships and marriage. It is religion by bumper sticker: Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
It is a misguided religious view held by others in Kentucky, others in America, and others around the world. LGBT advocacy groups have focused on New York, California, and, lastly, in Washington DC. Small-town America, like Rowan County, Kentucky, Laramie, Wyoming, and Walkerton, Indiana, are holdouts against gay rights where people have a strong sense of right and wrong based on news footage from New York, California and Washington DC. Sadly, to the minds of many lawlessness = homosexuality. Further, logic takes to same sex marriage = End of Times.
I am the product of small-town America and saw same sex relationships and LGBT people in small towns. I do not mean to say the small towns I saw were LGBT paradises, but people got by or moved to larger, more accepting, cities.
Davis, though, is a reminder of our ugly past treatment of LGBT people and an indication of what is to come. Social media and those resistant to marriage equality will stand up by speaking out on their misguided religious views. They will even speak such views to the Pope and receive blessings for denying LGBT Christians the fundamental right to marry each other and become one in love and faith.
Pope Francis’ blessing of Davis was bad news for marriage equality. State and federal lawmakers who oppose the issue will take note and a harder stand in their opposition. Perhaps Davis, a newly registered Republican, will keynote the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Why not? She has Pope Francis’ blessing.
Human Rights Advocate Jim Patterson is a writer, speaker, and lifelong diplomat for dignity for all people. In a remarkable life spanning the civil rights movement to today’s human rights struggles, he stands as a voice for the voiceless. A prolific writer, he documents history’s wrongs and the struggle for dignity to provide a roadmap to a more humane future. Learn more at www.HumanRightsIssues.com
This article is outdated, even though the publication date is Nov 1. The Vatican has said clearly that Davis received no special anything, was one of many, and that the Pope in no way supports her position.
http://gawker.com/so-why-didn-t-he-meet-with-the-gay-couples-who-suffered-1734300902
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-vatican-says-kim-davis-didnt-have-real-audience-with-pope-francis
https://www.au.org/church-state/november-2015-church-state/people-events/controversy-swirls-over-pope-s-meeting-with
you do not know what you are talking about.
the Pope blesses groups of people all the time, it does not mean he endorses them.
I think if you stand up for your faith is a noble thing to do. If someone is against gay marriage, it doesn’t mean he/she is against gay people…
Jared: Not even close. This is NOT a noble thing to do, to defy Federal District Court, to defy the 6th Circuit Appellate Court and lastly, to defy the United States Supreme Court.
And if this were an act of individual conscience, like Rosa Park’s, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. But this fraud, Kim Davis, forced her employees to break the law and support her bigoted religious beliefs. She violated the First Amendment by using her government office to force her religious beliefs on all the citizens of her county, and she defied the 14th Amendment in order to discriminate, illegally, against LGBT families.
Rosa Parks harmed No One!
Rosa Parks did not violate the Constitution.
Rosa Parks demanded the equality promised in the U. S. Constitution by laws that were clearly unconstitutional.
Rosa-Parks – Defend the Constitution
Kim Davis – Assault and defy the Constitution
There is NO comparison. The truly noble thing to do, and that many conscientious objectors have done throughout history, would have been to resign from her job. Instead, she refused to let go of her cushy, well-paid job because the money is more important to her than her beliefs.
There is NOTHING noble in what she did. She is a traitor to the U. S. Constitution and the Rule of Law. Nothing she did was for pursuing a “more perfect union”, but rather to establish a government-sponsored theocracy with her as the judge, jury and executioner.
She is a monster, and not a noble one.
I think the Pope’s meeting with Kim Davis and his comments on her actions were bad news for the Pope. The Vatican immediately–I would say desperately–disclaimed any support for Kim Davis’s actions and downplayed the importance of the meeting. Marriage equality is here to stay. It’s in no danger.
Official recognition of murder by abortion and same-sex marriages by the United States of America is going to bring condemnation by God and the end of the United States of America, as we know it!
This is outdated. The pope didn’t meet privately with Davis. She stood in a reception line and shook hands with him. He didn’t bless her and the Vatican said, unequivocally, that the pope doesn’t know Kim Davis, he didn’t meet privately with her and he gave her no special blessing. The Vatican went on to say that the pope doesn’t want to get involved in USA political intrigue.