I've always enjoyed reading blogs, newspapers from other regions, and other online media to get differing opinions and the top stories for the week. Many times when I read something, I can find something that is humorous, and also things that disturb me. This article in the Washington Post is an example of something that saddens me, and makes me feel like we haven't moved forward since a very turbulent decade. Of the top of my head I can think of five things that the FBI could investigate that would be much more important than whether or not the aide to LBJ was gay nor not. The fact that President Johnson relented to the FBI and allowed this witch hunt is also disturbing because this was a friend of his, and I would think that President Johnson had more of a backbone and would not allow this. It is disappointing, in many ways, that witch hunts like this still go on and we are trying to not only weed out who is gay, but also take away their right for happiness. After the 60's, and with the Stonewall Uprising in the NYC, the hatred only seemed to get worse. Something called the Briggs Initiative, which was a central plot point in the fantastic 2008 film Milk, would have banned gays, lesbians and anyone who even supported gay rights from working in California public schools. Fortunately it was not passed, but all the amount of divisiveness and hatred in this Proposition was yet another example of how troubling a time we still lived at that time, and still do, today.
It saddens me that gay rights is still an issue that needs to be fought for, but I hope one day we will move beyond it being an issue. One thing that is similar between the example of the FBI investigating this non-issue and today is that we are in dire times and we could be spending our time more wisely than trying to divide people and pitting them against one another. It is much easier to lift a hand to someone and include them, than to cut them down only to benefit yourself.
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