The first time I was confronted with the metaphor that compared the current LGBTQ rights movement to the civil rights movement was on an episode of the Tyra show called "Gay Kingdom".
Part 1 - other parts available from YouTube
At first, the comparison seemed odd to me, especially when one considers the history behind the civil rights movement and the connotations that the comparison brings. The treatment of these two groups, black rights and gay rights, are obviously different in the treatment that they received from the dominant white, straight and patriarchal hegemony of the United States. But, upon listening to the metaphor of "second class citizens", the comparison began to make more sense. Are members of the LGBTQ community not being undermined because of their sexuality and gender identity to second-class citizens? Their love, their relationships, and their unions are relegated to a less-than-human status by being denied the same rights as straight, heterosexual couples.
This metaphor is not a perfect metaphor, as one cannot directly relate discrimination based off of race to one based off of gender and sexuality. The commonality of discrimination, however, may be enough to make this metaphor narrative fidelity. Walter Fisher proposed that stories have to have probability (likelihood of happening) and fidelity (coherency) in order to be an acceptable story for people to live by. The deaths and torment that occurred under slavery cannot truly be matched by the LGBTQ movement, even though there have been terrible crimes, murders, and persecution of the group. But, if one removes the history (perhaps impossible) from the equation, and solely focuses on the rights movement of each group, their are parallels. Both groups are struggling against inequalities, being treated like second-class citizens, as less than human, and have been met with strong opposition legally, politically, and socially. There are real physical risks to those who support the movement and it is a human rights issue that people are willing to fight for.
This CBS article also uses that metaphor in a quote from Assemblyman Reed Gusciora who is currently sponsoring the marriage equality law in New Jersey. It is clear that marriage equality laws are up against large protests and oppositions by politicians in many states, with very few states allowing same sex marriage and heated battles raging in many currently.
This info-graphic has gained much attention online at the inequality of marriage rights and it comically and bluntly portrays the limited rights of homosexual couples. This struggle has only just begun and the success of Proposition 8 exemplifies the hardships that still await equal marriage even in more liberal states. Politically, I am cautiously optimistic about the progress of achieving equal marriage in the United States. It is an inevitability, but I am unsure how quickly and how easily the laws will be passed. Additionally, gay marriage only scratches the surface of rights important to the LGBTQ community including but not exclusively: gender identification for transgender individuals in schools, housing, legal forms, sports, and restrooms, bias in the job market, college admissions, and politics, crime and vigilante persecution of individuals, and many others. There is much work to be done for gay rights and I wholeheartedly agree with Hilary Clinton's United Nations speech where she argues that gay rights are synonymous with human rights. Undermining the rights of any human based on discrimination for any reason is a battle that the world should fight for.
I believe it is possible to compare the civil rights movement and the LGBTQ rights movement in terms of rhetorical power and metaphoric strength, but doing so brings up problems. The danger in making the comparison, thus, is over simplifying each group's story, reducing the narrative to its basic structure and removing the unique history, culture, and variation that makes the stories ring true. The final verdict here is no matter the rhetorical and narrative choices the LGBTQ movement and supporters make, there is a responsibility for the country to fight for LGBTQ rights for the sake of equality for all.
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