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Title: Reparations for gay Americans
Source:
Detroit Free Press
URL Source: http://www.freep.com/article/20090407/OPINION05/90407048
Published: Apr 7, 2009
Author: Jacob Appel
Post Date: 2009-04-08 00:19:08 by mirage
Keywords: None
Views: 260
Comments: 19
As recently as a generation ago, marriage equality and full civil rights for gays and lesbians seemed like a remote and quixotic hope. Today, while setbacks such as California’s Proposition 8 and the continued scourge of the Defense of Marriage Act serve as reminders that more struggle remains ahead, shifting attitudes—especially among younger Americans—make full homosexual citizenship look, increasingly, like an historical inevitability. Victory may require five or maybe 20 years. Yet I have no doubt that “don’t ask, don’t tell” and same-sex adoption bans will be as unspeakable and inexplicable to my grandchildren as counting a slave as three-fifths of a human being. What is not so clear to me is whether homosexuals will be adequately compensated for their mistreatment. So while I recognize that other battles remain, I think the time has arrived to place economic reparations for gay and lesbian Americans on the political agenda. Reparations serve two distinct purposes. One is monetary restitution—such as the compensation that Bismarck exacted from France after the Franco-Prussian War or that the Allies demanded of Weimar Germany following World War I. Payments to Jewish Holocaust survivors and victims of the Japanese-American internment recognize the specific economic losses suffered by these individuals, but also the intangible harms done by uprooting and imprisoning innocent people. Supporters of reparations for the descendants of African-American slaves often cite the labor rendered by their ancestors as justification for present-day compensation. While the financial losses suffered by gay and lesbian Americans as a result of state-sanctioned discrimination may prove challenging to quantify, they are real. If you cannot serve in the military because of your sexual orientation, you also cannot qualify for the educational and economic benefits that such service guarantees. If you cannot marry your partner, you cannot take advantage of the numerous tax benefits that matrimony affords. Calculating the lost wages and benefits of workers terminated solely because of their sexual orientation may prove impossible, but countless men and women have suffered this fate without recourse. Placing a price tag on this hardship will be no easy feat. That is no excuse for not attempting to do so. A second purpose of reparations is to express moral opprobrium. Paying gays and lesbians a sum even far less than their economic losses might help atone for the dreams destroyed by criminal sodomy convictions and the suffering endured by those who lived in the shadows to stay clear of the penal code. A monthly check will never be enough to make up for the helplessness of being denied access to a partner’s hospital bed. For couples separated by deportation orders--because only marriage conveys citizenship and federal law does not permit gays to marry--all the funds in the national treasury could not make full amends. Yet the admission of collective culpability behind such payments might offer a first step toward reconciliation. The only danger in such a proposal is the possibility that a minority of unscrupulous straight people might claim homosexuality in an effort to defraud taxpayers. My instincts tell me that this fear is unfounded. In the first place, we are still at least half a social revolution away from the day when the sort of American who would cheat his gay and lesbian peers, possesses enough confidence in his own sexuality to impersonate a homosexual. Moreover, I am confident that the government could establish an effective system to screen for straight impostors. What an amusing turn of events it would be if the techniques our society once used to ferret out gays and lesbians were someday turned upon straight men and women pretending to be gays and lesbians. Some ironies are priceless. I imagine that critics of reparations will dismiss this proposal as far-fetched. Maybe so. But equality for gays and lesbians also seemed far fetched 20 years ago. Of course, even I recognize that these payments should not last forever. When there are no gays and lesbians remaining who have known the insult of second-class citizenship, that will be the appropriate time to stop the checks.
Poster Comment: Reparations for all!
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#1. To: mirage (#0)
Reparations for white AND black American slave-owners who lost their slaves at the end of the Civil War. ;-)
_________________________________________________________________________ Indeed. I don't like the way some people have treated me so I think that in all fairness I should be given Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. And to all a good night!
To the Ladies of this site, please excuse the words that follow: I am so damn fucking tried of hearing Gays, place them self in the Role of those who suffered as Slaves! Theirs is a LIFESTYLE CHOICE!!!!!! Slaves were help against their will! There is no "SAME AS" you Asshats!!!!!!!!!!
You'll just encourage them ...
You got that right!
To the contrary, I think there are millions of mostly successful homosexual impersonators in this country. ;)
But of course. Now, I'm thinking that if this passes, then the homosexual community needs to pay reparations to the Mormons and Catholics they have villified in the wake of Prop 8 down in Kalifornistan. Of course, the real solution is to get Government out of the marriage business, but that thought never enters into these pinheads' brains.
Tell me about it. LOL.
Queers need to pay the people back. No taxpayers should have to pay for aids treatment. Aids is a disease that the queers sought after. They wanted to get it. They craved it. People who get it other ways should get help though. There should be a fag tax to help pay for the diseases they spread on humanity.
Heh. Amazing how the simple things escape the totalitarians.
I'm thinking what I need to do is find me a "boyfriend" just in case the morons in D.C. decide to make some cash payout. C'mon, lying about sodomy under oath? It's not like anyone's honor is at stake in such an enterprise. LOL.
When it comes to cash payouts, you'll be in good company. We'll find that 60% of the population of the US has been teased for being "fem" or "butch" at some point. I say "Sign up!" -- it'll bring the system that much closer to total failure and we can reload from backup then.
Exactly. A few months back, an old girlfriend (still nice-looking) suggested marriage to me. Now I gotta figure out how to get some flaming homo to propose to me instead, well, if there's any cash in it. Preferably one that likes firearms and libertarian politics, admittedly a challenge.
I'm with ya. I could do some bitchin too.
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that its people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson
BINGO!
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that its people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson
Tit for tat. That's the argument the non smokers use. Perhaps they should apply it here.
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that its people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson
Hell there is very little honor left in the courts or the political system. The term is not lying anymore. The correct PC phrase is mis spoke.
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that its people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson
LOL indeed. That was funny.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
"This man is Jesus,” shouted one man, spilling his Guinness as Barack Obama began his inaugural address. “When will he come to Kenya to save us?”
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#2. To: mirage (#0)
Reparations for all!
some lots of money to make up for all my hurt feelings and the discrimination I have endured. I think almost everyone can play that game.
Lord Acton
#3. To: mirage (#0)
Reparations for all!
I've already said too much.
#4. To: mirage (#0)
Victory may require five or maybe 20 years. Yet I have no doubt that “don’t ask, don’t tell” and same-sex adoption bans will be as unspeakable and inexplicable to my grandchildren as counting a slave as three-fifths of a human being.
#5. To: Refinersfire (#4)
#6. To: Refinersfire (#4)
There is no "SAME AS" you Asshats!!!!!!!!!!
#7. To: mirage (#0)
In the first place, we are still at least half a social revolution away from the day when the sort of American who would cheat his gay and lesbian peers, possesses enough confidence in his own sexuality to impersonate a homosexual.
#8. To: TooConservative (#7)
To the contrary, I think there are millions of mostly successful homosexual impersonators in this country. ;)
#9. To: mirage (#8)
#10. To: TooConservative (#9)
#11. To: TooConservative (#9)
Tell me about it. LOL.
#12. To: mirage (#11)
#13. To: TooConservative (#12)
C'mon, lying about sodomy under oath? It's not like anyone's honor is at stake in such an enterprise.
#14. To: mirage (#13)
I say "Sign up!" -- it'll bring the system that much closer to total failure and we can reload from backup then.
#15. To: James Deffenbach (#2)
Indeed. I don't like the way some people have treated me so I think that in all fairness I should be given some lots of money to make up for all my hurt feelings and the discrimination I have endured. I think almost everyone can play that game.
#16. To: mirage (#8)
Of course, the real solution is to get Government out of the marriage business, but that thought never enters into these pinheads' brains.
#17. To: Old Friend (#10)
People who get it other ways should get help though. There should be a fag tax to help pay for the diseases they spread on humanity.
#18. To: TooConservative (#12)
C'mon, lying about sodomy under oath? It's not like anyone's honor is at stake in such an enterprise. LOL.
#19. To: TooConservative (#12)
C'mon, lying about sodomy under oath? It's not like anyone's honor is at stake in such an enterprise. LOL.
Lord Acton
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