“I am astounded by those who believe hostility toward homosexuals and the denial of civil rights to them is not a civil rights issue. ... Gay and lesbian rights are not ‘special rights’ in any way. It isn’t ‘special’ to be free from discrimination – it is an ordinary, universal entitlement of citizenship. The right not to be discriminated against is a common-place claim we can expect to enjoy under our laws and our founding document, the Constitution. That many had to struggle to gain these rights makes them precious – it does not make them special, and it does not reserve them only for me or restrict them from others.”
Julian Bond, board chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in a Sept. 18 letter to the organization’s chapter in Fort Lauderdale, which has an anti-gay mayor.
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