Gays don’t have special rights
LESBIAN, GAY, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people do not have special rights and they can never and will never make claims for that.
It is important that we understand and appreciate that all of us are born free and equal with dignity and rights that ought to be protected, promoted and respected. Therefore, regardless of where we are from, our political affiliation, our sexual orientation or gender identity, our religion, the depth of our pockets or any other status, we all have the same entitlements, the same rights under local and international law.
These rights, which are stipulated in the Charter of Rights, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other documents are universal, indivisible, interdependent, interrelated, and inalienable.
Earlier this week, I was engaged in an intriguing discussion on Facebook in which someone asked, “So gay have rights that other HUMAN beings don’t?”
The question was instructive because though so much has been done in Jamaica, not much time has been spent answering this question and helping people to understand what ‘gay rights’ is in relation to the rights of others.
The truth is, as I have already said, LGBT people don’t have special rights. They have the same rights that heterosexuals (that is, those who have an enduring romantic and sexual attraction to someone of the opposite gender) and cisgender persons (that is, individuals whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth) have.
Gay rights or LGBT rights (depending on which you prefer to use) doesn’t refer to any kind of special rights that is to be given to LGBT people. It is simply used as an easy reference like we do for the rights we fight for women to enjoy (that is, women’s rights); the rights we fight for people with disabilities (that is, disability rights); or the rights of indigenous people like Maroons and Taino (that is, indigenous rights). Gay rights is about the things that governments and individuals have to do to ensure LGBT people can enjoy their rights like heterosexual people.
ALL RIGHTS MATTER
The other thing I have noticed is that people tend to feel that “LGBT advocates act as though gay rights is more important than others”, but if that was the case, LGBT people would be quite all right in our society. People wouldn’t be kicked out of their homes because of their sexual orientation or gender identity and there wouldn’t be any need for gay/LGBT rights, as there is no need for men’s rights.
Listen, don’t let the handful of high-profile renowned LGBT people and media blitz fool you.
We shouldn’t be anxious about vulnerable groups advocating for their rights. It doesn’t limit the enjoyment of your rights in anyway. When you protect the rights of specific groups that are being denied the enjoyment of their rights, you preserve the rights everyone enjoy.
We have to fight to preserve rights for all and we have to fight to preserve rights for specific groups like LGBT people, people with disabilities, and women and girls who are vulnerable.
We have to be careful when we make it seem that speaking about the rights of some people who are vulnerable is a threat to the rights of others.
It’s like when black people in America say black lives matter because of the police violence they endure, while people quip that all lives matter, as if anyone said it doesn’t and they are experiencing the same level of harm at the hands of state agents like those who are African American.