Campaigning for Southern Equality

This is a new video is from the Campaign for Southern Equality, which aims to bring marriage equality to the South of the US. Their WE DO campaign is designed specifically to make anti-LGBT discrimination visible and understandable as they work to end it.

In the meantime, the group also provides “free legal workshops and other services to help LGBT people protect themselves to the full extent possible under current laws,” which is a sensible thing to do right now. It’s always a good idea to help oppressed people, even as you demand change.

My personal view is that it will ultimately take Federal action—Supreme Court ruling, Federal law—to take things to the next level, just as it did in the Civil Rights era. The South isn’t “over” its racist past, and racism is certainly not dead, but things took a quantum leap forward once racially discriminatory laws were struck down. The same thing needs to happen now with LGBT equality under law.

Efforts like those of the Campaign for Southern Equality help. So, too, do ordinary people taking a stand for simple justice. As Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” It’s time to make the demand for justice throughout the USA, including the South.

Tip o’ the Hat to Joe.My.God.