Gay Rights in the U.S.

The Senate is debating an amendment to the law to allow openly gay people to serve legally in U.S Forces. Passions are aroused on all sides. There is talk of filibusters so that the bill runs out of time and falls.

Once again this reveals the other side of the coin of the nation which has done so much to promote the cause of freedom and has shed so much blood to advance that cause. In its freedom lies the freedom to be prejudiced, backward and blinkered, yet also to be acceptable and respectable. Constantly throughout history America has managed to be both in the vanguard of enlightenment and yet at the same time behind the curve.

The last civilised country to end slavery, it is promoted as the nation which, in a tragic civil war abolished it for everybody. It fought the Nazis and the Japanese with all Black regiments, as its armed forces were segregated until the 1950’s. In a country with no established church it appears easy to set up your own and proclaim wicked prejudice as eternal truth.

In the race for the Senate in Delaware the Republican candidate, anointed by Sarah Palin, is discovered now to have dabbled in witchcraft alongside her quirky Christian fundamentalism. In Europe today, often derided by the U.S. Right as ‘old’ and out of date, these folk would stand no chance. Most of the time they would be outside the law. The law to protect every citizen from discrimination and to prevent incitement to prejudice and hatred against minorities on the grounds of sex, orientation, age, colour or religion.