Letter: Oppression disguised as equality: A misnomer

As a concerned former citizen of Dubois County, I feel as though it is my obligation as a citizen of the earth to reach out to you with regards to a struggle. I write in response to the recent letter from a Jasper High School student regarding straight pride.

Though the student has great intentions in their writing of both the flyer and the response, much of what the student expresses reveals many of the underlying social injustices within the United States. I commend the student for trying to stand up for something they thought felt right. However, for the many voiceless LGBT youth in America, I want to be a light in the darkness. Though I’m very glad for this student’s heartfelt response, I want to point out a few things that are utterly flawed with the student’s initial intention and response.

Namely, privilege and oppression exist in society. LGBT folks, and especially youth, are members of an oppressed group of people in U.S. society.

Straight people should not mandate how LGBT folks should or should not protest or dictate the cause of their struggles. If black people listened to white people, we would still have Jim Crow laws, perhaps even slavery. It wasn’t just a few good white people determining they were wrong that brought down these laws, but rather, millions of black voices urging for change.

Women did not let the men in their lives dictate their protest; in fact, many women starved themselves for the right to vote.

In many of these struggles, members of groups have had amazing allies, and I do not want to bring those people down; however, it is important to point out that any group in the history of the United States that has won freedoms, be it constitutional or other, have done so by systematically approaching the problem and refusing to be silent.

Disagreeing with someone’s idea and disagreeing on the underlying forces of that idea are entirely different. You can state that you agree with equality and that members of the LGBT community deserve it, but if you sincerely “disagree” with them, then you need to know what you disagree about.

If you think that LGBT folks are sinful, disgusting, and your ideas or religion or philosophy dictate only two genders, and you believe that the laws of the land should dictate thoughts like that, you don’t believe in equality.

If you believe in equality, and I believe deep down the writer of this letter does, then you need to listen to the words of the members of this community because there are real world reasons they need to be heard. Perhaps when the word gay is not equated with sin, we might understand. Just how the word black used to be equated with property.

Many aspects of this issue were taken out of context, as is often the case, spouting for freedom of speech and opinion. Frankly, if you believe in freedom of speech, you agree with transgender and gay youth, as their identity is, well, their identity, and they are free to express it however they please. And this is quite often the case in these types of issues; however, this issue is quite different.

Being a member of the LGBT community is not “an idea” as the author of this whole argument contends. That’s why there is an uproar. The author can disagree with any idea an LGBT person may have and express that openly, but to equate being a member of the LGBT community with it simply being an “idea” is ludicrous. In fact, it’s this very notion of “choice” and being “ideas” that keep many LGBT youth in the closet and, as a result, leads to significantly higher suicide rates, close to 40 percent for transgender youth.

Ideas are not equated with aspects of identity. The idea a person’s religion might teach them is that gay people should be stoned to death; however, that idea states that gay people shouldn’t be allowed to live because it is somehow “sinful” or “disturbing.” It is, in fact, those ideas that marginalize LGBT youth. It seems rather absurd, considering being a member of the LGBT community is not so much a choice as an aspect of identity. I did not choose to be male, or straight, or white, or working class, but I am those things.

Someone disagreeing with a member of the LGBT community as being a “disagreement of ideas” is equal to treating a person who uses a wheelchair as faking their disability. In fact, that person may not have chosen their situation. Instead, just like many LGBT folks, people with disabilities want to be treated equally. However, if people with disabilities did not advocate for themselves (along with their many, many allies, of course), then the Americans With Disabilities Act would not have passed, mandating that businesses give equal opportunity, at least to the greatest extent feasible, to people with disabilities.

To some, this may be equated with “giving special privileges,” as is pointed out in the student’s letter. However, sometimes the giving up of privilege feels like oppression to the privileged. Despite this, the uplifting of women, LGBT folks, people with disabilities, people of color, poor people, and all other oppressed groups, is, in fact, the uplifting of us all.

Ethan Smith
Yosemite (formerly Ferdinand)