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Article: Listening to the civil rights movement.(ESSAY)(Civil Rights Act of 1964)
- Article from:
- The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide
- Article date:
- November 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Gay & Lesbian Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHERE ARE WE in the struggle for gay rights in the United States? Are we in the early stages of what will become a successful mass movement for equal civil rights and respect? Or have we reached the highest point of advance for the time being--where we have persuaded many fair-minded people to disdain homophobia, but have lost the momentum to the well-organized and more powerful forces of conservative backlash?
I believe we are in a historic period somewhat comparable to the African-American struggle for justice in the mid-1950's. At that crucial turning point, African Americans were enjoying some important gains but still endured blatantly discriminatory laws ...