Episode notes
"The belief that marginalized and hated populations can find freedom by being recognized by law, allowed to serve in the military, allowed to marry, and protected by anti-discrimination laws and hate crime statutes is a central narrative of the United States.
Politicians, primary school textbooks, and the corporate media tell us the story that the United States left ugly histories of white supremacy behind through a civil rights movement that changed hearts, minds, and especially laws to eradicate racism and bring freedom to all. This simplified narrative is relentlessly reiterated in US culture and has played a starring role in the past four decades of lesbian and gay rights advocacy where the analogy to the Black civil rights to the Black civil rights movement has been a consistent rhetorical tool. 1. I argue that social movements must ab ...