This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/01/pride-gay-rights-gay-scientists
The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Previous version
1
Next version
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Pride in gay rights – and gay scientists | Pride in gay rights – and gay scientists |
| (3 months later) | |
| As a British historian of black civil rights currently in Washington DC and watching the genuine excitement following the supreme court's decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (Report, 27 June), I feel it is an important moment to understand the civil rights and human implications. Bayard Rustin, a key civil rights tactician who organised the march on Washington in 1963, was persecuted due to being African American and for his political links to communism – but also due to his homosexuality. In the early 1980s, he said the barometer for civil rights in the US was changing focus upon how its gay citizens were treated – this was as the HIV/Aids epidemic struck an increasingly conservative America. | As a British historian of black civil rights currently in Washington DC and watching the genuine excitement following the supreme court's decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (Report, 27 June), I feel it is an important moment to understand the civil rights and human implications. Bayard Rustin, a key civil rights tactician who organised the march on Washington in 1963, was persecuted due to being African American and for his political links to communism – but also due to his homosexuality. In the early 1980s, he said the barometer for civil rights in the US was changing focus upon how its gay citizens were treated – this was as the HIV/Aids epidemic struck an increasingly conservative America. |
| In the 1950s Rustin had a relationship with Tom Kahn, a white student radical – breaking a lot of social taboos at the time. Kahn had been struggling with his sexuality but upon meeting Rustin embraced his identity fully and engaged in the civil rights struggle in all its social and economic forms. Apparently Kahn went to a psychiatrist in 1956 to try and understand his sexual identity – the diagnosis was "you're in love". After the legal decisions last week and all the bluster of social conservatives, the simple diagnosis for America could not, perhaps, be simpler. Dr Lee Sartain University of Portsmouth | In the 1950s Rustin had a relationship with Tom Kahn, a white student radical – breaking a lot of social taboos at the time. Kahn had been struggling with his sexuality but upon meeting Rustin embraced his identity fully and engaged in the civil rights struggle in all its social and economic forms. Apparently Kahn went to a psychiatrist in 1956 to try and understand his sexual identity – the diagnosis was "you're in love". After the legal decisions last week and all the bluster of social conservatives, the simple diagnosis for America could not, perhaps, be simpler. Dr Lee Sartain University of Portsmouth |
| • Your World Pride top 100 power list (29 June) included not a single scientist or other Stem professional. Although at No 5 there is Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, who admittedly has a first degree in engineering, he has been in mainly sales roles ever since. I would like to comfort myself with the thought that the absence from the list of anyone from a Stem profession is because your sexuality matters less in those fields, but I fear it's due to the usual blindness that blights these sorts of lists. Top women, top black people, top disabled people … all these lists are heavily overpopulated with artists, writers and entertainers, with a sprinkle of business people. Dr Nina Baker University of Strathclyde | • Your World Pride top 100 power list (29 June) included not a single scientist or other Stem professional. Although at No 5 there is Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, who admittedly has a first degree in engineering, he has been in mainly sales roles ever since. I would like to comfort myself with the thought that the absence from the list of anyone from a Stem profession is because your sexuality matters less in those fields, but I fear it's due to the usual blindness that blights these sorts of lists. Top women, top black people, top disabled people … all these lists are heavily overpopulated with artists, writers and entertainers, with a sprinkle of business people. Dr Nina Baker University of Strathclyde |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. | Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |
Previous version
1
Next version