Question
Does having a Human Rights Campign sticker (like this) on your car mean the same thing as a rainbow strip, or do a lot of straight people have them too? Just wondering.
Does having a Human Rights Campign sticker (like this) on your car mean the same thing as a rainbow strip, or do a lot of straight people have them too? Just wondering.
November 26th, 2004 at 2:46 am
its a general equal rights sticker, it has been applied to:
1. equal rights for women
2. equal rights for minorities
3. equal rights for homosexuals
4. equal rights for unborn children
5. equal rights for ultra laser who has been systematically repressed by “the man” since his inception in the year 1978.
people do seem to love being equal, don’t they? actually, i think people enjoy feeling repressed as the sense of unequality gives them the strength to fight the injustices of society. i, on the other hand, do not really believe that i’d wish to be equal to everyone else - that would mean both being normal and significantly reducing my iq.
November 26th, 2004 at 2:20 pm
That’s the logo for the Human Rights Campaign. It is a Gay, lesbian, Bi, Trans, rights lobby. A sticker would generally indicate that the person sporting it is gay, but there is nothing from stopping ’straight-allies’ from sporting the sticker as well.
November 26th, 2004 at 2:21 pm
happy belated thanksgiving, hope everyone enjoyed their turkey!
bil - i think a lot of straight people also have those stickers…homosexuals tend to stick to the rainbow ones as far as i can tell.
t.j.-your puppy is absolutely adorable. it’s got a big head though, must take after you…
November 26th, 2004 at 2:23 pm
nevermind bil, i lied - cotuit beat me by 1 minute with the correct response…
November 26th, 2004 at 10:11 pm
Oops, didn’t mean to make a liar out of you.
November 27th, 2004 at 5:47 pm
hm, i always thought i was for equality until i saw #4.
November 28th, 2004 at 5:53 pm
Yeah, I’m not sure the HRC itself would endorse #4. I received the sticker in the mail after signing their original petition for equal marriage rights (specifically) at the request of a gay friend. I don’t believe that its official meaning extends beyond being a supporter of equal civil marriage rights for gays, but as such, it can be displayed by anyone who supports those rights. I would have put the sticker on my car except that at the time I didn’t have one, so I put it on my notebook along with my Dennis Kucinich bumper sticker and some Greenpeace stickers.
November 29th, 2004 at 11:33 am
HRCs mission extends far beyond the fight for equal marriage rights, in fact they formed long before that was even an issue we thought we had a chance in hell of attaining (which wasn’t too long ago).
HRCs Mission:
Our Mission Statement
As America’s largest gay and lesbian organization, the Human Rights Campaign provides a national voice on gay and lesbian issues. The Human Rights Campaign effectively lobbies Congress; mobilizes grassroots action in diverse communities; invests strategically to elect a fair-minded Congress; and increases public understanding through innovative education and communication strategies.
HRC is a bipartisan organization that works to advance equality based on sexual orientation and gender expression and identity, to ensure that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.
What We Do: An Overview
The Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy organization, envisions an America where GLBT people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community. HRC has close to 600,000 members — all committed to making this vision of equality a reality.
Founded in 1980, HRC effectively lobbies Congress, provides campaign support to fair-minded candidates, and works to educate the public on a wide array of topics affecting GLBT Americans, including workplace, family, discrimination and health issues. The HRC Foundation, an HRC-affiliated organization, engages in extensive research and provides education and programming.
I’m not sure what you are talking about as far as them not supporting #4???
November 29th, 2004 at 11:36 am
Oh, I see now. I think HRC’s stance would be that abortions should continue to be safe, legal, and rare. Though I’m not sure that there is an official stance since gays and lesbians tend not to have many unintended pregancies.
November 29th, 2004 at 6:15 pm
I, too, believe abortion should be safe, legal, and rare, and I foam at the mouth whenever you mention pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions or abstinence-only sex education, given that contraception and education are the best ways to prevent abortion. But I balk at “equal rights for the unborn” since people who talk that way frequently mean a) that the rights of the unborn child trump the rights of the mother and b) that a 2-day-old cluster of cells is ethically equivalent to a fetus of 38 weeks’ gestation, which is ridiculous.
Apologies for not realizing the breadth of HRC’s mission. If they send me another sticker, I will happily put it and its expanded message on the car I currently own (along with my Red Sox decal and bumper stickers that say “Share the Road,” “I can’t see the forest for the Bushes,” “These colors don’t run … the world” and “Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.”
November 30th, 2004 at 7:51 am
Years ago before gay marriage was a big issue (when it was considered too far out there to go after) I saw those stickers and shirts and was told it meant “silence equals death”. But, you know, only in the context of AIDS. Cuz the so-called “human rights campaign” doesn’t really give a shit about human rights, and doesn’t fight for them. It’s only a gay rights organization… and even then it doesn’t seem to care about gay immigrants, working class queers, queers in prison, or any other LGBT group that might have human rights problems larger than whether or not they can get legally married.
I have an old friend who was “out” when he was a tank driver in the Korean War. He’s always been very active in the labor movement and in social justice movements. He’s just a regular working-class guy who I didn’t even know was gay for a long time. He refers to the HRC type of folks as the “upwardly trodden.”
I’m pretty much with him on that.
November 30th, 2004 at 9:58 am
Actually HRC does care and does lobby for all the groups you mention. Marriage is only a part of HRCs mission. And though their scope isn’t a broad international human rights organization, the organization and it’s members certainly support the general struggle for human rights worldwide.
The yellow = on a blue field never stood for Silence = Death, this is the Silence = Death motif. This was part of ACT UPs fight for AIDS research and AIDS care funding in the 80s.
HRC may be “upwardly” (or uppity if you will), but they are working within the Washington political system. They have to play by the rules inside the Beltway to be heard and taken seriously.
November 30th, 2004 at 9:03 pm
i’m assuming jill meant the puppy takes after me in being adorable, not in having a big head, right?
December 1st, 2004 at 7:42 pm
no tj, actually i was talking about the puppy’s head :0). you know what they say when you assume…
December 2nd, 2004 at 11:56 pm
don’t call me by my slave name! i am ultra laser, king of beasts and assorted women.