ECHOES OF HISTORY
Civil rights forces in Alabama join lesbian/gay fight for
justice
By Minnie Bruce Pratt
Civil rights battle lines are again being drawn in Alabama
as local activists organize to oppose violently anti-gay
statements by State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.
In a Feb. 15 ruling, that court denied custody to lesbian
mother Dawn Huber. In his concurring statement, Moore declared,
"Homosexual conduct is ... abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a
crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and
of nature's God upon which this Nation and our laws are
predicated. ... It is an inherent evil against which children
must be protected."
Even more chillingly, Moore added: "Custody disputes involve
decision-making by the State ... [which] carries the power of
the sword, that is, the power to prohibit conduct with physical
penalties, such as confinement and even execution. It must use
that power to prevent the subversion of children toward this
lifestyle. ..."
The court decision and Moore's statement were issued only a
few days before the anniversary of the 1999 anti-gay lynching
of Billy Jack Gaither--a young, gay, white mill worker in
Sylacauga--by white supremacists.
This year, Equality Begins at Home of Central Alabama had
scheduled a Feb. 19 vigil in memory of Gaither's murder. But
the event became a protest rally that angrily condemned Moore's
bigoted statement.
More than 150 people of all sexualities gathered on the
steps of the State Capitol building. Speakers at the rally
included African American leaders from the Alabama Senate and
House of Representatives; the National Gay, Lesbian and
Transgender Taskforce executive director; the director of Equal
Partners in Faith--a multi-racial national network of religious
leaders; a Latino community leader; and a member of Alabama
P-FLAG--Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
Those attending the rally voiced strong support for Dawn
Huber.
She is attempting to regain custody of her three teenaged
children from her ex-husband. In court records, the father
admitted to hitting the children until they bled, whipping them
with a belt, and "disciplining" them by forcing them to sit in
public with paper bags on their heads. But the court ruled that
the father had only used "occasional excessive disciplinary
measures."
Though the judges cited technical issues for refusing to
grant custody to Huber, previous rulings clearly show their
inherent bias against lesbian and gay parents.
This court recently took children away from a divorced woman
who had begun a lesbian relationship. Only months earlier it
had restricted the visitation rights of another mother because
of her ongoing lesbian relationship.
The rock Roy Moore crawled out from under
Moore is from Etowah County, an old textile area in the
northern part of the state. In the 1930s, mill owners tried to
saturate white workers there with racist propaganda in an
attempt to keep white and Black workers from organizing
together. (See the book "Scottsboro: An American Tragedy,"
1969)
The legacy of that divide-and-conquer strategy is revealed
in Moore's appeal to white voters in the state. Alabama Supreme
Court justices are elected. In the 2000 primaries, Moore won
the nomination for chief justice over the Republican
establishment-backed candidate.
Moore's surprise victory was due in large part to name
recognition. While Circuit Court judge he campaigned to post
the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. The American Civil
Liberties Union sued Moore in 1995. He defied a higher Alabama
judge's ruling to remove the commandments.
Moore's rejection of the constitutional separation of church
and state also picked up backing from far-right forces inside
and outside the state, including the "Center for Reclaiming
America"--an anti-abortion, anti-gay organization located in
Florida.
But the influence of the religious far right paled in
comparison to the impact of "mainstream" big business on
Moore's campaign.
Corporations in timber and mining, which own from 30 to 80
percent of the land in some Alabama counties, have a vested
interest in preserving a State Supreme Court majority favorable
to their interests.
The Alabama Trial Lawyers Association had backed Moore's
Democratic opponent. Because of the state's tort law,
individual plaintiffs can sue big businesses. Alabama trial
lawyers have created their own lucrative industry: suing
corporations like Firestone for millions in damages, and taking
a big chunk of client cash awards as fees.
So big business quickly swung to Moore's side with
endorsements. This included the Alabama Industry and
Manufacturers Association that represents International Paper,
Boise Cascade, USX, Ciba Specialty Chemical and Knauf
Fibers.
Moore's election was key to preserving a Republican majority
on a court that recently ruled, for instance, that Avondale
Mills could not be held responsible for $52 million in damages
for polluting Lake Martin. This decision rebuffed homeowners
who explained the lake was so contaminated with textile runoff
that they could dye T-shirts in the water. (Birmingham News,
Aug. 5, 2000)
Struggle changed people's minds
The election of Moore to the Supreme Court also guaranteed a
high-profile public forum to someone sure to try to sow
division between the working people of the state--an outcome
certainly desired by big business, intent on maximizing profits
in this anti-union "right-to-work" state.
Moore continues to defend his indefensible anti-gay
statements by claiming he was only following established
judicial precedent. (Southern Voice, March 2)
Indeed, there is support at the highest levels of U.S. law
for his bigotry. Moore's attempts to justify anti-gay edicts
with "Christian morality" and English common law echoes
arguments by U.S. Supreme Court justices in their 1986 decision
upholding "sodomy" laws. (Bowers v. Hardwick)
To protest that ruling, lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans
activists converged on the U.S. Supreme Court building in 1987,
staging the largest civil disobedience action that the "court
of last resort" has ever witnessed.
Today, the growth of awareness about lesbian, gay, bi and
trans issues is reflected in the wide-ranging protest against
Moore's bigotry. Local churches, including Immanuel
Presbyterian of Montgomery--a congregation with its roots in
anti-segregation struggles--are supporting the campaign against
his stance.
State Rep. Alvin Holmes, a leading African American
legislator, has filed a complaint with the Alabama Judicial
Inquiry Commission calling for Moore's removal from office.
Holmes states, "The statutes of Alabama, the constitution of
Alabama and the Constitution of the United States do not
designate Blacks, Hispanics, gays, Jews, lesbians, Asians,
Muslims or others as evil. It's almost inconceivable the chief
justice of the state would take a position like that."
(Birmingham Post-Herald, Feb. 20)
Editorials and cartoons in major state newspapers like the
Birmingham News, the Mobile Register, the Huntsville Times and
the Montgomery Advertiser have denounced or disapproved of
Moore's opinion.
One commentator responded, "The law once said Blacks were
inferior, too, and should be subjected to 'separate but equal'
rules. It said women shouldn't be allowed to vote or hold
public office because they were a weaker sex. Society changed
its mind and the law changed with it. Now society is changing
its mind about homosexuality, but Moore is determined not to
let the law change with it." (Post-Herald, Feb. 20)
For most people outside the state, images of Alabama are
likely to be ugly scenes of Police Chief "Bull" Connor ordering
dogs set on young Black demonstrators in Birmingham. So how it
is possible that mainstream Alabama newspapers that once
supported such racist reaction are now speaking against
anti-gay bigotry?
The media reflects the fact that people are changing their
minds, but not why. It's because years of struggle changed
attitudes and laws.
Alabama has a proud history of struggle against
oppression--from the Creek Nation's resistance to Andrew
Jackson's military assaults, to maroon communities of Africans
who rebelled against enslavement.
Organizing by militant, multinational labor unionists and
communists against "Big Steel" in Birmingham. Thousands of
African American communists and Sharecropper Union members
fighting the "Big Mule" landowners in the Black Belt of the old
cotton plantations. The striking women laundry and textile
workers of the 1930s.
The African American women of Montgomery who built and
sustained the 1950s bus boycott and whose work established a
foundation for the historic 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march and
the 1960s Black civil rights movement.
'Ain't gonna let Judge Moore turn me
around!'
In the 1980s, one of the first groups working publicly in
Alabama on lesbian and gay issues was the Tuscaloosa Lesbian
Coalition. It brought together women--some with connections to
the struggles of the 1960s--from the community and the
university.
Since 1990, there has been a surge of organizing around
lesbian, gay, bi and trans issues in the state.
Today there are lesbian/gay/bi/trans organizations at the
University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, Auburn University, the
University of South Alabama, and a "safe space" initiative for
students at the University of Montevallo.
After Billy Jack Gaither's murder, local organizing
intensified. Equality Begins at Home of Central Alabama formed.
A large memorial service for Gaither drew representatives from
mainstream Jewish synagogues and Catholic and Protestant
churches, as well as the Metropolitan Community Church, which
was founded by a gay Alabamian.
Now people in Alabama have ignited in anger at Judge Moore's
attack on gays and lesbians. Rose Gladney, a founding member of
TLC, told Workers World, "With Roy Moore, we've got the
combination of George Wallace and Bull Connor." But, she
explained, the attitude among many in the state is far
different today.
Gladney, a white, anti-racist professor of Women's Studies
and American Studies at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa,
said that positive change on this issue "between this year and
last is dramatic."
On March 8--International Women's Day--the Human Rights
Alliance on campus will co-sponsor a rally with the Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Alliance to condemn Moore. The
rally theme: "Spread the message that hate is not acceptable in
Alabama." Gladney stressed, "We've never had a rally like this
before--a rally about gay issues on the University of Alabama
campus."
The list of speakers shows the broadening support for this
struggle. Speakers include the Muslim president of the African
American Student Association, the African American president of
the Graduate Student Association, the president of the
university GLBT Alliance, ministers from the University
Presbyterian Church and Covenant Metropolitan Community Church,
a professor from the university law school, president of the
Student Government Association and president of the Faculty
Senate.
Gladney recounted how on March 3, she and Prof. Amilcar
Shabazz--head of African American Studies at the University of
Alabama-Tuscaloosa--drove down to Selma together for the annual
re-enactment of the 1965 Selma march. Gladney said she and Dr.
Shabazz joined the march together, singing a new verse to the
old movement song of resistance, and others joined them:
"Ain't gonna let Judge Moore turn me around! I'm gonna keep
on walkin', keep on talkin', marching up to freedom land!"
Pratt was born in Selma, Ala. She wrote her award-winning
book of poetry, "Crime Against Nature," after losing custody of
her two children because she came out as a lesbian in North
Carolina in 1975. The book takes its title from the
still-existing state sodomy" statute criminalizing same-sex
love.
Reprinted from the March 14, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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