Letters: ‘Separate but equal' treatment for gays embarrassing, sad

I would like to express my appreciation to the editor for the recent editorial choices in guest spots. I particularly appreciated Judith Freeman's spot in the Nov. 5 edition ("Conspicuous consumption starving our economic soul").

My teaching days were largely in the Maryland suburbs of the District of Columbia. I well remember the first day when the buses carrying the students from Palmer Park and other black areas of the county rolled into Greenbelt as part of the 1972 implementation of the 1954 Supreme Court ruling. Dragging its feet for 18 years, Maryland finally complied. I still see in my mind's eye Sugar Ray Leonard as he was at 16 in the halls of Parkdale Senior High.

How ironic that this week we finally achieve the election of a person of color to the office of president while at the same time Californians have chosen to deny full relationship rights to all members of its population. This is my birth state, thought of by friends from the South as in the front lines of "liberty for all." What a contrast between the victory over racism on a national level and the Proposition 8 vote.

On pre-election evening I received a live call from a woman asking to speak with me about Proposition 8. She said she agreed that everyone should have equal rights. She expressed the "fact" that everyone was already guaranteed the same legal rights and that under Proposition 8 no-one would lose anything. Not true. But I chose to not debate it, wondering how she would continue. She went on to espouse the idea that "what we want is to have it be the same — but not together; we want it to be separate but equal.

I never bothered to ask who "we" were. Certainly not me!

I could listen no more. She sounded too young to remember when blacks went to schools with tiny budgets and few supplies under such a concept. All of us over a certain age remember so well when and how "separate but equal" was the doctrine applied to "Negro" rights.

Now there are those who want it applied to those with different lifestyles.

I am embarrassed and sad that we have jumped forward into healing and at the same time moved into "separate but equal," with some being more equal than others.

Maryjoan Tully

Crescent City