Can We Have A Toughtful/Respectful Discussion Of Civil Rights Versus Income Inequality ???

[Prism]

96. Gay marriage really is an argument killer here

I'll use it as an example, because it's my own lived experience.

The LGBT question isn't really one of economics. It was a change in social perception, hard fought, with a lack of economic question. Yes, in many places, you had a kind of LGBT underclass of people who were severed from economic opportunity and the social stability of loving families and large networks of friends.

However, the movement itself has largely been pushed and advocated for by a monied underclass (if such a thing can exist). If you look at most of the major LGBT organizations that fought this battle, you'll see middle to upper middle class LGBTers (largely white and male, although that is changing). And you'll notice that money is a fantastic insulator for many of these people (see the recent Cruz fiasco with the gay hoteliers). When you look at where the LGBT youth movement glommed onto social media, you will largely see middle class kids with computers, technology, good schools, and a platform.

No, LGBT rights are largely a social movement. There are, of course, economic consequences to this. A lack of financial security among couples, the specter of employment and housing discrimination. But simply providing more economic opportunity doesn't wash those things away. We could return to a time with more equitable division of income, and that discrimination would still render it inaccessible.

A nice paycheck is fine, but it helps not at all when no one will hire you or promote you with a complete lack of recourse. Having health insurance works, unless you partner isn't covered.

There are issues there that economic progressivism just won't patch.

Now, I don't understand why this division of economic/social movement cropped up on DU. Social justice, IMO, includes economic justice. They're two thoughts we should always strive to maintain simultaneously. The lack of economic justice often derives from a lack of social justice. The inner city African American experience is more than testament to that.

Economic access will help. A more equitable division of capital and profit will help. But it isn't synonymous with a fix. Equal access can only come when equality is the law of the land in letter and in practice.