His life story that illustrated this was (synopsis):

*King travels in a multi-racial group on a plane to another city.

*Group was given their hospitality lunch service, per the contract for the group arrangements; but, King, at the time of landing was told that the contract could not include him because restaurant management discovered he was Black (the group was not all-White).

*Management profusely assured him that they respected his work, and even regardless of his stature, they would be entirely happy to serve him, as a human being. Management confirmed that he would get all the same food, all the same beverage service, and the same quality of service from the wait staff.

Hitch: He would have to sit in a sealed-off, make-shift room to accommodate him, on short notice.

- - -

His argument (that later surfaced in most of his work after that day):

*I cannot talk to my friends, the people that I flew with, and with whom I share a bond and deep respect.

*I cannot see any artwork, a pleasure that is assumed for anyone dining in that restaurant.

*I will have to sit alone.

*I will have to make extra, concerted efforts to alert wait staff, reminding me, each time, that I am not sitting with my group/flight.

From that, he argued, from then on in his life, that separation OF ANY KIND (even in words, labels, and definitions) diminishes equality, and therefore, there is no such thing as "separate, but equal".

Women, until they began doing the same jobs as men, were always vulnerable to the argument that their "place" was in the home, thereby defining a woman as the gender who was "less than", by virtue of the fact that she could not produce results in a corporate, profit-generating environment.

- - -

LABELS DO matter. That, in my opinion, is PRECISELY WHY the "label/word" is being kept from us.

You'd have to look "marriage" up in an Oxford set of dictionaries to find out when the word "marriage" was first coined. Society of that year, I ASSURE YOU, was not thinking that LGBTs were worthy of the term: the truth is, women (in the "marriage" arrangement) were still property then.

The win for the word "marriage", even if we never get it, IS IMPORTANT.

- - - - -

There was never an argument (among us, at least) that we are capable of living well, when with a compatible mate.

[ July 17, 2003, 02:51 PM: Message edited by: bluebird48234 ]