Do You Think So?

Today’s article is about activism, how the LGBTQ+ people are more active not only with LGBTQ+ community issues but also in other causes.

Study Finds Queer Folks Are 20 Times More Likely to Be Activists Than Cishets
Queers don't just advocate for their own rights, but are also more active in other social justice movements.
Them
By Zhana Vrangaloy
July 10, 2018

Social activism is an important tool for enacting social change, especially for stigmatized minorities and poor populations who often lack access to more traditional avenues for change — like elections, the courts, mainstream media, or school curriculums. In those cases, social movement tactics like boycotting, protesting, and civil disobedience prove critical in the fight to secure civil and human rights.

It wouldn’t come as a surprise that people are most likely to engage in activism for their own group: There are far fewer men than women at feminist rallies, for example, and far fewer heterosexuals than queer folks at pride marches. But is there some crossover between social movements? In other words, are people who belong to one stigmatized group more likely to be also active in social movements that primarily affect other stigmatized groups?

A new study using a nationally representative sample of almost 4,000 US adults surveyed in 2012 suggests this might be the case. As the graph below shows, the 4.5% of respondents who considered themselves gay, lesbian, or bisexual (other sexual orientation labels were not offered on the survey, nor were trans identities or movements) were more likely than heterosexuals to have been active in several liberal social movements.

I find this not surprising, when you are a member of an oppressed community you fight for your human rights to be treated as an equal. Many members of the community have empathy for other oppressed groups.

I got my start one day in a support group; a member came in with a battered face that was all black and blue. She was beat up by two men on a construction site and she was the one who got arrested. The police officer refused to arrest her two assailants and she raised her voice and was arrested for disturbing the peace.

A set of follow-up analyses revealed that the greater involvement of LGBs in the liberal social movements was not due to their gender, age, race, or education levels. Instead, factors that mattered included queer folks’ greater endorsement of liberal ideologies and egalitarian values; their increased recognition of the continued existence of heterosexism, racism, and sexism in the U.S.; having had experienced more racial discrimination; and being more personally and emotionally embedded in the LGB community.

When all these factors were taken into consideration, LGB folks were just as likely as heterosexuals to have been involved in the peace, environmental, or labor movements. Yet, even after controlling for all of these variables, they remained significantly more likely to be involved in the LGB rights movement. This suggests that people’s LGB identity; the sense of belongingness it creates; and the structural, organizational, and interpersonal discrimination many nonheterosexual folks experience due to their sexual orientation, are unique drivers of LGB-rights activism in the U.S. above and beyond all of these other factors.

I think that it is only natural when you are being oppressed to be opposed to the ideology of your oppressors.

It is interesting to see those who side with their oppressors. They are more interested in themselves then about the freedom of others; and most of the time they see them as “the others.” Others who are not white, others who were not born here, others who have a different religion, others who…

There was an editorial that hit the nail on its head.

It is all about empathy. Caring for others… all the others.