March Midweek Meetup: Gay Rights, Black Rights, Civil Rights

Have you been unable to come to our Saturday meetings because you're busy on Saturday mornings? Do you not want to come to Silver Spring? Or is 11:00am on Saturday morning too early to get up after a fun Friday?

Well, a solution has arrived: a midweek meeting! We've grown a bit recently so I'll start organizing a midweek meeting, in addition to our monthly Saturday meetings at Mayorga in Silver Spring. We'll have the same discussion format as we have on Saturday, but with different topics. You can come to the midweek meeting and the Saturday meeting, or just to one or the other--it's entirely up to you.

To kick off our first midweek meeting we'll talk about gay rights, black rights, and civil rights. Some people have linked the gay rights movement to the Civil Rights Movement, saying there are significant parallels between the two. Others find the comparison off-putting or even insulting. What do you think? Some readings for you to consider:

A guest columnist for Time says that "black Americans should sympathize with gays and lesbians who want to marry":

http://www.time.com/t...

A guest columnist for the Washington Blade says that comparisons between gay rights and the Civil Rights movement are hypocritical, especially in light of what she says is widespread discrimination against blacks in the GLBT community:

http://www.washblade....

Ebony had a symposium with opinions from a few people, including Julian Bond and Nikki Giovanni:

http://www.smileystat...

Finally, a writer for the "Gay and Lesbian Review" writes that "I believe we are in a historic period somewhat comparable to the African-American struggle for justice in the mid-1950s":

http://www.smileystat...

We'll meet in the food court at Union Station, which is easily accessible by transit and has lots of great food available. Just look for me; I look like my photo. It's a big space so we can round up tables and be as loud as we want--well, almost. If you work a bit late or need time to get to Union Station, that's okay--like our Saturday meetings, I imagine this will run on-time for some (like me) and on CPT for others.

As we grow, if you're interested in hosting events, please let me know! Also, I will post details for our next Saturday meeting sometime within the next few days.