Skip to main content
Part of complete coverage on

The secret gay agenda

By LZ Granderson, CNN Contributor
June 17, 2012 -- Updated 1307 GMT (2107 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • LZ Granderson says everything the gay community wants is in the Constitution
  • Civil rights for African-Americans didn't come through popular vote, he says
  • Congress and the courts took the lead and popular opinion eventually moved, he says
  • Granderson: In 29 states, it's still legal to fire someone because he or she is gay

Editor's note: LZ Granderson, who writes a weekly column for CNN.com, was named journalist of the year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. He is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter: @locs_n_laughs. He spoke at TEDx Grand Rapids in May. TED is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "Ideas worth spreading" which it makes available through talks posted on its website.

Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) -- I wonder if black people would be still in the fields picking cotton today if the 13th Amendment -- the one abolishing slavery -- was placed on the ballot back in 1865.

I wonder if Hillary Clinton would be at home baking cookies instead of serving as secretary of state if women's suffrage was put to a vote back in 1919.

In other words, I wonder just how far along we would be as a society if the oppressive majority held all of the legislative and judicial power over the oppressed minority, essentially yanking the teeth out of Congress and the Supreme Court.

I'm sure you've heard a lot about the gay agenda, but may not know what's in it. Here's what you do: Download a copy of the United States Constitution, read it. Everything the LGBT community wants is in there.

Sounds like an oversimplification?

It's not.

TED.com: What you don't know about marriage

There's not a single issue regarding the LGBT community that has been covered in the media or deliberated in courts that is counter to the articles of the Constitution. On the other hand, the fact that in 29 states it is legal to fire someone just because they're gay flies in the face of the 14th amendment, particularly the passage that says "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."

That may not be consistent with one's religion, and that's fine. But the Bible and the Constitution are not the same thing.

I can't think of a single major civil rights victory that came by way of a general election and so I am not surprised that all 32 states that have voted on marriage equality, voted against marriage equality.

It is human nature to resist change, especially change that may bring significant inconvenience to the vast majority of the people, those who are enjoying the spoils of the status quo. "If it's not broke, don't fix it," was never said by the community that was demanding their rights.

TED.com: Will our kids be a different species?

It was always the mantra of those who liked their slaves; who liked their women barefoot and pregnant; who felt uncomfortable working next to someone with cerebral palsy; who get squeamish at the thought of two men falling in love.

We elect members of Congress to lead us, not appease us. This is why our history has so many civil rights victories come by way of Congress or the courts and so few if any civil rights victories by election. When it gets right down to it, culturally we're like children who have to be forced to eat our vegetables.

We like the Constitution when it can be used to endorse life the way we think it ought to be and we ignore it, or vote against it when the Bill of Rights or the various amendments challenge our world view or force us to make accommodations -- however big or small -- for others.

This week election officials in the state of Washington announced that a referendum seeking to nullify the recently passed law legalizing same-sex marriage has qualified for the November ballot.

Washington joins Maryland, Maine and Minnesota as the next round of states that will put the civil rights of some of their citizens to a vote. Early polls indicate that at least one of them will indeed vote in favor of marriage equality, which is a victory for the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

Though it's a bit of a shame that the Constitution needs such victories and that history has taught us nothing.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of LZ Granderson

ADVERTISEMENT
Part of complete coverage on
May 23, 2013 -- Updated 1220 GMT (2020 HKT)
Melissa Brymer says children need special attention to recover from the trauma of the tornado, and parents must be patient and calm
May 23, 2013 -- Updated 1138 GMT (1938 HKT)
Will Marshall says Tim Cook was grilled about Apple's tax practices but the real culprit is a dysfunctional tax system.
May 23, 2013 -- Updated 1549 GMT (2349 HKT)
Peter Bergen says there's a great deal of misinformation about the counterterrorism policies President Obama will address in a speech Thursday.
May 22, 2013 -- Updated 1247 GMT (2047 HKT)
Two decades ago, Joshua Prager was one of more than 20 people in a terrible bus crash. The author revisits the scene to see how others have made sense of the event.
May 22, 2013 -- Updated 2020 GMT (0420 HKT)
Joshua Wurman says tornado deaths can be reduced, prediction and preparedness can be improved, but it's up to individuals to make sure they heed warnings and have a safe place to go.
May 22, 2013 -- Updated 1457 GMT (2257 HKT)
Ruben Navarette says under Obama, a record number of immigrants have been deported. So why is his drive for immigration reform now in conflict with enforcement officials?
May 22, 2013 -- Updated 1334 GMT (2134 HKT)
Nathan Gunter says Okies have learned to love the big sky, but also to watch it carefully for signs of trouble: When the sky betrays us, we cope by helping one another.
May 22, 2013 -- Updated 1333 GMT (2133 HKT)
LZ Granderson says the heroics of teachers who shielded kids in the Oklahoma tornado remind us of what they do for our country
May 22, 2013 -- Updated 1126 GMT (1926 HKT)
Tornado researcher Louis Wicker says progress is being made on understanding and predicting extreme storms, but if you hear a warning, take cover immediately
May 21, 2013 -- Updated 1129 GMT (1929 HKT)
The masked henchmen grabbed three fingers on each of the Syrian political cartoonist's hands and pulled them back all the way -- so far that they cracked.
May 20, 2013 -- Updated 1522 GMT (2322 HKT)
Meg Urry says loss of the failing, planet-finding Kepler satellite would be huge for NASA--but one way or another, it's a matter of time before we find signs of life on other worlds
May 21, 2013 -- Updated 1621 GMT (0021 HKT)
Yahoo isn't buying a technology company so much as the community that uses it, Douglas Rushkoff says
May 21, 2013 -- Updated 1515 GMT (2315 HKT)
Joseph Nye says it's far too early to write off the rest of the president's second term because of the IRS controversy, other issues
May 20, 2013 -- Updated 1132 GMT (1932 HKT)
Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton write that people pass up opportunities to spend their money to avoid disagreeable tasks
May 19, 2013 -- Updated 1345 GMT (2145 HKT)
Bob Greene on how 18th century Americans tried to make sense of the day with no sun
May 18, 2013 -- Updated 0057 GMT (0857 HKT)
With guest Rep. Keith Ellison, John Avlon, Margaret Hoover and Dean Obeidallah discuss the president's scandal trifecta, hope for immigration and what Jolie's revelation means for women.
May 17, 2013 -- Updated 1709 GMT (0109 HKT)
The press has turned on President Obama with a vengeance, writes Howard Kurtz
May 18, 2013 -- Updated 1801 GMT (0201 HKT)
Donna Brazile says our democracy is endangered, not by the Russians, North Korea, Iran or even terrorists. To quote Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
May 18, 2013 -- Updated 1759 GMT (0159 HKT)
Photographer Arne Svenson defends his show "Neighbors," portraits of the occupants of a building near him taken through their windows.
May 20, 2013 -- Updated 1337 GMT (2137 HKT)
Theater critic Kevin Williamson was kicked out of a play when he took the phone away from an audience member and threw it. He says it was worth it.
May 18, 2013 -- Updated 1425 GMT (2225 HKT)
U.S. actor Angelina Jolie (L) holds daughter Zahara as husband and actor Brad Pitt (C) carries son Maddox during a stroll on the seafront promenade at the historic Gateway of India outside their hotel in Mumbai on November 12, 2006.
Gil Welch says women must not panic over Angelina Jolie's mastectomies: 99% of women don't carry the BRCA1 gene.
May 18, 2013 -- Updated 0852 GMT (1652 HKT)
JR's "Inside Out" project brings public spaces alive with giant representations of people
May 17, 2013 -- Updated 1922 GMT (0322 HKT)
Roger Colinvaux says the IRS scandal is fundamentally about disclosure of donors, not tax-exempt status.
May 16, 2013 -- Updated 1514 GMT (2314 HKT)
Maia Goodell says the military should use civil legal remedies on sexual assault cases.
ADVERTISEMENT