Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Sleep With The Right People

Sleep With The Right People represents an alliance between two powerful groups: the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bi-sexual Transgender) community and UNITE HERE (the union representing more than 100,000 hotel and restaurant workers). Both face similar struggles in their quest for fair and equal treatment of all individuals.
Um ... I don't quite know what to say

I know there are some who object comparing gay rights with equal rights from the 60's. But, to compare the struggles the gay community faces with those faced by hotel and restaurant workers - just seems a little over the top.

Now, I understand that the hotel and restaurant worker business may not be the most prestigious of jobs; and, I'm sure they are looked down upon by many. But seriously ...
  • Has anybody has ever been a victim of a brutal beating - for being a hotel/restaurant worker
  • Has anybody has ever been fired from their job - for being a hotel/restaurant worker
  • Has anybody has ever been denied marriage - for being a hotel/restaurant worker
  • Has anybody has ever been kicked out of the military - for being a hotel/restaurant worker
  • Has anybody has ever grown up with hotel/restaurant-worker-phobic slurs and epithet's
Politics sure does make strange bedfellows [pun intended]

3 comments:

Ezra said...

Well, I agree that they are very different issues, but you take all the friends you can get.

I think the point is we're fighting for equality for everyone in the end.

Also, hotel workers.maid (at least in california) tend to be hispanic and/or illegal immigrants, which is a group that is often treated unfairly/unjustly.

Kengo Biddles said...

Service industry, regardless of race or gender/sexuality tend to get the rump end of the respect-stick, anyway.

Anonymous said...

I think it's smart politics for LGBT folks to ally with the labor movement, when it is convenient. We're both in the Democratic Party coalition, and the Republicans don't look like they're about to become any more LGBT-friendly anytime soon. Also, getting more lower income Latino folks on the gay rights bandwagon will be very helpful in the longer term, given demographic trends and such.

Playing the whole "I'm more oppressed" than you game doesn't get anyone very far anyway. And honestly, as an upper-middle class gay man living in a large west coast city, I'll take my lot in life over that of a low-paid hotel maid.