Can Gays and Blacks Jump the Broom?

I think the gay and black communities have more in common than they realize. In a recent CNN.com blog post, LZ Granderson says gay is NOT the new black. He says gays have not suffered in the same ways as African-Americans and we need to show the same patience the black community has, waiting and fighting for centuries for true civil rights. Yes, gays have not suffered to same degree as blacks have. We have not been held in slavery for hundreds of years. But we are like blacks in that we are suffering from discrimination and there is a large segment of American society that sees nothing wrong with that. Just as large swatches of white society--not just southern--had no problem with segretation in the early 1960s, large portions of straight society thinks it's proper and good that us gays stay in the closet and not raise a fuss or try to be treated the same as them.

I'm reading The Hemings of Monticello which examines the relationship of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson and their interracial family. Hemings could not marry Jefferson, the father of her children. Enslaved blacks were not allowed to legally marry, since it would impede the ability of the white master to break up the family if he wished to sell two lovers apart. I know it's not the same or as horrific, but gays are not allowed to marry either. We can live our lives and go to our jobs and not fear being beaten by a master or sold apart from our lovers. But we are being treated badly. We have that in common.