It makes sense that members of an opppressed class would be sympathetic toward members of another oppressed class, but that often isn't the case. Take, for example, Jesse Jackson, who made it clear in a recent speech about marriage between persons of the same gender that "In my culture, marriage is a man-woman relationship."

Well, Jesse, in a whole lot of people's culture, black folks are supposed to be cleaning houses, sweeping floors after hours and definitely not marrying white folks. We call this attitude bigotry, in case you haven't heard.

Jackson isn't as bad as Colin Powell, though, who--in his rhetoric arguing against the inclusion of gay citizens in the military--used the exact words that were used decades before to exclude blacks from the military. When questioned about his argument, his response was that blacks don't have a choice about their race.

This is a ridiculous argument. Not only can thousands of gay people tell you that they always knew they were gay, even as children, there is the additional question: Why would someone get up one morning and make a decision that he would choose to be discriminated against, called names, and be a potential victim of violence for the rest of his life?