Great Advice

Shelby Steele has some great advice in a piece concerning gay marriage. The article is a response to a previous one by Andrew Sullivan. In comparing the gay rights struggle to that of blacks over the last couple of decades he says:

We blacks won our civil rights decades ago, but we still face stigma. And we, too, keep making the mistake of thinking that we can overcome stigmatization as inferiors by fighting for civil rights. But it doesn't work. We will have to become individuals, making the kind of life we want for ourselves without apology or recrimination or conceit. And then one day, the stigma will look absurd for its distance from reality.

... the stigma will look absurd for its distance from reality. I don't think I've ever seen it stated more clearly or passionately. This should be the mantra to live by for any group of people who feel they are stigmatized in some way by society.

Read the entire article to get the quote in its full context.