300 Years, 30 Days - different battle, same war

1700: A census reports more than 27,000 enslaved people, mostly Africans, in the English colonies in North America. The vast majority of these bondspeople live in the Southern colonies.

1724: The Black Codes are enacted in New Orleans (French Territory), to control Blacks and banish Jews.

1741: South Carolina's colonial legislature banned the teaching of enslaved people to read and write.

1774: A group of Blacks petition the Massachusetts General Court, insisting that they too have a natural right to their freedom.

1780: Massachusetts abolished slavery and granted African Americans the right to vote.

March 6, 1857: The Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court denied the citizenship of Blacks in the United States.

January 1, 1863: The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in states in rebellion against the Union.

December 18, 1865: Slavery was outlawed Congress' passing of the Thirteenth Amendment.

July 28, 1868: Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, granting citizenship to Blacks.

May 18, 1896: The Supreme Court decision in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case established the concept of separate but equal, thereby legalizing segregation. This ruling paves the way for the Jim Crow laws, which  highly prohibit the rights of Blacks in Southern states.

May 17, 1954: The Supreme Court overturned de jure school segregation with the ruling on the Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education case.

August 29, 1957: Blacks were given the right to vote with Congress' passing of the Voting Rights Bill of 1957.

1960 - This year marks the beginning of the era known as the Civil Rights Movement.

July 2, 1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed, which prohibits discrimination and segregation on the basis of race and gender. This act paved the way for equal opportunity employment.

October 29, 1969: The Supreme Court reinforced the  ending of segregated schools and mandated the creation of integrated educational settings.

1970 - present: With proper laws both established and enforced, African Americans continue growth as equal citizens within American society with all rightful liberties.

However...

It is appalling that certain rights, particularly the rights to wed and parent, are denied on the basis of love. Love is all you need, and if it's there, does who one chooses to love matter? In the case of single parenting by choice, should not the love for the child, even those who are still just dreams, enough? The love that a parent has for his or her child is pure, and if that love is there, then it does not matter if its source is from two mothers, two fathers, a single mother or father, or a traditional heterosexual couple.

Kati Blackmon, an adopted child and adoptive mother who opposes same-sex parenting: "The whole country's laws are set up for people who are a man and a woman in a married situation." 

Penny Gardener, C.A.R.E. Staffer and advocate of same-sex parenting rights: "Laws are dynamic and they represent the times in which we live.... What we're doing now is changing the law...so that people can be providers for children which they'll love."

The laws definitely need to change, because with legal discrimination on the basis of race largely an issue of the past, it seems as though gays and lesbians have become the new "niggers" on the block.

Calliope has further discussion about tonight's episode of 30 Days, which chronicled Kati's month-long stay with Tom and Dennis, a warm and compassionate gay couple who adopted four sons. I was largely disappointed and often enraged by Kati's defensiveness and inability to recognize and honor the love that Tom and Dennis, and so many other same-sex parents have for each other and their children.