Gays are still treated this way in some places. A homophobic person wouldn't bat an eyelash at throwing a gay person out of their store.

Many homophobic parents try to get their children's gay teachers fired for no other reason than their sexuality. And children continue to beat other children in their schools that they think might be gay.

There are very backwards people out there, who think being gay is a crime worth punishing by death.

If you're not aware of that, please read up on hate crime cases towards the LGBT community and it's members. Recently there has been a wave of hate crimes against LGBT people, which is a reaction to all of the new rights being granted to them.

Some things may not be illegal for gays to do, like rent an apartment, get a job, or show affection in public. But it's hard, and it's dangerous.

The gay issue is more in tune with the anti-miscegenation laws of the late 19th and middle-to-late 20th century. That is, it interracial marriages - normally pointed towards black and whites - were illegal (and it's only been in the last two decades that some states officially repealed their anti-miscegeny laws). If you look at many of the arguments made against interracial marriage during the period of anti-miscegeny, you'll notice a fairly common trend; interracial marriage would ruin the sanctity of marriage, the act was unnatural and ungodly, bestiality and pedophilia may follow, "marriage" would be redefined and rendered meaningless etc. etc.

It wasn't until the Loving vs Virginia case where the issue was looked at, and anti-miscegenation laws began to be removed from legal books for most states. So, in the context of marriage, it can most certainly be compared to parts of the civil rights movement.

If gays were a different color, they would have had to endure the same persecutions as blacks. The closet is often a survival tactic.

Not exactly. for one thing, blacks weren't allowed to enter certain stores and couldn't even go to the same public schools.

If one is openly gay, he can expect to be harassed and denied service every once in a while. This no longer happens to blacks in the US. And while gays are not legally persectured, there are many arbitrary rules that enforce their de facto second-class citizenship-- just like blacks had to endure. The denial of the word "marriage" to gay couples prevents their exercise of thousands of rights, such as hospital spouse visits, and inheritance. The Civil Rights of gays are in many ways far behind those of racial minorities. There's an incredible amount of hate speech tolerated in the public sphere, and it's a terrible double-standard with other minorities.

Many were lynched for looking at a white woman. and the shit would get beat out of them.

Try looking like I do and making eye contact with the wrong guy. Homophobia is a much larger influence today than racism in the US. Being LGBT is one of the easiest ways to be ostracized in America, but the mainstream community seems to think there's nothing wrong.

Sexual orientation is only an iota less genetic than skin color. Homosexuality occurs in every single demographic, and is evident in nature. America's treatment of gays is another disgusting blemish on our national character.

Is publicly denying a major aspect of your personality "doing OK?" If you're not allowed to be who you are, you're being oppressed.

Because of the obvious differences: the fact that gay people CAN hide their orientation if they try and also that homosexuality is not hereditary in any predictable sense, enslaving every gay person would be difficult.

Also, gays were not fighting for rights when slavery was legal. Back in the early days of this country, religion was far less important to the average person than it has become today.

There is no way that two different groups of oppressed peoples are going to have the same exact experiences. However, they are supremely similar.

Gays are not legally segregated, but in many areas they are socially segregated. And yes, it's illegal, but when has legality ever stopped hate crimes before?

Also, African Americans outnumbers gays. So, with more to hate, there will be greater number of incidents.

Black people were lynched, gays are STILL being beaten to death.

And gay people are allowed in the military, yes. However, they cannot be openly gay. They cannot get benefits for their partners like heterosexuals can. They can't be open and honest with themselves, or the people they sit in ditches with for days on end. The people who's lives they save. They have to segregate themselves, just to serve the country.

How is it not the same as being racist?

Please explain your reasoning, after stating that "you have to agree."

An openly gay person would not have been employed in any capacity with any school in the 60s in Texas. That you believe the contrary makes it entirely evident that you know next to nothing about the subject you have chosen to make your assertions upon.

Until the gay rights movement in the late 1960s and 1970s homosexuality was criminalized and pathologized, and being homosexual exposed one to being arrested, imprisoned, fined, beaten, institutionalized, subjected to "treatment" now widely considered unethical and harmful, fired, and even killed. The government would even monitor your mail and the FBI kept files on all suspected homosexual persons and organizations with which they affiliated. It is important to note that these were all consequences not for actually having intercourse, but simply for identifying as homosexual or even just for being perceived as being homosexual. In some states, these repercussions persisted considerably after the 1970s.