Equality for us Means Equality for Everyone

[William769]

Last week, the four of us – organizers with GetEQUAL Texas – took action at a local job fair, asking direct questions of a company tabling there about their practice of lobbying for anti-immigrant legislation, thereby filling their for-profit prisons with more bodies and their wallets with more cash. In holding the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) accountable for its actions, we encountered a question from several folks in the LGBTQ community – why should LGBTQ people care about immigration reform?

The answer is simple: because lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people are part of the fabric of every American demographic and, therefore, are subject to all aspects of injustice. We are black, Asian, Latino, white, poor, rich, differently-abled and, yes, undocumented. It would be foolish not to support the best and the brightest undocumented youth in our country. And it would be inhumane to look the other way while a corporation continues its anti-LGBTQ, anti-environment, anti-woman, anti-minority and – as the Occupiers would say – anti-99% crusade.

CCA is one of the three largest private prison corporations in the U.S. Its business model is to profit off the lives of others by lobbying for tougher sentencing laws and crafting anti-immigrant laws to keep prisons full and money rolling in. The CCA receives approximately $200 of taxpayer money per day, per inmate. According to OpenSecrets.org, CCA spent $14.8 million between 2003 and 2010 lobbying the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Office of Management and Budget, the Bureau of Prisons, the Senate, the House of Representatives and others – and they bring in annual revenue of more than $1.5 billion. Can you say "cha-ching"?

Even more disturbing is its association with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a so-called "charity" organization (or, at least, registered with the IRS as such) that lobbies for various oppressive laws like the deregulation of clean air & water, reparative therapy and immigration laws like Arizona's SB 1070 and Georgia's HB 87. It sounds unbelievable, but it's true. Laws are written, bought and sold to the highest bidder during their annual closed-door meetings. In fact, Arizona's SB 1070 – along with several “copycat” bills in other states – was written almost word-for-word at an ALEC meeting by those who could pay top dollar. Numerous members of Congress, corporations and a laundry list of others are ALEC members, and manipulate our tax dollars for their financial gain. Sound very American to you? Yeah, it didn't sound American to us, either.


http://www.advocate.com/Politics/Commentary/Oped_Equality_for_us_Means_Equality_for_Everyone/