Fearing Love
By: Jessenia Nunez
Discrimination of Fear
The Struggle To Be Heard
"The Crucible" theme's of fear and discrimination can be applied to the struggle for legality of same-sex marriage.In late 1972, Harvey Milk moved to San Francisco and opened a camera store in a gay community. In his biography, Milk states, "After some area merchants tried to prevent two gay men from opening a store, Milk and a few other business owners founded the Castro Village Association, a first in the nation organizing of predominantly LGBT businesses, with Milk as president. He organized the Castro Street Fair in 1974 to attract more customers to area businesses. Its success made the Castro Village Association an effective power base for gay merchants and a blue print for other LGBT communities in the US." (Milk, par. 6). Similar to Proctor, Milk did not give in to discrimination from others and fought to defend his beliefs and spread his views.In the "Crucible" Miller states, " I have confessed myself! Is there no good penitence but it be public? God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are! It is enough!" (Crucible, pg. 1110). Milk was also being harassed like Proctor, Milk, as well as other gays,were physically and verbally opposed and antagonized while trying to get equal rights for homosexuals. Author of "The Crucible", Miller proclaims, "In the book of record that Mr. Paris keeps, I note that you are rarely in the church on Sabbath day." (Crucible, pg. 1061). Both Proctor and Milk live in a society where in Proctor's case, it is custom to attend church every Sabbath day, which he does not do; in Milk's case it is custom to marry the opposite sex. Both Proctor and Milk are very opinionated and express their individual environment and beliefs, even thou their views are attempting to be oppressed by others.A sense of hope never dies out in "The Crucible" and the same-sex legal rights movement. Chaos can worsen paranoia as it did in the crucible were innocent people were hanged, similar to the same-sex legal rights movement because homosexuals are killed due to their sexuality. In "The Crucible" and same-sex legal rights movements bring forth hostility because certain opinions and sexualities are not accepted by the majority. People were being hanged in the crucible and incarcerated, similar to the struggle for obtaining equal rights for gay people because both are discriminated against by being said to be associated with the devil and sinning.
Bibliography
Kymlicka, Will. ""Rethinking The Family."" 20(1): 77-97. Print.
"Penn Law: Legal Scholarship Repository."Site. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.
Mollmann, Marianne. "Gay Marriage Is a Human Rights Issue." Gale Group. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.
Wilhelm, Jeffrey, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Chin, and Jacqueline Royster. "Online Student Edition." Online Student Edition. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.
Milk, Harvey. "Milk Foundation.org." Milk Foundationorg RSS. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.