I Want My Rights

A lot of times when you're black and gay, you don't know whether the discrimination is due to your blackness or your gayness.
Discrimination is discrimination.
We're not talking about behavior; we're talking about status.
He has lived a gay life.
Now 43, he recalls moments.
Moments when he hid his homosexuality.

He could conceal his homosexuality.
He could not conceal his race.
Mr. Prince, who lives in Manhattan, is black.
But like many other blacks, he is angry that leaders of the gay rights movement and some prominent blacks draw parallels between the civil rights struggle of the 60's and homosexuals' fight now for legal and social equality.

I just want freedom.
Freedom so I can be a homosexuality and not be discriminated.
I want to be free.
I want my rights, my right to be gay, even if I have to fight.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/magazine/26EXCEPTION.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/28/us/blacks-rejecting-gay-rights-as-a-battle-equal-to-theirs.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

The way I picked my poem was that I had went on NewYorkTimes website and I had searched the topic black people rights. Then that when I had went through all the articles, until I had came aross the one I did my poem for. I composed my poem from this article because this poem was talking about how African-American is discriminating their own race because of homosexuality and it also talks about how gay's want their equal rights like everyone else. My poem say that this guy is fighting for his rights as a homosexual but people keep comparing homosexual right movement with a civil right movement. But all he want is to be free and have his rights as a gay male. My poem make a point of being gay people are going to judge and be against "gayness". It was hard to make a found poem because you have to have the right article with the right words that you can use. the way I went about my poem was I just used the words I had and re-arranged them and I had used some lines straight from out the poem. I think making my found poem was worth it because I had a chance to try something new and also because I need my grade for it.