This is a weird thing I don’t understand. Who’s trying to get to the front of the line? Black, LGBT, whatever, none of those people are trying to be at the front of anything. Their battle has always been to be in the line at all.

Thinking about it, though, what is this “line”? Is it the line to eventually become a full citizen or to be a full citizen? Because at the moment, full citizenship is restricted to wealthy straight white Christian men. The further someone is from the benchmark, the lesser they are. But no one is trying to push past those people, we all just want to catch up to them.

On the subject of elbows…I’m 58. When I was born:

1) There was no federal statue guaranteeing civil or voting rights by race. Even now, any notion of racial equality is farcical. Ain’t no such thing.

2) Homosexuality was technically illegal in 48 of the 50 states. The last state to repeal its sodomy law was in 2020, but even then the Republican governor refused to sign it. It is the official position of the Republican Party that LGBT people should not be allowed to exist as full human beings. You’re claiming that someone who just wants to be acknowledged as fully human by our – their - government is somehow trying to get to the front of some line?

All of those things happened because people threw a lot of sharp elbows.

I’d argue you’ve got it 180° backward: I can’t think of even one case in which the majority willingly extended rights to others or ceded rights reserved for themselves without a fierce and occasionally violent struggle.