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| One Arizona restaurant's response to the bill |
The Edict of Nantes, created by King Henri IV of France in 1598, protected the rights of Huguenots. Huguenots, or French Protestants, were heavily persecuted at the time by the Catholics. When he created this document, persecution of Huguenots subsided, as they were allowed to fortify their towns and settlements. However, when Louis XIV revoked it in 1685, Huguenots lost all those rights, and persecution continued.
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| Louis XIV, King of France |
These two events don't feel very different at all. While Americans aren't blatantly persecuting the LGBTQ community like the French Catholics did the Huguenots, not everyone is being friendly, either. These bills are an attempt to take away the rights of gays, just as Louis XIV did to the Huguenots.
If the discriminatory bills had passed, let's look at some of the consequences. When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, hundreds of thousands of Huguenots fled the country. During the time that the bills were under deliberation, many were rethinking about moving to those states. Not that anyone actually fled the country because of these bills, but they began to have the same effect in dissuade some from living there. In addition, when the Edict of Nantes was revoked, many of the neighboring Protestant countries became hostile to France. I don't believe that Canada (which is ahead of the curve in terms of gay rights) would become hostile towards America, but a lot of the world would definitely look down on America for passing the laws. Even other parts of the United States are disappointed in the legislatures that passed the bills.
But at the end of the day, it's just relieving to many that none of these bills have passed. If they had, who knows what might have happened? It could have ended up like France under Louis XIV.
Pictography:
"Tucson Pizzeria's sign." The New Civil Rights Movement. http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/tucson-pizzeria-we-reserve-the-right-to-refuse-service-to-arizona-legislators/politics/2014/02/21/83505 (accessed 15 March 2014).
"Louis XIV." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France (accessed 15 March 2014).
It seems every generation finds something to discriminate against, and we are always very close to repeating history with a slightly different twist, depending on who is being discriminated. I thought your comparison of such acts to the edict of Nantes was very clever and interesting. Like you said, although the proposed acts wouldn't be quite as limiting as the Edict issued by Louis XIV were, they would still have a very similar effect on a smaller scale. A very well written blog post.
ReplyDeleteGood job, Anson! I thought this post was very interesting because it shows that if people don't learn from history then history is just going to repeat itself. Another thing that I enjoyed was that you linked a website to each of the states so you could find out more information on that. Gay rights has been a big issue right now since the American government is stupid and doesn't understand the word 'equality'. Good job!
ReplyDeletePS; Percico is watching.
Wow Anson great job! I really liked that you connected something that a lot of people wouldn't normal think about and a more modern topic. I also liked that you gave specific states were the gay discrimination was occurring instead of just giving us a general idea. I would challenge you to add more background information about the Huguenots and Catholics and how they effected the government of France. Great Job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting connection that I don't think I ever made before. The fact that religious persecution goes on even today is not something many people think about.I think there were a few mistakes in punctuation and grammar here and there, and there needs to be more of a transition between the two ideas in the beginning, but otherwise a great post.
ReplyDeleteI liked this blog post a lot. I loved how you connected discrimination from the past to what is going on today to predict what would happen in our future had these laws taken effect. I think you did a great job in informing people about what is going on in today's society and also relating it to 1500 France's.
ReplyDeleteVery nice post. This post reminded me of my own in a way. As your post is about the discrimination of gays, mine was about the discrimination of the Jews in the holocaust. I find that the acts of Louis XIV and discrimination of any kind go hand in hand together. Nice job.
ReplyDelete