Special rights

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Special rights is a political term originally used by libertarians to refer to laws granting rights to one or more groups which are not extended to other groups, such as affirmative action or hate crime legislation with regard to ethnic, religious or sexual minorities. More recently, social conservatives have used the term to refer to measures that either mirror rights for gays and lesbians that already exist for heterosexuals, such as in the case of same sex marriage, or extend anti-discrimination protections that exist for other minority groups to sexual minorities as well. This term is used internationally, for example "Sonderrechte" in Germany.

In many situations such as employment (in the European Union and the United States), as well as housing and public accommodations (in the United States), it is illegal to discriminate based on gender, race, religion, and other attributes. Some states and localities outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation in certain circumstances, but many do not. The European Union forbids such discrimination in employment, but not in regard to other matters, though some member states do.

Minority rights advocacy groups often contend that such protections confer no "special" rights, and describe these laws instead as protecting equal rights.^[1] The differing vocabulary (some might say rhetoric, though these views are often deeply held) thus mirrors the political disagreement.

Ralph Reed, Republican political strategist and former executive director of the Christian Coalition, which opposes the extension of rights to sexual minorities, said "No one should have special rights or privileges, or minority status because of their sexual behavior. We don't have it for people who are polygamists, we don't have it for people who have affairs on their wives or husbands."^[2]