[kenjackson]

The thing that makes civil rights a big deal is that it affects people.

If you are against gay marriage or interracial marriage, that's a statement about how you feel about people. Gun control is a lot less about how you feel about people.

I think for me, and many others, gay marriage seems like such an obvious thing that I really question the ethics of one who opposes it. There is probably no other major issue in the US that I think is as obvious -- not immigration, abortion, climate change, gun control, taxes, health care, Russia, torture, etc...

[yypark]

Let's take affirmative action as a civil right - it's also an issue that will affect a lot of organizations: Some people consider opposing affirmative action as racist and anti-minority, and such a person unfit to be a CEO. Meanwhile others see affirmative action itself as racist (see Ward Connerly, from California Proposition 209) and sometimes discriminating against minorities too. This fundamentally leads to a similar clash - so who's right here on what the civil right is (e.g. anti-racism)?

Some will say that affirmative action is not an obvious thing you'd question the ethics of a person for. But oppose or support that sort of initiative and you'll be called a racist, sexist, etc. by at least one group, based on how you feel about certain groups of people.

[kenjackson]

Affirmative action is not a civil right. Equality is. Affirmative action is a method to tip the scales to achieve a goal, and it may or may not be effective. It's not the same as gay marriage. Not even close, IMHO -- and I'm a pretty big advocate of affirmative action in the US.

Interracial marriage is probably the closest "recent" legislation I could think of.