hunter of justice

NAACP moves on lgbt rights, seeks greater lgbt reliability on racial justice issues

In case you haven't noticed, there is a new generation in evidence at the traditional insitutional icon of civil rights, the NAACP. NAACP President Benjamin Jealous embodies the shift: he grew up in an interracial, middle-class, left-of-center, northern California family and became a Rhodes Scholar. He's open about his openly gay brother. Jealous brings with him an inclination toward involvement in a range of progressive issues, including but not limited to lgbt rights. He's also clear that the lgbt community needs to be a more constant ally on racial issues.

A milestone in this change came during the recent annual conference, with the first-ever NAACP town hall discussion of lgbt rights. The program framed the event as

“OUR COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY: WHY WE MUST OVERCOME HOMOPHOBIA”

Building upon the ground breaking work of the NAACP LGBT Taskforce, this workshop will provide an in-depth analysis on social issues and policies that disproportionately affect the LGBT Black community, this public forum will examine the complex layers of homophobia within the Black community and new ideas on the important role of Black straight allies, civil rights organizations, families, churches and colleges to eradicate stigma, violence and discrimination of Black gay people. Like most Blackpeople, Black LGBT people share a common history and continued struggle to eradicate racism, yet their identities, talents and leadership are diminished because of homophobia. Through film, engaged dialogue and featured presentations from academics, activists, clergy and policy makers this informative and provocative forum will examine the signifi cant contributions of Black gay leaders within the Civil Rights movement, the role of Black straight allies in addressing homophobia and how we can collectively overcome LGBT discrimination.

Julian Bond, who led the event, stated the NAACP LGBT Task Force was formed in 2009 with the National Black Justice Coalition, and described the NAACP’s three-point mission to increase acceptance of black LGBT people in the African American community:

1. strengthen the NAACP’s knowledge of LGBT issues and policies,
2. build alliances with LGBT organizations, and
3. advance awareness of LGBT issues as they relate to the programs and interests of the NAACP.

He also addressed several areas where conflict exists between the LGBT and the African American communities.

We know that black lesbians, black gay men, black bisexual people and black transgender people suffer a level of discrimination and harassment far beyond the level felt by straight black women and men.

If you disagree, or if your Bible tells you that gay people ought not be married in your church, don’t tell them they can’t be married at City Hall. Marriage is a civil rite as well as a civil right, and we can’t allow religious bigotry to close the door to justice for anyone….

For some people, comparisons between the African American Civil Rights movement and the movement for gay and lesbian rights seems to diminish the long, black historical struggle with all it’s suffering, sacrifices and endless toil. People of color, however, ought to be flattered that our Movement has provided so much inspiration for others, that it has been so widely imitated, and that our tactics, heroes, heroines and methods, even our songs, have been appropriated as models for others….

People of color carry the badge of who we are on our faces. But we are far from the only people suffering from discrimination…. They deserve the laws, protections and civil rights, too.

  

 [More coverage here]

The other gay life: raising children in the South

From today's NY Times, excerpted:

Being gay in [Jacksonville, FL] was once a lonely existence. Most people kept their sexuality to themselves, and they were reminded of the dangers of being openly gay when a gay church was bombed in the 1980s. These days, there are eight churches that openly welcome gay worshipers. One even caters to couples with children.

The changes may seem surprising for a city where churches that have long condemned homosexuality remain a powerful force. But as demographers sift through recent data releases from the Census Bureau, they have found that Jacksonville is home to one of the biggest populations of gay parents in the country.

In addition, the data show, child rearing among same-sex couples is more common in the South than in any other region of the country, according to Gary Gates, a demographer at the [Williams Institute]. Gay couples in Southern states like Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are more likely to be raising children than their counterparts on the West Coast, in New York and in New England.

The pattern, identified by Mr. Gates, is also notable because the families in this region defy the stereotype of a mainstream gay America that is white, affluent, urban and living in the Northeast or on the West Coast. “We’re starting to see that the gay community is very diverse,” said Bob Witeck, chief executive of Witeck-Combs Communications, which helped market the census to gay people. “We’re not all rich white guys.”

Black or Latino gay couples are twice as likely as whites to be raising children, according to Mr. Gates, who used data from a Census Bureau sampling known as the American Community Survey. They are also more likely than their white counterparts to be struggling economically.

Experts offer theories for the pattern. A large number of gay couples, possibly a majority, entered into their current relationship after first having children with partners in heterosexual relationships, Mr. Gates said. That seemed to be the case for many blacks and Latinos in Jacksonville, for whom church disapproval weighed heavily.

“People grew up in church, so a lot of us lived in shame,” said Darlene Maffett, 43, a Jacksonville resident, who had two children in eight years of marriage before coming out in 2002. “What did we do? We wandered around lost. We married men, and then couldn’t understand why every night we had a headache.”

Moreover, gay men who have children do so an average of three years earlier than heterosexual men, census data shows, Mr. Gates said. At the same time, there are fewer white women of childbearing age nationally, according to demographers, while the number of minority women of childbearing age is expanding...

[L]ast summer, [Valerie] Williams became pastor of St. Luke’s Community Church, one of the oldest gay-friendly churches in the city, and immediately set up a youth program. Attendance by the mixed-race congregation swelled to more than 90 from 25 in just a few months. “All of a sudden you started seeing all of these women coming out,” Ms. Mafett said. “All of them had children.”

In 2009, the Census Bureau estimated that there were 581,000 same-sex couples in the United States, Mr. Gates said; the bureau does not count gay singles.

About a third of lesbians are parents, and a fifth of gay men are. Advocacy groups argue that their children are some of society’s most vulnerable, with fewer legal protections and less health insurance than children of heterosexual parents.

Even so, their ranks have been mostly left out of national policy debates, because the Census Bureau did not conduct its first preliminary count of same-sex couples until 1990. This year, the bureau will count married same-sex partners for the first time. “We don’t know a lot about this group,” Mr. Gates said. “Their story has not been told.”

About 32 percent of gay couples in Jacksonville are raising children, Mr. Gates said, citing the 2009 Census data, second only to San Antonio, where the rate is about 34 percent...

Essence Magazine: Defend the sisters in uniform

From Essence:

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) poses an imminent threat to gay and straight black women. So, where is the outrage?

Black women have taken up arms alongside their male counterparts for decades, dedicating their lives to defending our freedoms even at the expense of their own. Today, however, our sisters in the military are under attack, not just from ominous enemies abroad but by discriminatory practices at home that put them in harm's way and lead to career-ending discharges.

The military's DADT policy, which bans gays and lesbians from serving openly, threatens all servicewomen regardless of their sexual orientation. But Black women are bearing the brunt. Pentagon data shows that DADT has been used to kick Black women out of the military at a much higher rate than any other group. 

The military has served as a pathway to economic empowerment for minorities and women for generations. It offers health care and housing benefits that support their children, helps them to afford college, and secures stable civilian careers.

So imagine the hardship faced by Black servicewomen who are unduly targeted for dishonorable discharge from the military because they are gay or simply accused of being gay. Many of them are also mothers and heads of households. Their careers are shattered, and their children and families suffer.

Even when Black servicewomen play by the rules they fall prey to the perils of the DADT policy regardless of their real or perceived sexual orientation. Fellow servicemen, male and female, have exploited this policy to discredit superior officers, and they've used it as a gag order to retaliate against women who have rebuffed their sexual advances.

Throughout history Black women have been degraded and forced to exchange their bodies to safeguard their families. Under the guise of DADT, our sisters in the military today continue to be subjected to sexual blackmail and harassment, and forced to trade their personal freedoms to protect their honor, livelihood and jobs.

A telling case in point is the tragic story of African-American Army Sgt. Tracey L. Cooper-Harris, who wrote to President Barack Obama earlier this year appealing for an end to DADT. In her letter, Sgt. Cooper-Harris relayed the horrendous ordeal she experienced as a teenage guard.

"The signal from command was clear: being gay was a far more serious offense in the military than sexually harassing a fellow service member," she wrote. "I ultimately chose what I believed was the best decision for me at the time. I let these men have their way with me in exchange for their silence."

The facts are clear, and the statistics are undeniable. Black servicewomen are losing their dignity, their jobs, and their opportunity to pursue the American dream because of the legalized discrimination that is DADT.

Where is the outrage?

Time and time again, when members of the Black community have been disproportionately harmed by public policy or faced with institutionalized discrimination, we have rallied around the victims. Yet with DADT, the Black community's silence has been deafening.

Sgt. Cooper-Harris' silence did not protect her from the harassment she endured, and our silence does not protect the hundreds of Black women who are victimized each year under DADT. We can no longer sit idly by while our military sisters are singled out for discrimination. It is time for us to stand up and defend our sisters who defend us on the front lines each day.

HT: Sharon Daly

NAACP President reaches out to lgbt groups

A young and dynamic NAACP president - Benjamin Jealous - is behind what could be a turning point in coalition politics: the full embrace of lgbt equality issues as part of the upcoming (October 2) One Nation march in DC organized by the NAACP. Note coverage of lgbt issues as an integral part of the agenda in this morning's NY Times.  A Gay City News report of his speech last week at the NYC Lesbian and Gay Community Center provides a flavor -

A Rhodes Scholar who formerly worked at Amnesty International on issues of prison rape, the criminal justice system’s treatment of juvenile offenders, and racial profiling, Jealous earned a warm response from a crowd of more than 100 with a discussion about the possibilities for progressive change through coalition politics; his remarks showed him well versed in LGBT issues. Mentioning having in his family both HIV and a gender-nonconforming brother who’s been beaten up, Jealous talked about the NAACP’s advocacy for black gay student victims of homophobic violence at the hands of African-American attackers in a Coffee County, Georgia college; the school responded by kicking those assaulted out of their dorm.

“It is the NAACP in places like Coffee County, Georgia,” he said, “that is the civil rights institution, not the black civil rights institution, the people of color civil rights institution, the civil rights institution.” The group, he said, let the school "know that nothing like this would ever happen again.”

Jealous talked about the NAACP’s long push for the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act and about the work the group is doing in partnership with the federal Centers for Disease Control to target areas of high HIV prevalence in the African-American community, especially among young gay and bisexual men. Lamenting the fact that the public’s attention toward the AIDS crisis has lagged as infection rates remain persistently high and the population of those infected increasingly poor, with a larger proportion of people of color, he pointed to one such effort being undertaken this month in Brooklyn...

Jealous couched his remarks in the broader context of a participatory relationship he hopes will continue long past the march. In response to questions, he voiced receptiveness to having “a conversation” on a variety of topics... And he agreed with several questioners about the need to end the political dispersion of progressive communities in discrete silos, where they have too little dialogue with each other...

Details about the march after the jump -->

Who is most hurt by DADT?

A key Senate vote looms tomorrow in the effort to repeal DADT. Meanwhile, the Williams Institute has just released a new report on discharges documenting that women and persons of color are disproportionately affected by the military's policy and that the racial and gender skewing has increased over time.

Since the policy took effect, more than 13,000 service members have been discharged. Not surprisingly, the rate has decreased since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. As the annual number of discharges fell, however, the proportion of women and persons of color rose.

• For women, who comprise 14 to 15% of military personnel, the share of DADT discharges rose from 22% in 1997 to 39% in 2009.  
• For non-white, non-Hispanic members, who comprise about one-third of personnel, the share of discharges rose from 23% in 1997 to 45% in 2008.

How many reasons do we need to end this policy?

Abortion trends: more linked to poverty as states enact greater restrictions

Three recent reports read together drive home the point that abortion is becoming more and more a poverty issue, and choice advocates are at the same time losing ground in state legislatures around the country.

According to a Guttmacher Institute study, the concentration of abortion among poor women is not only intense, but also rising sharply. The relative abortion rate for poor women in 2008 (the most recent data available) was more than twice that for all women, and more than five times that for women at 200% or more of the federal poverty level. About 42% of women having abortions 2008 were poor, compared to 27% in 2000. By contrast, the rates for low-income (100-199% of FPL) and better off women (>200% of the FPL) decreased during that time. Among poor women, Black and Hispanic women were overrepresented.

On the legislative side, the Center for Reproductive Rights reports that "2010 has been one of the most challenging state legislative sessions for women's access to abortion in many years." Favorite anti-choice initiatives have included bans on insurance coverage for abortion and mandates that women seeking abortion must be exposed to ultrasound images of the fetus. Guttmacher also issued an analysis of state legislation as of midyear 2010, and reported that there are 49 new restrictive state laws.

Add to this the current frenzy about "anchor babies" in the Latino community. As ColorLines notes, there is a long disturbing history of paranoid delusions about allegedly excessive fertility (read sexuality) in people of color communities. University of Arizona Women's Studies Professor Nicole Guidotti-Hernández places the "anchor babies" issue as the latest episode in that history:

These ideas about Latina women’s bodies and hyper-reproduction are not new... [Such fears have been] localized in the figure of what [historian Ellen] Gutíerrez has called “the hyper-fertile baby machine.”

Beneath all this is an undercurrent of legal and political dehumanization of women of color. And one historically effective strategy for diminishing a liberty right for everyone is just that kind of racialization. If the Supreme Court continues to chip away at the woman's right, this will be part of the context and part of a new enabling discourse -- that "good" (white, middle class) women are less concerned now about abortion.

Sotomayor: "The facts that judges choose to see"

The following excerpt is from the infamous speech that Judge Sotomayor gave at Boalt in October 2001, later published in the La Raza journal, and which now has been demagogued endlessly by rightwingers desperate for a way to stop her appointment. In my view the speech offers not just a solid defense against charges of racism (it makes me choke even to write that), but a set of perceptive insights into the process of judging. Judge Sotomayor obviously has thought deeply about the tensions with which she must live and work as a Latina judge. I will be thrilled if she becomes a Justice of the Supreme Court.

... Professor Judith Resnik says that there is not a single voice of feminism, not a feminist approach but many who are exploring the possible ways of being that are distinct from those structured in a world dominated by the power and words of men. Thus, feminist theories of judging are in the midst of creation and are not and perhaps will never aspire to be as solidified as the established legal doctrines of judging can sometimes appear to be.

That same point can be made with respect to people of color. No one person, judge or nominee will speak in a female or people of color voice. I need not remind you that Justice Clarence Thomas represents a part but not the whole of African-American thought on many subjects. Yet, because I accept the proposition that, as Judith Resnik describes it, "to judge is an exercise of power" and because as, another former law school classmate, Professor Martha Minow of Harvard Law School, states "there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives - no neutrality, no escape from choice in judging," I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that--it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others. Not all women or people of color, in all or some circumstances or indeed in any particular case or circumstance but enough people of color in enough cases, will make a difference in the process of judging. ... As recognized by legal scholars, whatever the reason, not one woman or person of color in any one position but as a group we will have an effect on the development of the law and on judging. ...

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, ... our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O'Connor is the author of that line, since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Minow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.

... I, like Professor [Stephen] Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. ...[N]ine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown [v. Board of Education].

However, to understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give. For others, their experiences limit their ability to understand the experiences of others. Other simply do not care. Hence, one must accept ... [that] the presence of women and people of color on the bench [will make a difference]. Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage....

Each day on the bench I learn something new about the judicial process and about being a professional Latina woman in a world that sometimes looks at me with suspicion. I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely, and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me require. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences, but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate....

[Full text of speech here]

Historically black colleges add protections against anti-gay discrimination

The Winston-Salem (NC) Journal reports that four historically black colleges in North Carolina have added sexual orientation as a protected characteristic to their anti-discrimination policies. On politics generally, North Carolina is a particularly interesting state to watch: it's the 10th largest in population and the one to vote blue in November by the slimmest margin.  OK, and it's also my home state.  I suspect that I have very few Tar Heel readers (Hi Lee), but it's a fascinating political bellwether, so stay tuned.

Three years ago, Winston-Salem State University's nondiscrimination policy didn't include sexual orientation. Neither did those at most of the historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the UNC system. But today, four of the five public HBCUs have policies that include sexual orientation.

"Clearly, society has changed," said Edward Hanes Jr., the equal employment opportunity officer at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU). "More information in the community has brought the change around, more acknowledgement that our campuses are diverse in many ways, beyond the color of skin," Hanes said.

That change hasn't come easily, however. Nationally, HBCUs have been resistant, and sometimes hostile, to protecting the rights of gay students and faculty. Many HBCUs were founded by religious organizations, said Joey Gaskins, the diversity student coordinator for Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation's leading gay-rights organizations. "A lot of our students find the administration and faculty tend to be very conservative and not agreeing with who they are as a people and not allowing the space to educate the community," Gaskins said.

In March, WSSU's board of trustees voted to include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy. Hanes said that the school started taking a close look at including sexual orientation in the policy about three years ago. He said that often school administrators at HBCUs have larger worries than sexual orientation, and that was one of the reasons why it took so long for the school to take action. But once trustee members were able to look at the policy change, they approved it unanimously, Hanes said. "To be perfectly honest, we face a lot of issues at historically black colleges and universities that frankly, majority schools don't have to face," he said. "Sexual orientation is not the most pressing issue. We're working at schools that had to do more with less."

"I think black homophobia is rooted in the fact that our traditional masculine and feminine roles have been under attack for 300 years," said the Rev. Carlton Eversley, who is the pastor of Dellabrook Presbyterian Church and the president of the Minister's Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity. Black men have historically been denied the opportunity to make enough money to provide for their families, and the idea that black women can raise a family has also been under attack, Eversley said. "When there are people whose orientation is different or nontraditional, we have a visceral anti-gay, anti-lesbian feeling," he said. "Having said all that, I don't think that condones it."

The issue of gay rights at HBCUs came to a head after a 2002 incident in which a gay student at all-male Morehouse College was beaten by another student with a bat. The gay student's skull was fractured during the beating. After the incident, the Human Rights Campaign started an initiative focusing on HBCUs, Gaskins said. A gay campus organization was soon established at Morehouse College called Safe Space.

Students at Winston-Salem State University established the Gay-Straight Student Alliance last year. Brandon Hughes, the president of the organization and a senior from Charlotte, said he didn't run into much opposition to the group, which recently held a panel discussion on same-sex marriage. "The younger generation is a lot more open-minded," he said. "A lot of gays and lesbians are organizing to let people know what we are. This is how we love. You can either accept it or ignore it."

Race, sex and lobbying in a purple state

From the Durham News, Pam Spaulding recounts lobbying for equality in North Carolina:

I recently attended the Equality NC Day of Action at the state legislature, where average citizens met with lawmakers to discuss pro-equality bills and urge them to oppose a constitutional amendment bill banning same-sex marriage.

The real story, however, is what happened when a group of us -- black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender North Carolinians -- met with members of the Legislative Black Caucus. It was a shocking experience.

It's hard for some people to acknowledge that LGBT rights issues are social justice issues, but to see this play out in person was disturbing. We stopped in to see Rep. Alma Adams (D-Guilford). She supports the anti-bullying bill and opposes the marriage amendment. However, there was a very strange dynamic going on during the meeting.

We let actual constituents of the lawmaker take the lead. In this meeting, it was a young gay white man from Adams' district. Longtime social justice advocate and fellow Bull City resident Mandy Carter and I, and at least four other black LGBTs were present when the constituent asked if Adams, as chair of the black caucus, would speak with her colleagues who support the marriage amendment.

The answer she gave was pretty astonishing.

1. The amendment "isn't going anywhere," therefore there isn't any point to discuss it with those caucus members. (It is buried in four committees in the House; on the Senate side it was assigned to a committee that hasn't met since 2001);

2. It's not her job to try to educate those black members who support the amendment about why it's an affront to our state constitution;

3. Adams actually said, "your issues are not the black caucus's issues" -- social justice for black LGBTs is not a matter of their concern, even as several black LGBTs stood right there before her. We were all stunned into silence. The lawmaker was apparently unaware of the recent letter released by NAACP national board chair Julian Bond and President Ben Jealous that fully supports LGBT rights, including the right to marry.

Ironically, the Legislative Black Caucus's own Web site says: "Justice - Assure equal protection under the law for African-Americans, other racial/ethnic minorities, the mentally ill and the poor."

I guess that means "except if you're black and LGBT."

We also met with a member of the black caucus who supports the marriage amendment, Rep. Earline W. Parmon (D-Guilford; my rep on the caucus, Larry Hall, was unavailable). She is in favor of the Healthy Youth Act and the anti-bullying bill. But on marriage, she parts ways, citing these reasons:

1. It's a "personal issue" for her. (as opposed to representing her voters' interests)

2. "I'm a minister." (church-state separation, anyone?)

3. "I'm not against anyone, one to one."

That last statement suggests she only wants to "protect marriage," but is sympathetic to same-sex couples' legal concerns. Yet the amendment would eliminate any legal recognition. No civil unions, no domestic partnerships, nada:

"Marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state."

If either lawmaker stepped into a time machine that took them just a few generations back in time, they couldn't vote, never mind hold office, or even marry a person of the same race, let alone another race -- all justified by the Bible.

The day taught me that spending face time with our lawmakers is essential, and for black LGBTs it's critical. We left committed to return because lawmakers need to see us and hear our stories.

You can read my full report, with video and photos, here: http://tinyurl.com/c5ynol

Delta days on Capitol Hill

From Politico

If a woman in red demands to be noticed, a thousand women in red are impossible to ignore. At least that’s what the members of Delta Sigma Theta are counting on when they head to the Hill next week, clad in crimson and cream, to lobby their senators and representatives on the African-American sorority’s national agenda. Don’t let the word “sorority” fool you: The Deltas won’t be pushing to lower the drinking age or fighting for their right to party. Most of the women who will attend the 20th annual four-day legislative seminar known as Delta Days at the Nation’s Capital are long out of school, and they’re coming to learn how to be effective advocates on issues like poverty, affordable housing and education.

“It’s an awesome sight to see so many black women here on the Hill,” says Nicole Williams, communications director for Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). “There’s a powerful message, I think, that black women have a place at the political table.” From Hill staffers like Williams to elected officials like Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), members of the sorority formed in 1913 by African-American women at Howard University have followed trailblazing sorors — as Delta sisters call one another — including former Reps. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) and Barbara Jordan (D-Texas) and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.) to become a quiet force in the nation’s capital.

Delta and the other “Divine Nine” African-American fraternities and sororities serve as built-in career networks, support systems and social clubs for many of their members in the capital, but Delta has a particular history of political action that its sorors are committed to paying forward. Its founders broke away from Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s first black sorority, at Howard in part because they wanted to be more civically engaged. Their first public action was to take part in the Women’s Suffrage March in Washington — although, because they were black, they had to march at the end of the line.

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), who died last year, was an outspoken Delta who made red her signature color and was buried wearing her DST pin.  Fudge, who served as Tubbs Jones’ chief of staff, recalls that when she and Tubbs Jones first arrived in Washington, former secretary of labor and soror Alexis Herman held their first fundraiser. Fudge and Tubbs Jones shared an apartment but didn’t have any furniture. The Deltas brought them some. When Fudge ran for mayor back in Ohio, it was the Deltas who raised the money for her campaign. And after the loss of her friend and mentor, Fudge says, it was the Deltas who persuaded her to run for Tubbs Jones’ seat.

More on race and Prop 8

Charles Blow, the African-American columnist for the NY Times who both writes and produces compelling graphics for the op-ed page, has a column this morning in which he argues that lgbt rights advocates should concentrate on persuading African-American women, who vote in much great numbers than black men, that marriage for s/s couples is a health issue. He points out that within the black community, more women than men voted for Prop 8, tying that to their traditionally greater religiosity. He also speculates that African-American women have much to gain from greater social honesty about homosexuality, invoking the risk of bisexual men infecting women with HIV.  Hence the health angle.

It's a cogent and provocative column, and it will get a lot of attention simply because it's in the Times. Most dramatically, Blow has produced a graphic (follow the column link above) which maps opinion poll data from Democrats, Republicans and African-Americans on a series of sexual "morality" issues, and shows that average black opinion is much closer to the Republican than to the Democratic average. Why? Again, the role of religion, and the disjuncture between how progressive black churches have been on discrimination issues and how conservative many have been on sexuality issues.

These numbers are powerful, and Blow's answer - a new "pitch," stressing health - may be ok for an ad campaign. But a complicated stew of concerns are playing out in these data. At just a gut level, it strikes me that the instinct to circle the wagons and close down to what are tagged as foreign ideas comes from a fundamentally different place for black Americans than for those who cling to race and gender privilege.

Another interesting commentary triggered by Prop 8, focusing on the Latino vote, comes in an interview with Richard Rodriguez (HT Lisa Duggan):

I have not been to a Mexican family without some suspicion of homosexuality in children or grandchildren. But people deal with it within the larger context of family. That's why I suspect the revolution will come not from the male church but from how women treat their children, and whether or not women are willing to reject their children. ...

The desert religions -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- are male religions. Their perception is that God is a male god and Allah is a male god. If the male is allowed to hold onto the power of God, then I think we are in terrible shape. I think what's coming out of Colorado Springs right now, with people like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, is either the last or continuing gasp of a male hierarchy in religion. That's what's at stake. And women have a determining role to play. Are they going to go along with this, or are they going to challenge the order?

Hmm, sounds like women are the key. I hope someone is doing focus groups with African-American and Latina women. And I hope that the progressive and lgbt response to these issues digs deeper than anyone can go in one short column.

Michelle Obama's minefield

By Chrystia Freeland in Financial Times

... The First Lady occupies an odd position in American life, at once on a pedestal and under a microscope. Her husband is the nation’s foremost politician and her main job is to help him do his. But she must always remember that she holds no elected office and wields no independent political power. She is the chief ceremonial female – literally the First Lady – in a country still unsure about the proper role of women in public and private life. If she happens to be African-American, she is a symbol of her race. Oh, and she must be able to choose precisely the right dress for every occasion.

Curtis Sittenfeld - author of Prep and American Wife - speculates that Mrs Obama’s formative years spent as a member of a racial minority at elite institutions – from the “magnet” high school she attended in Chicago to Princeton and Harvard Law School – may be one reason she seems so sure-footed in her new, hypervisible role: “That phenomenon of being overanalysed and having people see all your behaviour as symbolic is probably something that she has experienced for most of her life, certainly more than most white first ladies.”

One of Mrs Obama’s most thoughtful public analysts is her husband. In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama introduces her as “smart, funny and thoroughly charming”. When he first met the 44-year-old two decades ago – she was his summer adviser at Sidley Austin, a corporate law firm – what immediately struck him was her height. “She is also very beautiful, although not in a way that men find intimidating or women find off-putting; it is the lived-in beauty of the mother and busy professional.”...

Bringing together work, family and politics has not always been easy for the Obamas. In his autobiography, Mr Obama writes that, by the time Sasha was born, “my wife’s anger toward me seemed barely contained”. He recalls: “I found myself subjected to endless negotiations about every detail of managing the house, long lists of things that I needed to do or had forgotten to do, and a generally sour attitude.”...

Simply by inhabiting the White House, Mrs Obama will be making political history and delivering a powerful political message. “We are still in a time where an image of a tall, really brown-skinned woman as a model of beauty and achievement is striking,” said Lynnette Clemetson, editor of The Root. “I am still stopped cold in a very emotional way every time I see a picture of her, especially if it includes her daughters. I am struck by the fact that those three black women will be living in the White House and they won’t be cooking there, and they won’t be cleaning there. They will be living there.”

New blog with "Obama Posse" list

On Being a Black Lawyer, a new blog by Yolanda Young, focuses on the interests and experiences of African-American lawyers. Feminist Law Professors reports that OBABL grew out of a post by Young last March on Huffington, describing racial stratification at top law firms.

OBABL currently features an "Obama Posse List" of African-American lawyers being named to posts in the  new administration.

Welcome to the blogosphere!

 

Post Prop 8: learning the lessons

I write this as demonstrations against Prop 8 occur around the country. (Right - NYC Wednesday night; HT for photo to Barbara Kerr) That's great (although I distance myself from anything framed as anti-Mormon per se). While it's been tough to have been too busy to be blogging in the last couple of weeks, I'm not unhappy to have missed all the heartburn in lgbt world about why we lost Prop 8, as the gay blogosphere has been flaming with finger pointing in various directions and with interpretations and counter-interpretations of election data. 

Instead -->

First, let's suspend the instant analysis until we have fuller information.  There are at least three studies - that I know of - being done now about what went wrong, including more detailed empirical analysis than is possible from reviewing media web sites with exit poll data. The studies also include post-election focus groups on why people voted as they did.

Maybe these studies will confirm X analysis or Y analysis, or maybe, as is often the case in life, reality will turn out to be at least a little bit more complicated than all of our philosophically-driven explanations would paint it (and I acknowledge that my instant analysis is as much a reflection of my own beliefs as anyone else's). In other words, express the anger, but chill on the analysis until we have a fuller set of data.

Second, specifically with regard to the impact of black and Latino voters, let's not blink at either white gay race stupidity (and worse) or where a marriage equality message failed.  There's undoubtedly a degree of lgbt pain from being rejected by members of another minority whose own struggle for equality has been so prolonged and so important. I feel that, and I can only imagine what it must feel like for an lgbt person of color. I also recall that, as others have said, on every issue except marriage, the support for lgbt equality is stronger in communities of color than anywhere else.  Just compare the pro-gay voting record of the Congressional Black Caucus with any other group in Congress - nothing comes close. And I am quite suspicious of analyses that focus on people of color as somehow the location from which the missing 400,000 votes were supposed to have come. Other groups - unmarried women, from what I've heard - voted by a majority against Prop 8, but by a significantly smaller majority than was projected.  Are single women to blame for the defeat?

That said, after we've dropped the blaming - sometimes racist - language that has emerged since election day, let's not pretend that all is well on this front. There are reasons why communities of color did not vote against Prop 8 in the ways we wanted and needed, and those reasons need to be addressed head on. Maybe the No on 8 campaign should have spent more/different resources directed toward black and Latino voters, but that's way too easy a response.  Maybe just throwing more money into certain ads or get out the vote efforts would have turned the tide.  Even if that's true, however, there are deeper reasons operating here. Hopefully, some of those dynamics will become more clear when focus group analyses come in.  Whatever they are, our duty is to deal with them, in all their complex realities.

Tea and history: new oral history of black gay men in the South

In African-American communities in the South, "tea" can be a code word for "gay." It's also a slang term for gossip; "pouring tea" or "spilling tea," can mean telling tales or dishing up the dirt. With a title playing on those meanings, Sweet Tea, E. Patrick Johnson's oral history of African-American gay men in the South, has just arrived in bookstores.

Johnson, a North Carolina native who is now professor of performance studies at Northwestern University,  argues that southern black gay men draw upon the performance of "southernness"--politeness, coded speech, and religiosity, for example--to legitimate themselves as members of both southern and black cultures. At the same time, according to Professor Johnson, they deploy those same codes to establish and build friendship networks and to find sexual partners and life partners. In addition to filling a gap in the sexual history of the South, Sweet Tea offers a window into the ways that black gay men negotiate their sexual and racial identities with their southern cultural and religious identities.

Traveling to every southern state, Professor Johnson interviewed more than seventy black gay men between the ages of 19 and 93. In Sweet Tea, he presents them in the style of Studs Terkel's long oral histories, with relatively few questions and minimal interruptions - essentially, allowing them to tell their stories their own way.

As is often true in the South, Johnson argues that things are more complicated than they initially may appear. Gay men have found places of honor in countless black church choirs. Drag queens sometimes figure in the sideline antics at athletic events on many historically black campuses. And of course, the Lady Chablis of Savannah - made famous in John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - is hardly the only diva to make a fabulous living on a local stage.

Along the way, the reader meets Harold and Harold, a mixed-race gay couple who have lived together for more than four decades; "Countess Vivian," a World War II veteran who reigns as a Mardi Gras diva on the gay end of Bourbon Street in New Orleans; or "Chaz," a young trans person who lives as a woman six days a week but dons a suit and tie to attend church on Sundays, to placate his mother.

You can see video clips of Professor Johnson's dramatic readings from the interviews. On November 3, he will be speaking about the book at Indiana University in Bloomington.

HT - Star News