Black and gays: The shared struggle for civil rights

via The Washington Post, by Jonathan Capehart

You may recall that last month Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) and I sparred over same-sex marriage on “Morning Joe.”

You may also recall that at the end of the interview, the show’s anchor, Joe Scarborough, asked me, “[W]ould you compare the civil rights struggles of African Americans over 300 years in America to marriage equity?” Without hesitation, I said, “Yes.”

“It’s an issue of civil rights, as you said. It’s an issue of equality. It’s an issue of equal treatment under the law,” I said. “No one is asking for special rights.

No one is asking for any kind of special favors. We’re just looking for the same rights and responsibilities that come with marriage and also the protections that are provided under marriage.

In that regard overall we’re talking about a civil rights issue and what African Americans continue to struggle with is exactly what lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are struggling with today.”

That didn’t go over so well with more than a few African Americans. They don’t see the struggles as comparable, equivalent or even related.

Last Wednesday, @Brokenb4God tweeted to me, “@CapehartJ still can’t believe u think the choice of being gay is congruent to the struggle of blacks. Ain’t never seen no gay plantations!”

Clearly, she’s from the misguided pray-the-gay-away cabal, so no need to address that.

I’ll leave the cheap and provocative “gay plantations” stink bomb alone, too, and get to my main point.

What links the two struggles is the quest for equality, dignity and equal protection under the law. In short, gay rights are civil rights. It’s that simple.


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Much More Than a TV Show

via Advocate, by op-ed contributor Michelle Kristel

"Last week, I bought the gun. Yesterday, I wrote the note. Last night, I happened to catch your show on TV and, just knowing that someday I might be able to go back into a church with my head held high, I threw the gun into the river.

My mom never has to know." So read the email that a gay Iowa teenager sent to Daniel Karslake, a producer here at In The Life Media (ITLM) in 1998.

As the executive director of ITLM — which produces the award-winning newsmagazine, IN THE LIFE — I know that media depicting LGBT people has the power to change lives. It can also, as in this case, even save them.

As ITLM celebrates its 20th anniversary, we reflect upon how far we’ve come — and how far we still have to go for LGBT people to achieve full equality.

We take pride in knowing that, through our unique programming, ITLM has become so much more than a TV show.

Twenty years ago, a group of individuals had a vision: to create a television program featuring LGBT voices and culture. In the days before Ellen or Will & Grace, let alone Glee, it was all but impossible to find respectful depictions of LGBT characters on television.

Real LGBT people were relegated to the spectacle of daytime talk shows. Many of the issues important to our community were not covered by mainstream media in any substantive manner.

Today of course, LGBT visibility in media is commonplace. While this has led to greater acceptance for our community, visibility alone does not equate to social justice.

Discrimination is still prevalent. Countless instances of antigay legislation, policies and behaviors take place throughout this country every day, often with little notice by the general populace.

However, in LGBT communities, the damage of these discriminatory actions is acutely felt.

ITLM has always recognized the imperative of truly educating the public about who we are as LGBT individuals and the very real way issues, ranging from HIV/AIDS to marriage equality to homelessness, affect our community. To us, this is crucial to securing civil rights.

Our programming consistently exposes injustice, challenges perceptions and shatters stereotypes. Here, in fact, “stereotypes crumble before your very eyes,” according to TheNew York Times.
 
For instance, our media is being shown at universities to fight homophobia on campuses around the country. Recently, our work has been used to inform Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, UNAIDS, ACLU, Anti-Defamation League, and scores of LGBT and allied groups, many of whom cannot afford to create these materials on their own.

Our programming not only has political implications, however. It also improves lives in very direct and personal ways. Case in point, we recently produced a Spanish-language Web video for our “Marriage Matters” series profiling Cristina, an American citizen, and her partner Monica, who is from Argentina.

The couple married legally in their home state but, because of the Defense of Marriage Act, Monica faced deportation, since the immigration protections provided for heterosexual couples do not apply to same-sex couples.

With the help of our video, Monica and Cristina won their legal battle and had deportation proceedings against them closed by New York’s chief immigration counsel. This is a first for same-sex married couples.

That is one example of how ITLM is moving to the forefront of video journalism. By developing model approaches to Web-based content, we are leveraging the power of online communications to propelchange for the LGBT movement.

Our provocative, short-form videos created expressly for the Web address issues still ignored by the mainstream, while utilizing the unique functionality, versatility and reach of the Internet.

Another example is “Injustice at Every Turn,” our Web-exclusive video based on a report of the same name examining discrimination against transgender people.

Our exposé gave viewers a different perspective than did most media covering the survey, and illuminated a difficult topic in ways that have a real and profound impact on our community.

I am proud to note that this video was used to inform the U.S. Department of Labor about anti-transgender discrimination in the workplace.

Similarly, one of our most recent Web-exclusives, “A Day in Our Shoes,” told the stories of LGBT homeless youth forced to sleep on the streets after having been tossed out by rejecting parents, grandparents and other family members.

The media was used as part of the Campaign for Youth Shelter, which calls on New York City and State to provide increased funding for shelter beds.

The movement has made great strides in the past decade. But the need for media that educates and informs the public about LGBT Americans is as urgent as ever.

We all know that media drives public opinion and ITLM proudly provides a counterpoint to the multi-billion dollar, antigay media machine that LGBT foes have spent decades building.


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Op-ed: Our Groups Need More Color in Their Rainbow

via Advocate, by Jimmy Nguyen op-ed contributor

The rainbow flag, the very the symbol of gay pride, represents both our aspirations and the diversity of our population. 

Yet the top of the gay community’s rainbow — the leadership tier of LGBT non-profit organizations — is more awash in white than any other color. 

At the executive director position, LGBT groups have historically been led almost exclusively by white men. 

A step down at the board level, gay non-profits have tried for years to recruit members who better match the racial diversity of America.

After all this time talking about the need for greater racial inclusion, it’s time LGBT entities did better in finding leaders who represent the full spectrum of colors.

The figures are troubling, especially at the very top.  In 2008, only 4% of executive directors of LGBT organizations were people of color.

That figure comes from The Pipeline Project, a group formed to develop LGBT leaders who reflect our multicultural, multiethnic community. 

It is a far cry from the 36% of the U.S. population who self-identifies as a racial minority.  And our 4% is one-third less than non-profit groups in general. 

While I have not come across more recent statistics, it’s hard to imagine racial diversity among executive directors has dramatically improved in the past few years.

Executive directors act as faces to the public of their organizations and the overall LGBT movement; it is critical that those faces be as diverse as possible.

Because the LGBT population is itself a minority group, it is sadly ironic that our organizations need their own diversity initiatives.

In the boardroom, the picture is better but still lacking.  At the major LGBT non-profit entities, only 25% of board members are racial minorities, according to the 2011 annual National LGBT Movement Report released by the Movement Advancement Project, which studies the health of LGBT organizations. 

Despite efforts to improve board diversity, the 25% figure has not materially changed from the prior year.  While the MAP study does not capture data from all gay non-profit entities, it represents a good cross-section.

The 2011 report (summarizing 2010 data) covered 40 of the most prominent groups that collectively control 71% of the budgets from known gay organizations. 

Luckily, LGBT non-profit entities are doing well at the staff level. 

MAP found that 32% of staff members at participating organizations identify themselves as people of color.

This more closely tracks with the 36% figure for the U.S. population.

Why is the leadership of our LGBT organizations so awash in white?  Let’s begin with the elephant in the room. 

The gay community needs to be more racially inclusive – not just in its organizational structures and political strategies, but in its social fabric. 

Ethnic minority groups still are not as integrated into the gay world as they should be. 

That isn’t to say Caucasian people have no racial minority friends, but it is a fair observation that their social circles tend to be less racially diverse. 

This spills over into the milieu of “A-gay” charity events, where the people who historically run the show (often gay white men) invite people they know (usually more gay white men than racial minorities) to attend, contribute money or support in other ways. 

Trust me, I’ve showed up at many gay fundraisers to find myself as an Asian man just one amongst a limited number of racial minority people in the ballroom.  That results in fewer people of color getting exposure to the good work of LGBT organizations.

In turn, this affects boardroom composition. With leaders of LGBT entities being less diverse, so too are their social circles, which they reach out to for recruiting prospective board members. 

This leads to a spiraling cycle that makes it difficult for non-profit groups to improve their ethnic diversity.
 
Adding to the challenge is the money factor. For executive directors and board members, a big part of their job is to solicit donations from people who have money or strong business relationships to leverage. 

That immediately starts filtering out some people of color from the contact list.  There are, of course, many LGBT racial minorities who are professionally successful. 

But it’s the cold hard truth that an income disparity still exists in America between whites and racial minorities (irrespective of sexual orientation) even with the same level of educational attainment. 

This monetary discrepancy leaves racial minorities less likely to be invited into LGBT leadership.  I’ve experienced this myself during my time on an LGBT board. 

I would look through my contact list to see who amongst my friends had the financial means to make a significant donation or had business contacts that would be valuable. 

Fewer of my racial minority friends fit that bill than my Caucasian colleagues.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having gay, white men at the top (just as there is nothing inherently wrong with straight, white male leaders). 

But we need more color not just for atmospherics; we need itto help win the gay civil rights movement. 


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MLK Day Reflection for LGBTQ Justice in the Black Church

via HuffPost Gay Voice, by Irene Monroe

Today is MLK Day, and I am proud to count myself among the many people working for social justice today who stand on the shoulders of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Too many people think King's statements regarding justice are only about race and the African-American community, thus excluding the LGBTQ community.

But King said, "[T]he revolution for human rights is opening up unhealthy areas in American life and permitting a new and wholesome healing to take place. Eventually the civil rights movement will have contributed infinitely more to the nation than the eradication of racial justice."

Members of King's family also embrace his words, extending them to the LGBTQ community.

For example, in 1998, Coretta Scott King addressed the LGBT group Lambda Legal in Chicago. In her speech, she said queer rights and civil rights were the same:

"I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King's dream to make room at the table of brother and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people."

Like her parents' faith, the Kings' eldest daughter Yolanda's faith in the civil rights movement drove her passion for LGBTQ justice.

"If you are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, you do not have the same rights as other Americans," she said at Chicago's Out & Equal Workplace Summit in 2006.

"You cannot marry. ... [Y]ou still face discrimination in the workplace, and in our armed forces. For a nation that prides itself on liberty, justice and equality for all, this is totally unacceptable."

However, I must say that as an African-American minister having pastored churches, and having worked alongside black ministers and their parishioners, I have learned that whom we shout out and pray to on Sunday as an oppressed people does not have any relation to whom we damn, discard, and demonize, thus making us an oppressor to people marginalized and disenfranchised like ourselves.

The black church is an unabashed and unapologetic oppressor of its LGBTQ community and, consequently, a hindrance in progressive movement toward LGBTQ civil rights in this country.

While King would undoubtedly shake his head in disbelief concerning his brethren, he would applaud the stance the NAACP took on marriage equality.

In quelling the tension between black civil right activists and ministers of the 1960s who still vociferously state that marriage equality for LGBTQ Americans is not a civil right, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. marked the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia (when the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967 struck down this country's anti-miscegenation laws as unconstitutional) by stating the following concerning same-sex marriage:

It is undeniable that the experience of African Americans differs in many important ways from that of gay men and lesbians; among other things, the legacy of slavery and segregation is profound. But differences in historical experiences should not preclude the application of constitutional provisions to gay men and lesbians who are denied the fight to marry the person of their choice.

But if King were with us today, he would be sad about how homophobia continues within the black church community, which has a profound impact on the mistreatment of its LGBTQ community, and its inattentiveness to the AIDS epidemic ravaging the black community.

Religion has become a peculiar institution in the theater of human life. Just as the Latin root of the word, "religio," means "to bind," it has served as a legitimate power in binding people's shared hatred. But King's teachings taught me how religion plays a profound role in the work of justice.

A religion that looks at reality from an involved, committed stance in light of a faith that does justice sees the face of the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the dispossessed -- and that also includes its LGBTQ people.


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Illinois Looking Towards Marriage Equality

via HuffPost Gay Voices, by Waymon Hudson

A group of Illinois legislators and civil rights organizations has started holding meetings to strategize on moving from civil unions to full marriage equality for LGBT couples.

Illinois state representatives Greg Harris, Deb Mell, Ann Williams, Kelly Cassidy, and Sara Feigenholtz, and state senator Heather Steans, as well as groups like Equality Illinois, Log Cabin Republicans, the ACLU, Lambda Legal, The Civil Rights Agenda, and the Human Rights Campaign, are looking at how to move forward legislatively on marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Representative Greg Harris told the Windy City Times that the legislation wouldn't be introduced until 2013 at the earliest, and he gave some insight into how difficult it could be: "I do not delude myself into thinking this will be an easy process.

But we need to take the first step. We have to be ready to stand up and defend the gains that we've made and to look toward the next steps."

The road ahead for marriage equality in the state does indeed look difficult, but not impossible.
Among the strongest opposition is the highly influential and politically powerful Catholic Church.

In September the Catholic Conference of Illinois announced the formation of a "Defense of Marriage" department, whose sole purpose is to fight any future attempts to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.

The stated goal of the department is to protect the "stature of the nuclear family -- which provides love, stability and confidence to children, as well as organization to society."

The "Defense of Marriage" department has already started throwing out incendiary (and scientifically unfounded) claims about the "dangers" of marriage equality:

"The effects [of same-sex marriage] are evident in the performance of children in school, in truancy and crime rates, and in an ailing culture that too often values feeling good over self-giving, and individuality over the common good."

The Catholic Church's hostility toward equal rights for LGBT people in the state has indeed been ratcheting up. We've seen the drawn-out legal battle between Catholic Charities and the state of Illinois over the organization's state-funded adoption and foster care contracts, and their refusal to grant those services to same-sex couples in civil unions, which ended in a loss for the church.

This has led to a growing tension between the church hierarchy and advancing civil rights.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago recently compared the city's gay pride parade to the Ku Klux Klan, sparking outrage, protests, and an eventual half-apology from the cardinal.

Even Pope Benedict himself has continued the attacks on marriage equality, saying this week that gay marriage was a threat to the traditional family that undermined "the future of humanity itself."

With well-organized and well-funded opposition like this, pushing for legislation allowing same-sex couples to marry will be difficult.

But there are concrete examples that can be used to educate the public and legislature about the basic unfairness of the separate and unequal status that civil unions create for gay couples in the state.

The previously mentioned fight between Catholic Charities and the state over the $30 million in taxpayer dollars that Catholic Charities received from the state of Illinois for foster care and adoption services was based on excluding same-sex couples in civil unions.

There was also the case of the Springfield, Ill. Joint Labor/Management Insurance Committee deciding not to cover health benefits for the civil-union partners of city employees.

The committee used the different relationship status of same-sex couples and married heterosexual couples to carve out the exemption to civil-union spouses.

They cited the benefits for same-sex couples being too costly, which is an argument that would never be accepted when applied to a more universally understood institution like full marriage.

Public outrage eventually made them change their decision and cover all couples equally.


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Tempers flare during NAACP panel discussion on LGBT issues

via GA Voice, By Ryan Watkins

CNN anchor Don Lemon, who recently came out as gay, moderated a panel discussion on black LGBT issues during the annual National Association for the Advancement of Colored People conference in Los Angeles over the weekend. Panel participants included out comedian Wanda Sykes, civil rights activist Julian Bond and other leaders in the black gay community and focused on a wide variety of topics from homophobia and hypocrisy in the black church to reaching out to allies in the community.

The two hour discussion was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center during the organization's 102nd annual conference.

There were contentious moments during the discussion, when NAACP CEO Benjamin Jealous was asked how the NAACP could be taken seriously as an advocate for LGBT equality when members of its board have made public anti-gay statements in the recent past.

Jealous made a point to defend his organization's work in the equality movement with regard to marriage and other protections for LGBT persons.

“The gay community should take us seriously as civil rights advocates who are committed to fairness for everyone,” Jealous said. “They should take us seriously because we are one of the architects, along with the Human Rights Campaign, of the Matthew Shepard/James Byrd Hate Crimes bill.”

Read more.

Civil Union Bill Passes the IL House, Senate - Off to Gov. Quinn for Signature

Civil Unions will be a reality in Illinois on January 1, 2011! Last night, the Illinois House passes the bill 61-52. The Senate just voted 32-24 to pass the legislation and Gov. Quinn has promised he will sign it. Congratulations Rep. Greg Harris and congratulations Illinois - we are one step closer to equality!

NYT: In Efforts to End Bullying, Some See Agenda

via NYT, by Erik Eckholm

 Alarmed by evidence that gay and lesbian students are common victims of schoolyard bullies, many school districts are bolstering their antiharassment rules with early lessons in tolerance, explaining that some children have “two moms” or will grow up to love members of the same sex.

But such efforts to teach acceptance of homosexuality, which have gained urgency after several well-publicized suicides by gay teenagers, are provoking new culture wars in some communities.

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Save the Date: Lobby Days 2011

Interested in advocating for HIV/AIDS rights and policies in Illinois? Then save the date to save our state March 22 and 23, 2011!

Ready to kick it open?

Today is National Coming Out Day

Are you ready to kick that closet door open?

Mark S. King - Sex while HIV Positive: The New Criminals

Mark S. King (My Fabulous Disease) interviews Sean Strub of the Positive Justice Project regarding the criminalization of HIV, and how these laws actually undermine HIV prevention, create an illusion of safety, and place a disproportionate burden on the poz person. Importantly, some of the cases that have resulted in convictions dealt with non-disclosure of status, and NOT  unsafe sex or the transmission of HIV. Sean tells Mark that  a quarter of criminal prosecutions in the U.S. involve things like spitting, which carries NO risk of HIV transmission.

Watch and listen for more of this very interesting conversation.

The Ball Moves Forward - Angels in America

[love Frank Rich so much]

To appreciate how much and how unexpectedly our country can change, look no further than the life and times of Judith Dunnington Peabody, who died on July 25 at 80 in her apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York. 

Excerpt:

None of this means that full equality for gay Americans is a done deal. Even if it were, that would be scant consolation to the latest minority groups to enter the pantheon of American scapegoats, Hispanic immigrants and Muslims. We are still a young, imperfect, unfinished country. As a young black man working as a nurse in a 1980s AIDS clinic memorably says in Tony Kushner’s epic drama “Angels in America”: “The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word ‘free’ to a note so high nobody can reach it.” 

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"That's not judicial activism. That's judicial responsibility (bitch!)"

I gotta say, after your appearance today, I don’t understand how you ever lost a case in the supreme court, sir.



This morning (Sunday), Ted Olson — the conservative lawyer who represented President Bush in Bush v. Gore — appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss his recent victory in overturning Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriages in California. Throughout the interview, host Chris Wallace attempted to trip up his guest with a series of familiar Republican talking points, all of which Olson repudiated.

Read more on The Wonk Room, and watch the video!

DOJ reviews Mass. rulings on fed gay marriage ban

via EDGE Boston, by Denise Lavoi

A judge’s rulings in Massachusetts that the federal law banning gay marriage is unconstitutional could have implications far beyond the state if they’re upheld by a higher court after an appeal by the Obama administration, legal experts say.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro said the law, the Defense of Marriage Act, interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and therefore denies married gay couples some federal benefits. He ruled Thursday in favor of gay couples’ rights in two separate challenges to DOMA, which the administration of President Barack Obama has argued for repealing.

The rulings apply to Massachusetts, but if a higher court with a broader jurisdiction were to hear an appeal and agree with the judge’s rulings, their impact would spread, said Boston College professor Kent Greenfield, a constitutional law expert. The rulings might encourage other attorneys general who oppose DOMA to sue to try to knock it down, he said.

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Health Insurance and Same-Sex Couples

Looks like there's a new reason to join the marriage equality movement?

A new study out of UCLA is documenting the disparities in health care coverage for same-sex couples. Partnered gay men are less than half as likely (42 percent) as married heterosexual men to get employer-sponsored dependent coverage, and partnered lesbians have an even slimmer chance (28 percent) of getting dependent coverage compared to married heterosexual women. As a result of these much lower rates of employer-provided coverage, partnered lesbians and gay men are more than twice as likely to be uninsured as married heterosexuals.

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E. Patrick Johnson: Justice is "Being our complete self" in the world

Professor E. Patrick Johnson addresses the question, "What is justice for the Black Gay Man?" at the "Justice for All?" community forum sponsored by the Chicago Black Gay Men's Caucus LifeLube's Project CRYSP, Communities of Color Collaborative and Test Positive Aware Network, in honor of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Thursday, January 28th, at The University Center.




More on this forum (including news articles), and other forums involving Project CRYSP can be found here, on LifeLube.

Check out the Keith Boykin clip, from the same forum.

Who's That Queer [James Baldwin]

Brought to you by Pistol Pete

James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – November 30, 1987) was a writer, playwright, poet and civil rights activist.

Most of Baldwin's work deals with racial and sexual issues in the mid-20th century in the United States. His novels are notable for the personal way in which they explore questions of identity as well as the way in which they mine complex social and psychological pressures related to being black and homosexual well before the social, cultural or political equality of these groups was improved.

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150 Iowa clergy: We support same-sex marriage

Source

More than 150 clergy from across Iowa have signed a letter of support for equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

The letter was announced by Interfaith Alliance of Iowa Action Fund, a statewide organization that frequently advocates for civil rights. The group delivered the letter today to lawmakers during a press conference at the Capitol.

“The Supreme Court of Iowa recognized that equity and fairness is the starting point in our state’s constitution,” said Rev. Matt Mardis-LeCroy, Board Chairperson of Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and minister at Plymouth Congregational Church in Des Moines. “We as clergy from different faith traditions adhere to this principle and stand firmly with gay and lesbian couples to underscore the importance of marriage equality. Our traditions and practices as religious entities should never be used to exclude equal protection from anyone.”

Read the letter.

CHICAGO: Join Lambda Legal for the 9th Annual Freedom to Marry Reception

Educate, Advocate, Celebrate

Date: Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Time: 6:00 to 9:00 pm

Location: National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th Street, Chicago, IL 60608
RSVP Preferred.

Click here for more information. The event is free and open to the public.

Check out their Freedom to Marry 2009 photos!

  Click to enlarge.

Justice for all? Chicago forum examines justice for black gay men

via  EDGE, by Joseph Erbentraut

On the heels of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, birthday, author, speaker and activist Keith Boykin headlined a Chicago forum that addressed the issue of justice for black gay men.Titled "Justice for All?," the forum, which the Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus, the Communities of Color Collaborative and other groups organized, was intended to debate the meaning of justice while strategizing for lasting change for gay men of color. It drew a standing-room only crowd to the University Center on Thursday night, but the discussion turned almost immediately to solutions, rather than problems.

Boykin, a television host and author of "One More River to Cross: Black and Gay in America" and "Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America," identified the mood of the room as one of hunger--for information, conversation and, most importantly change. He encouraged attendees to overcome a "fear-based society" with love and self-empowerment to face their biggest challenge: Themselves.

"[Fifteen years ago,] I felt at that time that the biggest concern for black gay men was the issue of racism from the white community and homophobia from the black community: I no longer believe that," Boykin said. "I think the biggest issue we face today is our our internalized prejudice. The most important thing we can do is to come out ... and be open and honest about who we are."

Read the rest.
 

Read coverage on the forum in the Windy City Times.