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The Gay Marriage Issue, and Black America?
April, 2004
The irony is that the gay marriage issue places a large contingent of black Americans squarely in line with President George Bush, who vigilantly upholds the Defense of Marriage Act, and is seeking a constitutional amendment to assure that individual states cannot whittle away the current law banning same-sex marriages. This is a political minefield for a president who’d prefer being remembered for ridding the world of terrorists, than banning marriage for gay voters. Presidential wish lists aside, the gay marriage issue is both a political and religious one for our community. The hard first step for us, is claiming homosexuality as part of our community, and secondly, viewing gay marriage as an issue deserving of our attention. The question causing dissension within our community, however, is: Is the gay marriage issue, a legitimate civil rights issue? The Massachusetts Supreme Court’s recent decision making gay marriage constitutional, citing the landmark interracial marriage law started this debate. There is sharp divide on this issue in black America. On the one hand, there are those who see any injustice as an injustice for all; and, then, there are others who view the comparison as disingenuous; as, an opportunity for the gay community to “pimp” the civil rights struggle, when it serves their purpose. The growing divergent voices from our civil rights, political and religious leaders represent the conflict within our communities. Leaders such as Rev. Al Sharpton, Reverend Cecil Williams, Congressman John Lewis, Coretta Scott-King, and Julian Bond have been vocal in their support of the Massachusetts law. Other leaders are caught between a rock and a hard place. Reverend Jesse Jackson recently told a Harvard audience that, while he supports equal protection under the law, comparisons of the struggles of gay rights to the civil rights movement were a stretch. “Gays were never called three-fifths of a human in the constitution,” he said. Reverend Joseph Lowery, of Atlanta, believes blacks should sympathize with the gay community’s fight for rights, but points out that this country’s history won’t allow too close a comparison. “Homosexuals as a people have never been enslaved because of their sexual orientation…and declared less than a human.” Reverend Eugene Rivers of Boston, agrees, saying the gay community’s use of the civil rights movement and its history is, “racist at worst, cynical at best.” Civil rights icon-turned politician Congressman John Lewis; and former politician –turned civil rights leader, Julian Bond – both involved in the early civil rights struggle support Massachusetts’ decision to legalize same-sex unions. Congressman Lewis, in fact, filed a friend-of-the-court brief that led to the state’s ruling, and NAACP leader, Julian Bond, warns black America that “Discrimination is discrimination, no matter who the victim is…” Still, black leaders stepping out on this highly controversial issue, are few and far-between. But, the NAACP’s official position on this issue will be challenged this summer, when Linton Johnson, who recently married in San Francisco, offers a resolution endorsing gay marriage at the organization’s national meeting. While right wing politicians have long viewed black America as far left “liberals”; those who dare look closer know that ours is a conservative community - far more so than the general population; and, most especially when it comes to issues of moral, religious and sexual matters…and homosexuality encompasses all three. Black Americans who marched, and risked their lives and their family’s safety for the civil rights struggle, aren’t seeing the parallel between that long-fought struggle and the gay marriage campaign. For most black Americans, openly gay unions are still liberal causes not in sync with our more immediate needs. Sift through our civil rights leader’s speeches on rights and freedoms, and you’ll find little, if anything that alludes to gay marriages, or the rights of same sex unions. Our early leaders were more focused on the larger issues of black American’s rights as human beings. Thus, black America has no real history of involving itself in such moral and religiously volatile issues as same-sex marriages. In fact, political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson believes our discomfort in supporting same-sex marriages come down to our sense of family, and our belief that gay unions help destroy black families. Black churches’ role in this debate, he believes, is tantamount to the moral compass of the black community…and, black churches are more often than not vocal critics of homosexuality. A recent Gallop poll found that a higher percentage of African Americans than whites or Asians voted for Proposition 22, the 2000 initiative that defined marriage in California as between a man and a woman; and a Pew poll showed that 60 percent of blacks opposed gay marriage. In the final analysis, most black leaders believe the civil rights struggle is about rights that affect the disenfranchised, not the superfluous rights of gays and same-sex partners. Yet, just as homosexuality has long been a reality in our communities, so will the issue of same-sex unions. And, no matter which side of this barbed-wire fence we find ourselves; the one thing we can all be assured of, is that it will not go quietly into the night. Janis F. Kearney is a Chicago writer, former journalist and diarist to President Bill Clinton. A Harvard W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow, she is currently completing William Jefferson Clinton from Hope to Harlem; and a personal memoir, Cotton Field of Dreams. Kearney Communications 5138 S. Kenwood Ave.#2 Chicago, IL 60615 (773) 493-2007 --ph (773) 493-5747 --fax janisfk@aol.com |
Black America is being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the gay marriage debate…
something many of us still want to designate as a “white folks issue.” Sadly, homosexuality
has long been the un-aired laundry of the black community, and except for a few brave
writers, politicians and religious leaders, the subject has remained behind closed doors.