Ken Blackwell cures this brotha's Monday blaahs

Lord, it's so hard to keep up with all of the mess emanating from the religious right.

For the benefit of those who don't know, in addition to updating my two blogs, I have an 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. job. So sometimes I can't keep up with the news like so many other lgbt blogs. Subsequently when I post, I try to make it a doozy - i.e. either show something new and different or throw out a different dimension to exposing religious right lies.

Today, I was a little under the weather

I turn 38 this upcoming Sunday and I'm not looking forward to it. You can chalk it up to wondering if I have done something relevant with my life so far. I've had this notion many times before.

When I turned 30 and felt that I had not hit the nadir of relevance, I calmed my hysteria by noting that legendary actor Burt Lancaster didn't really start cooking until he reached 32 and that Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison didn't start writing until she was 35.

These days as I approach 40, I tell myself that Jerry Seinfeld didn't really hit it big until he was in his 40s.

I guess if I haven't done anything of relevance by the time I reach 50, I will be pulling Grandma Moses out of my hat.

Right now, I am trying to get together a serious column regarding ENDA, gays, African-Americans and the "privilege of oppression."

Sounds good, don't it?

But leave it to possible GOP National Committee Chairman Ken Blackwell to wake me up.

'Change' Ken Blackwell can believe in

The GOP may select Ken Blackwell to be the first African-American chairman of their National Committee. Something that we can blame on Obama no doubt.

Now I suppose we are going to be inundated with cross conversations between the lgbt community and the heterosexual African-American community on just what is a "civil right." This interview looks to be the possible first salvo.

Personally speaking, the entire conversation drives this black gay man to distraction. Every time lgbts and African-Americans get into this discussion, I feel like a child caught in the middle of a nasty custody battle. (Eat your heart out, Gloria Vanderbilt)

Now while I feel that the lgbt community in general can do more to help black gays and lesbians be more visible, I can't shake the notion that the entire argument puts my heterosexual black brothers and sisters in some of the most unlikely of positions.

Not only does the subject of homosexuality make the black community seem hypocritical (i.e. citing religious belief against homosexuality as a defense when some forms of popular African-American music embrace sexualized images of women and fornication - which you hardly ever hear Harry Jackson or Ken Hutcherson talk about) but it also causes the black community to forget its own history.

Take the notion pushed by some of my heterosexual black brothers and sisters that "gays have it easy because they can hide who they are."

Those who say that tend to forget a sad bit of African-American history.

It's not talked about much now but a while ago, there were some African-Americans who took advantage of their lighter skin tone in order to "pass" for white. They did this to escape the potential dead end life that racism subjected black America to.

Needless to say, those who could not pass weren't exactly happy with the actions of their lighter-skinned brothers and sister.

It was a controversial thing. Books were written about "passing," and vigorous conversations were had about the practice in meeting places such as barbershops and churches.

Hollywood even did several movies on the subject. The most famous had to be Imitation of Life, in which a light-skinned black woman ran away from home in order to pass for white.

Her mother gets so distraught that she dies of a broken heart, And this leads to the climactic, tear jerking ending in which the daughter interrupts the funeral, flings open the hearse and collapses on her mother's coffin in surfeit of hysterical tears.

You can see the scene here.

This leads to me to ask if passing caused so much trouble for African-Americans back then, then why in the hell would it be a good idea for the lgbt community right now?

Trying to be something you aren't isn't good for anyone, be they black, gay or black and gay. It's a practice that must never been encouraged.


News briefs:

Family advocacy group announces Pepsi boycott - brought to you by those who define boycotts by the lgbt community as acts of terror.

Right Wing Leftovers - Mike Huckabee says he is not "pro-sodomy." THANK YOU JESUS!!! I mean we don't just accept anybody.

DADT WITHOUT THE DA - In 1993, those who opposed gays in the military had Colin Powell, Congressman Sam Nunn, the phony studies of Paul Cameron, a host of public officials, and the full force of religious conservatives on their side. Now in 2008, all they have is a phony expert who gets destroyed every time she opens her mouth. I love America.

Always With The Bathroom; Always With The Misrepresentations - There are situations that can only be described as earring-yanking, wig snatching-off moments. What's happening now in Florida is at least 10 of them.