Monday is February and the beginning of Black History Month, so I'm starting early on it.
It occurs to me that in both the lgbt community and the black community, lgbts of color never seem to be able to get in the conversation. We are boggarted because it seems that both communities don't see us as people, but as commodities.
So I am posting clips from an old episode of In Focus, news magazine show in Atlanta, GA.
The episode is talking about homosexuality in the black church. And what makes this episode excellent is that it is doing something that neither the black or gay community can never seem to do - letting lgbts of color get a word in edgewise.
I would ask those who claim to be for lgbt or African-American equality to view the clips and ponder one point - how in the hell are you working to secure my rights if you won't listen to what I have to say?:
4 comments:
Bravo, Alvin! Wow. You did it again. This post is most excellent. Thank you for sharing this gem with us. I am heartened by the poise, intelligence and compassion of both Dr. Martin and Rev. Meredith in their debate with Pastor Foster. This is so revealing of how sanctimonious our oppositions really are. It's so sad to see that our most dangerous enemies are the self-loathing "ex-gays." It was quite a shock to me when the facilitator of In Focus disclosed to us that Pastor Foster is an "ex-gay," even though I thought I spotted purses falling out of his mouth when he was speaking. One can see that Pastor Foster was only barely able to contain his self-righteous contempt when challenged by his esteemed colleagues on his hypocrisy and selective interpretation of "his" form of scripture. It was written all over his face and I could almost see him foam at the mouth. Very entertaining. I believe this would enlighten the LGBT community on the black churches, if only they would allow us people of color to have a voice in the discussion. I'm extremely disappointed that this post of yours and these videos were not widely picked up by the mainstream LGBT blogs. I would like to repost it on my blog the SoCal Voice, as a guest post, with your permission.
Along similar vein, and you may have already post about this and I may have missed it, but would you consider doing an expose type post regarding the connection between the astronomical rates of HIV positive black women in America and the "downlow" culture of gay black men. I had heard some years ago from a female black friend back home in Atlanta that almost 80% (not sure if that % is accurate) of black men in Atlanta are either gay or bisexual and it fuels the prejudice of the black community against gays, only to have that compounded with the increasing single black mother struggling to raise her kids and sustain her family due to shortage of available black men because they are either homosexual, are in prison or marry a token white women because of shame or what not. I hope I didn't offend you with the last long-winded comment but it's just what I'm curious about and would love to be up to speed on. Seriously, I didn't make that up and it was told to me by a trusted friend and I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Is it true and are there any connections at all or was it just a rambling of an angry black women so to speak.
Again, no one can do this quite like you. My hope and my wish is that the LGBT community will start to listen to us people of color and take our concerns more seriously because right now our movement, if there is one, is really disconnected, divisive and really headless.
Thank you Nakhone for your comments and by all means feel free to repost this anywhere you like.
And to answer your question, I did post something in October about a CDC study which said the "down low" is not responsible for the HIV rate amongst black women - http://holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com/2009/10/cdc-down-low-men-not-responsible-for.html
And I agree with you about the lgbt community. It's up to folks like us to push and raise our voices higher above the din of nonsense.
Yes. I will take your lead on the pushing and raising of our voices higher above the din of nonsense. I will also repost your article on my blog. Cheers!
Hi Alvin. Thanks for posting these clips. I have to admit, however, that by and large, much of the material covered in the clips leaves me no better informed of the unique difficulties facing LGBT's of color.
The vast majority of the time in the clips was spent discussing theology. I've heard these same discussion points covered many times. In fact, I've covered them in my own discussions (from both sides of the argument at different point in my life, no less). Again, I didn't find anything particularly unique about the discussion based on the participants' race. In fact, I was disappointed in that I felt that none of the panel participants really tackled why this issue is seeing so much resistance in the black church as opposed to the greater body of Christianity.
I will note, however, that I did catch and appreciate the point made by one of the young men in the first clip. He talked about how the fear of coming out is compounded by the fact that they are already disliked and mistreated by the rest of society. That part made complete sense to me, and is something I never considered. I can certainly see why an LGBT of color would be afraid of losing the support of their community in a world already hostile to them. It also left me wondering what the great LGBT community can do to help with that.
I just wish there had been more perspectives like that in the clips. As I said, the rest just left me feeling like I wasn't learning anything new. That's unfortunate, because I want to learn and understand.
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