A recent piece in The Root breaks down - or rather - tears apart assumptions about the African-American community and the subject of gay marriage:
According to The Root:
Basically the article seems to be saying that it's not that the black community does or doesn't support gay marriage, it's just that it's not on the top of the list of concerns to many black voters:
Lastly, the article gives a little advice to those pressing for gay marriage - something which many lgbts of color have been saying for the longest - don't take the black voter for granted because of assumptions. Include black voices in your messaging:
According to The Root:
A report indicates that black voters who don't support same-sex marriage will vote for candidates who do. This spells opportunity for white LGBT activists, if they're willing to take heed.
Basically the article seems to be saying that it's not that the black community does or doesn't support gay marriage, it's just that it's not on the top of the list of concerns to many black voters:
Focused far more on job creation, health care and education than on gay marriage, black voters aren't supporting conservative candidates simply because they oppose LGBT rights. Instead, they are voting for progressive pro-LGBT candidates -- despite disagreeing with their pro-LGBT platforms.
"The truth is, we just don't see blacks voting against a candidate based on [his or her] support of gay marriage," says Patrick Egan, assistant professor of politics and public policy at New York University. "We actually don't see this becoming an important issue for voters of any race."
Lastly, the article gives a little advice to those pressing for gay marriage - something which many lgbts of color have been saying for the longest - don't take the black voter for granted because of assumptions. Include black voices in your messaging:
As in Maine's successful 2009 marriage-equality repeal, national white LGBT leaders will undoubtedly "parachute" into Maryland to help direct the ballot battle. But this time, black voters -- and leaders -- must take central roles in defining the battle's narrative.
This was the case in the successful 2010 campaign to secure marriage equality in Washington, D.C.; pro-LGBT black voices and faces must now be front and center if a similar campaign comes to Maryland. And white LGBT leaders will have to step aside and let this happen.
"One of the reasons the D.C. campaign was so successful is that black voters -- including religious voters -- saw folks like themselves supporting marriage equality," explains Lanae Erickson, deputy director of the Culture Initiative at the Third Way. "Just as important: Many [white] LGBT leaders went out of their way to ensure that these [black] activists were heard."
3 comments:
Dear blogger who is looking here expecting to see his published comment,
The ONLY reason why I didn't print your rambling piece of trash is because you included your blogger address. I would have gladly answered your racist nonsense about how black people voted for Obama on a strictly racist basis and how we should be honoring conservatives like Clarence Thomas (that's a hoot given his presence troubles in regards to credibility), but I will not give your site free publicity too.
Sorry.
Dear Alvin,
After the Alston debacle in Annapolis (she represents a district that is 63.2% black), I have my doubts about this article. Seems that the more brainwashed in religion one is, the less likely one is to support LGBT equality. From this, and the numbers of blacks that attend church, one has to wonder if the black community isn't just homophobic generally. One could say the same of the white community and it's nutcase religionists, but I don't have the numbers of white folk that attend church, I believe it's a lot less pervasive. Many people claim to be of a certain religion, but don't really practice it either. I would like to see a real study that proves conclusively one way or the other on the issue of religion and non/support for LGBT equality.
Thanks for the article. I do think it is correct. I'm thinking to back to Carol Mosley Braun's second, unsuccessful, run for the Senate. Here, an African American woman, voted against DADT and DOMA, but there was not a peep from the Black community regarding her vote. White politicians that vote pro-gay are routinely and all too often successfully challenged based on their pro-equality vote.
During the recent passage of the Civil Unions bill here in Illinois, the vast majority of African Americans in the IL-House and IL-Senate voted for passage, the bulk of them representing impoverished districts, again no cries of recall or running a homophobic candidate based on their vote are coming from their districts.
Some people in the gay community use this issue as a way of justifying a disdain for people of color in general (even other gay people of color!) The organizers of NoH8 ignored the Black community those for Prop 8 did not. Hopefully this is a lesson that the pro-equality people have learned.
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