'The New Black' explores relationship between black community & lgbt equality

After the 2008 Prop 8 vote, the African-American community shouldered the blame (whether unfairly or not) for that loss. Four years later, it was the African-American community which played a pivotal role in marriage equality coming to Maryland.

What changed over four year's time? If you ask me, it was less assumptions by lgbt community and more dialogue between that community and the African-American community as well as the basic acknowledgement of lgbts of color.

A wonderful film, The New Black, examines what happened in Maryland against the backdrop of the struggle of lgbt equality in the black community. Here is the trailer:



From The Huffington Post:

 The film is now enjoying a new life as part of an initiative to get students at historically black colleges and universities to talk about a longtime taboo in the African-American community — sexual identity and the church. The initiative is a project of the Human Rights Campaign, an advocate of LGBT equality, and Promised Land Films, the producers of the film. HRC designated $4,000 in grants to bring “The New Black” to so-called HBCUs. To date it has been shown at about a half-dozen schools, including Spelman College, Howard University and Tennessee State University. Chris Smith, an outreach coordinator for HRC, said the grant money covers the screenings and follow-up discussions.