Know Your LGBT History - Black Shampoo

To paraphrase Jane Fonda, there are a lot of things to say about the happenings of this week. But this isn't the time to say them.

What it's time for another segment of my Know Your LGBT History posts.

I apologize for today's post because it's as bad as last week's. However, again I reiterate how important it is for the lgbt community to understand how far we have come concerning images of ourselves on television and movies.

Today's post is about a little-seen blaxploitation movie entitled Black Shampoo (1976). Like many other blaxploitation movies (i.e. Blackenstein, Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde, Blacula) Black Shampoo is supposed to be a black version of a more widely seen movie.

In this case, it is Warren Beatty's movie Shampoo.

However this version has less to do with angst and relationships and more to do with violence and the glorification of the stereotype of the "big black buck."

John Daniels (who never had a starring role after this one because his acting was abominable) stars as the owner of a hair salon whose touch makes women so crazy that he generally ends up doing more than their hair, if you get my drift.

The conflict comes when he is trying to rescue his receptionist from the mob.

For the purposes of this blog, let's focus on one of his assistants, Artie. Artie is a stereotypical gay man - weak, flighty, and subject to all sort of abuse.

Naturally he also a living version of "Chekov's gun," in that you just know that he is only in the movie for something awful to happen to him. And it does at 1:14 of this trailer.

My gosh, we have come a looooong way:



Past Know Your LGBT History Postings:

Religious right group stoops to tacky images and other Friday midday news briefs

CWA: Obama the "Despot" is Discriminating Against Americans by Not Defending DOMA - It's so hard to take the religious right group Concerned Women for America seriously when they push drivel like this with pictures like the following:

And in other news:

Liz Hurley to play bisexual villainess in Wonder Woman reboot - That ought to be interesting.

Clashes Pit Parents vs. Gay-Friendly Curriculums in Schools - Cause lgbts don't have children attending America's schools. Yes that was sarcasm.

Harding University Attempts To Silence Gay Students’ Voices - Hot mess happenings at Harding University.

Gingrich Secured $200,000 For Iowa Judge Recall Campaign - These were the judges who overruled Iowa's law against gay marriage. I wonder how Gringrich would have felt if those judges supported adultery. Probably would have thrown them a fundraiser.

Lgbt community hit with betrayal in Maryland?

MAJOR UPDATE - Arora will grudgingly support the gay marriage bil. Thanks for the sour persimmons, cousin. Meanwhile, Maggie Gallagher continues to tackily push the "race card."

This is Sam Arora, a Maryland delegate who campaigned on the fact that he would vote for gay marriage.

He knocked on doors, sat down with same-sex families, and accepted donations (a list is here) while expressly saying that he supports marriage equality.

And now after he is in office, he is planning on changing his vote.

Naturally the members of the lgbt community who supported him, who introduced him to their families, who told him their life stories and why this piece of legislation is important are furious.


And some are asking for their donations back.

Now Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage is claiming that lgbt anger is strictly racism because, according to her, the lgbt community is ignoring another delegate who may switch votes.

She also claims that Arora is changing his vote because of, as she puts it, IMMENSE pressure from folks opposed to bringing gay marriage to Maine.

Arora has not given a reason why he is changing his mind. And based on NOM's past actions and statements, folks should take what Gallagher says with a grain of salt - i.e. every word dripping from her mouth is a lie including the words "and" and "the."

However, if the situation with Arora is true, this is a huge setback and betrayal.

Seems to me that if you campaign specifically on an issue and folks - along with their families - sit down and talk with you about how important the issue is, and they get a promise of support from you, then you should follow through with that promise.

It's just basic decency.

Now if Gallagher and company want to mark basic decency as one of the qualities they are willing to step over in pursuit of their goals, that is their prerogative.

However, Mr. Arora should aspire to something better.

This issue is not about racism. It's about lies, broken promises, and betrayals of constituents and their families.

Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post said it best:

The outrage directed at Arora is understandable. As is the sense of betrayal. He raised money from gays and lesbians based on his support for marriage equality. He secured the endorsements of Progressive Maryland and of Equality Maryland because of it. In fact, get a load of what he wrote as an addendum to his questionnaire for Equality Maryland:

I am a former law clerk to Attorney General Doug Gansler. I publicly supported his decision to recognize out-of-state marriage licenses for same-sex couples and immediately put out a release praising his findings. For me, it's simply a matter of equal rights under the law.

If this situation turns out the way it's trending, then NOM and Maggie Gallagher will have a lot to crow about. No doubt the spin will be how Arora "fought with himself" and "fought the slings and arrows of the radical homosexual movement to protect marriage."

I don't think that spin will work this time. There are some situations so ugly, so starkly monstrous that all of the spin in the world can't clean them up.

This looks like one of those times.


Folks, if you are going to write to Arora, Gallagher, or even vent, please be aware that this is one of those situations where Gallagher and company stalk pro-lgbt blogs looking for the ugliest comments they can pull to use against us. Don't let your anger allow you to be played.

500,000 hits later, a reminder to the lgbt community to keep on pressing

You will forgive me for not doing a usual post tonight. A little before noon today, this blog had its 500,000 visitor. That's over 500,000 readers in less than five years, which is not bad at all for a part-time blog which makes me no money at all. In commemoration of this, I want to repost my most popular piece, Message to the Religious Right. I wrote it in 2008, just weeks after we lost the Proposition 8 vote in California in response to Newt Gingrich claiming that our justified anger over the travesty was because lgbts are "secular fascists." I hope you all take this piece to heart and never lose your anger when things don't seem to be fair for us. But at the same time, never lose your hope. We are going to win this:

Message to the religious right - this isn't just about marriage, it's about history

I keep hearing all of this nonsense about us lgbts attacking people, about us using intimidation and violence to oppress people, about us somehow being ugly aggressors.

Newt Gingrich (who wrote the book on deceptive messaging during his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives) actually accused us of being "secular fascists."

Gingrich's attack on us seem to be the prevailing theme with those on the other side of the Proposition 8 argument.

And I think there needs to be some historical perspective on this matter.

True, Proposition 8 has galvanized our community. We have become a bit more politically engaged in our anger. That is a good thing.

However, any display of violence on either side of the argument should never be tolerated.

Nor should letting the religious right frame the moment.

I have a few questions to people like Newt Gingrich, Bill O’Reilly, Chuck Norris, Gary Bauer, Peter LaBarbera and the rest who are trying to push this "gay intimidation" image.

Where were you in the late 1970s when Anita Bryant accused us of trying to “recruit” children?

Where were you in 1983 when Paul Cameron accused gay men of stuffing gerbils up our rectums and castrating children? Or afterwards when he went from state to state pushing his phony research papers all designed to make us the boogiemen of American society?

Where were you when Jerry Falwell exploited the AIDS crisis to generate more money for the Moral Majority? Or when those dying of AIDS were cast out of their communities and excommunicated from their churches?

Where were you when Colorado passed that law in 1992 that basically said cities in the state had absolutely no right to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination?

Where were you when over the course of 20 years all of those phony “pro-family” groups told lies in front of federal and congressional state houses in attempts to beat back pro-gay laws or spread discredited research that gave “upstanding, moral” families the perfect excuse to put their gay sons and daughters out on the cold streets?

Where were you when organizations like Concerned Women for America, the Family Research Council, the Traditional Values Coalition, and Focus on the Family unconsciously gave reasoning for groups of roaming thugs to bash our heads in, chase us out in heavy traffic, beat us to bloody pulps with nail embedded boards, and hang us from fences on dark and lonely roads?

How is it that you can dare call us aggressive when for over 30 years, you have done everything in your power to make America hate and fear us?

How it is that you can dare infer that we don't have a right to get just a tad angry when for over 30 years, you have done everything in your power to make us hate and fear ourselves?

Every lie, every indignity, every attempt to dehumanize the lgbt community has brought us to this point. The Proposition 8 vote was the last straw in a chain of indignities that stretch as long as Jacob's ladder.

This ain’t just about marriage. Nor is this a single moment in time.

We are not the aggressors. We are learning to fight back.

When I was coming out, it wasn’t the fact that I was gay that bothered me more than the knowledge that so many had already written my life for me; told me who I was, what I liked, what I didn’t like, and even where I was going after I died.

Worst of all, they had the nerve to tell me that I had absolutely no rights to the words "values," "family," "tradition," or "honor."

And you know what the saddest thing about this is? I was not alone. Hundreds of thousands of lgbts went through the same experience. It was our "rite of passage."

So while I may not have a media spin machine behind me and therefore very few will give a damn about what I say, while I may not be a member of a religious think tank who is presently working to use this moment to again dehumanize lgbts, and while I may not be considered as a "leading gay talking head," I am an American, a human being, and a child of God.

Therefore, I will never forget what has brought me to this point of outrage.

And I will do my best to make sure that this country never forgets either.

Lastly, I will do my best to make sure that YOU never forget.

Black church leaders meet with lgbt community and other Thursday midday news briefs

Black Church Leaders Ask Forgiveness From the LGBT Community - The Root is an awesome site and this article NEEDS more coverage.

Ohio’s Radical Anti-Union Bill Also Has A Hidden Provision To Deny Equal Rights To Same-Sex Couples - SURPRISE! Why not kick everyone in the pants!

Now comes the part of the week day minute where FRC tells us how 'immoral', 'harmful', 'ungodly' we are - If I am praying with the Family Research Council, I want some lightning insurance.

Indiana's Jud McMillin: A Tale of Glass Houses & Rocks - NAAAAASTY but necessary. People who live in glass houses shouldn't touch sex arousal instruments.

Conservatives trying to use DOMA decison to drive between Obama and the black community

It's getting ridiculous how the religious right are trying to trot out their versions of "black leaders" to eviscerate President Obama over the Justice Department's decision not to defend DOMA in the courts.

It began last week when Mike Huckabee claimed that Obama's decision was alienating him from the African-American community - a charge which was hilarious to me because I never remembered Huckabee as a black leader.

Then we heard various rumblings from organizations such as the National Black Church Initiative (whoever they may be) and then religious right favorite Harry Jackson  - who was designated as The Most Influential Black Christian in America in the article which gave voice to his disapproval.

I personally never knew that there was a vote on that sort of thing.

National Organization for Marriage continuing to spread false claim about gay marriage and children

It is obvious that in its zeal to stop gay marriage in Maryland, the National Organization for Marriage is going full throttle for the jugular even at the expense of truth.

According to The Washington Blade:

The National Organization for Marriage has launched a series of attack mailers in Maryland, as a House committee gears up for a key vote on a measure to legalize same-sex marriage.

Several mailers target Sen. Jim Brochin, a Baltimore County Democrat and member of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, which approved the bill last month. Brochin initially supported civil unions instead of marriage equality. But he said he changed his position and supported the bill, in part, because of the harsh and intolerant-sounding testimony against the measure by some of its opponents at a public hearing in Annapolis on Feb. 8. NOM’s Maggie Gallagher testified at that hearing.

 One of the mailers is as follows:

One of the claim on the mailer reads:

Massachusetts public schools teach kid as young as kindergartners about gay marriage. Parents have no legal right to object!

However according to the Pulitzer Prize-winning news site PolitiFact, this claim is misleading.

During an investigation of the claim earlier this year, PolitiFact talked to:

• Christopher C. Plante, executive director of the Rhode Island Chapter of NOM,
• Kris Mineau, executive director of the Massachusetts Family Institute,
• Jonathan Considine of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education,
• the Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum,
• the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and
• Thomas Gosnell, president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts.

PolitiFact's conclusion about NOM's claim of kindergartners being taught gay marriage in Massachusetts is as follows:

Bottom line: The National Organization for Marriage mailing says that Massachusetts public schools teach kindergartners about gay marriage. The wording, including the present tense verb, gives the impression this is happening now, in many schools.

But the group’s only evidence is two incidents five years ago. It’s possible that somewhere, in one of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, other kindergartners have been taught about same-sex marriage. But NOM couldn’t cite any other examples. We find its statement False.

Clearly the NOM is following the same game plan it played in California and Maine, i.e. spooking people by claiming that  "the gays are coming for their children."

If the organization's efforts bear success, expect NOM leaders Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown to step on the mantle of self-righteousness and falsely claim that they are helping people "stand up for marriage,  when in reality they are getting them to cower in fear at the thought of fictional gay boogeymen.

Related post:

Yes Maggie Gallagher, you are bigoted and NOM is homophobic. Here's why.