A few weeks ago Marion Barry promised that Ward 8 would lead a "Civil War" against gay marriage in the District. Some of us found his comments not only repulsive, but preposterous. And frankly, here is why:
....yesterday, gay rights advocates declared victory in a key battle to set the tone for the issue when the Ward 8 Democrats voted 21 to 11 to support the legalization of same-sex marriage, in preparation for legislation expected to be introduced in the D.C. Council this year.Marion Barry, the elected Councilmember who so inveighed against gay marriage, who promised a "Civil War," didn't even bother to show up. Folks should have known it was farce because the first shots in this "Civil War" were not, in fact, fired by Ward 8, but by Tony Perkins and the usual suspects.The Ward 8 vote came after almost two hours of discussion about religion, referendums and civil rights among the crowd of about 100 people at the Washington Highlands Library on Atlantic Avenue SW.
Look, black Washington is black Washington. It isn't Harlem. It isn't Selma. It isn't West Baltimore. It's a city existing on its own individual terms, with it's own specific individual history. The District's black community extends back to the city's founding. They boast a university which has been a beacon for black progressives for over a century, and a progressive tradition which extends back to home rule.
Indeed, for all the heat over black homophobia, Chocolate City passed a domestic partnership back in 1992--when it wasn't cool. But it had no teeth--not because of a band of black homophobes--but because of white homophobia. (that's intentionally absurd) The GOP-led Congress refused to allow it. Even Barry himself is not so easily pigeonholed. In his movements you see, not the actions of bigot, but something colder and more sinister a Wallace-esque demagogue appealing to hate to put some shine on his last days.
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But most importantly, Washington has black gay activists who've been fighting this war in black communities for years:
Gay rights advocates have been strategically tapping into every corner of the city to get the support of Democratic committees in each ward. And the faces of those advocates come in color: Michael Crawford, who is black, is the founder of DC for Marriage, and Jeffrey Richardson, who is black, is president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, a political group for the LGBT community.They will not be done in by the likes of Tony Perkins. Give them a chance to do their work, and you never know what might change:
A May 2006 poll of 800 likely D.C. voters -- 100 in each of the city's eight wards -- showed that if presented with an initiative to ban same-sex marriage, 49 percent of African Americans would vote yes, and 42 percent would vote no. But the poll, commissioned by the Foundation for All D.C. Families, found that African Americans were sympathetic to the "rights, benefits and legal protections" of gay and lesbian couples. For example, 26 percent said same-sex couples deserve full marriage rights while another 41 percent supported legal recognition such as domestic partnerships...
However, David A. Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, notes that African American attitudes about same-sex marriage appear to have shifted even more dramatically in recent years than they have in the white community.
In 2004, the center conducted a poll a few months before the presidential contest, finding that 46 percent of African Americans supported no legal recognition for gay relationships, compared with 37 percent of the general population who felt the same way.
According to a New York Times-CBS News poll conducted last month, 38 percent of African Americans and 40 percent of whites support gay marriage. Only 26 percent of African Americans and 30 percent of white voters in the poll said they do not want legal recognition of gay relationships. A Washington Post-ABC News poll, also conducted last month, found that 48 percent of white voters and 42 percent of African American voters strongly or somewhat favor same-sex marriage.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
I am smiling inside --can't not laugh because I am at work-- but I am not a bit tad surprised for this. A huge amount of evidence points to this not to be surprising. Oh people who loves their ideas!
Reminds me in the early nineties and the Maastrich Treaty that gave birth to the EU. In Cuba the press always reported the disputes amongst the European countries and never their advances. One day you wake up and they are forced to report that those enemies are going to have a common currency etc. What a frakin' shock!
For what it's worth , Barry reminds me of many conservative white politicians like Giuliani.Giuliani is almost defintly not homophobic on a personal level. He has many gay friends. He simply feels that the average blue collar white guy is a homophobe and is not as to inntelligent as he is.So he feels that he must pander to them.
I think Marion Barry feels the same way about black people.In his original speech, he all but admitted he was bowing to public opinion, and that these were not his own personal views.
It reminds me of a small incident in 1988 involving Dukakis running for president. He did not visit the site of a church bombing on the anniversary of the bombing because he did not want to "offend" blue collar whites.
Even most racists whites think that blowing up young children in a church is sick and disgusting. Many blacks at the time complained and he apoligised to them. But little attention was payed to the fact that Dukakis regarded blue collar white guys like me as racists.
Barry is a lot like Rep. Murtha from PA who actually had the nerve to casually describe his own constituants as "pretty racist".
People like that have nothing but contempt for the voters.
For all of those who are black and do not like being stereotyped as homophobes. I can sympathise. I am white and work as a construction laborer.And there are many liberal inntellectuals out there who would be surprised to find out that i am not racist ,or a homophobe.Neither are most blue collar whites in my experience.
Many politicians do us all a disservice with their low opinion of their own constituants.
"white homophobia" -- ha! That's brilliant. This whole business of "Black homophobia" really highlights the invisibility of Whiteness, huh? Imagine if in every discussion of homophobia in general, we called it "White homophobia," because the vast majority of homophobes in this country are White, of course. I mean really, it was obviously "White homophobia" that passed Prop 8, what with all those White people from Utah agitating against same-sex marriage. What, you say? They were *Mormans*? Well then, okay, let's blame it on the homophobia of the White Church (because inarguably, the vast majority of Mormons are White). But nobody blamed it on the White Church, right, it was the Mormons -- their Whiteness was entirely invisible in the debate. But it was sure enough the Black church -- not a specific denomination that happens to be largely Black, and opposes gay marriage -- but THE BLACK CHURCH -- that defeated gay marriage in California with its BLACK HOMOPHOBIA. This is racism, pure and simple, and for all White gay people like to believe that "Black people ought to know better," and you-all-should-know-what-it-feels-like-to-be-denied-your-civil-rights-and-therefore-be-our-allies, White gay folks (and, ahem, if I may hazard a generalization, it may possibly be a tad bit more the boys than the girls) surely do need to set aside some time soon to unpack our own backpack of White privilege.
I’m uncomfortable with positioning Barry’s changes as those of as a Wallace-esque Machiavellian demagogue. Post prison he Barry left All Souls Unitarian Church and joined the Union Temple Baptist Church. I don’t know how much you paid attention to Church politics when you were in DC, but that is a significant change. One can be cynical about that change in church, one can be cynical about prison spiritual conversions. I tend to think that Barry’s conversion was sincere. The post prison Barry is a member of a different church than the pre prison Barry, has a different spiritual/moral grounding.
One can only wish Marc Fisher was a Jew in Germany in 1933 so he can live the craveness of his comments. The Presidents craveness on this issue will be large contributor after his handling of the financial institutions to his one term Presidency as well.
But most importantly, Washington has black gay activists who've been fighting this war in black communities for years:
Gay rights advocates have been strategically tapping into every corner of the city to get the support of Democratic committees in each ward. And the faces of those advocates come in color: Michael Crawford, who is black, is the founder of DC for Marriage, and Jeffrey Richardson, who is black, is president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, a political group for the LGBT community.
Well, this proves that they're smarter than their 'No on 8' counterparts, who ignored the Black Gays and Lesbians until it was too late.I've said from the beginning that the key to this is to get the Black Gays and Lesbians, who are already on the ground - out front and center. Our Gay and Lesbian Brothas and Sistas must step up and out - their faces must become known. And, they must become known in every venue. And, their family members must also stand up for them.
Perhaps the groups trying to overturn prop 8 should consider humbly asking them to come out and help in CA.
Same thing happened in Florida with the No on 2 Amendment, and what's worse, we only needed 40% to beat it and we couldn't even pull that off.
I blame the media for the myth of Black Homophobia being any worse or more prevalent than White Homophobia.
Well, not really. Any one who ever believed that garbage deserves part of the blame. And certainly the forces that seek to pit minority groups against each other for political gain are to blame as well. But where the media comes in, is that it is simply shameful how compliant and unthinking and lacking in nuance our media in America is. American media cares not for truth or dispelling myths, but instead propagates myths.
The myth of the Black-Hispanic divide that rose up in the primaries that started with an article from a Clinton pollster (well, not started started, but kicked off this cycle) was never challenged. It was simply accepted as common knowledge and made anyone trying to dissolve the myth as a pie-in-the-sky, unserious partisan.
It just makes me sad that the media in America have seem to have lost any investigative or truth seeking edge it may or may not have ever had. What's more important is if we can take a generalization and stretch it into a news cycle or better yet, a story line. Blacks vs. Hispanics, Blacks vs. Gays - that makes for a more interesting storyline that actually looking into the reality of the situations of race and sexual orientation in America.
Everyone shares in the blame, but I think there is a special place in hell reserved for the media because they are supposed to be our first line of defense and instead they have become the very vultures and predators they claim to ward off.
MR NEIL
I grew up in P.G. county outside of DC , back when it was the poor stepsister of the DC area.And I remember that the Washington Post used to make many factual mistakes when doing stories on our county.
I do not think it was intentional. It was simply that it was obvious that none of their reporters lived in, or even visited P.G. County.
I think that is the problem. Most reporters nowdays are defintly in the upper middle class catagory. I am not saying that they make too much money.I am simply saying that they have little or no experience with ordinary working people.
When Barry says that he speaks for black people ,or Clinton claims to speak for working classs whites[ like she claimed during the primary] how are they supposed to know whether that is true or not. As far as they are concerned , the New York Times says that it is true. So it must be true.
The average reporter who works for a large newspaper probaly does not have a diverse group of friends. He/ she may think that they do. But i doubt that they know any black brick masons or Salvadorian landscapers, or even a white construction laborer like myself.
That is how these myths get started.By newspaper reporters getting their information from other newspapers .
BY the way. I forgot to add that i thought your comment hit the nail on the head and was absolutly correct.Especially about the lack of investigative reporting.
Inglewood in the house, TNC, and your geography is as sharp as a thumb tack on your teacher's chair. (OK, that was weak as hell, but my coffee hasn't quite kicked in and I'm still tired from that Lakers-Nuggets battle last night.)
I think the overlying feeling is this: Look, churchgoers here are never going to fully accept that lifestyle, and many will continue to condemn. I had an argument with 4 people--yes, 4-on-1, felt like a super action hero- who all disbelieve that a person may be born with "gay tendencies," or someone may not truly feel or be the sex listed on their birth certificate.
"What? You mean to tell me a baby decides he isn't a boy?"
That really is the ignorant **** one hears in debates. People believe that it is environmentally induced and therefore can be altered, like bad hair. Truly unreal. They remind me of the movie with Julianne Moore who walks in on her husband and another man, and then sends him to a shrink to dispel the evil demons.
Folks just need to be educated on the subject, and they will definately have compassion for gays and lesbians. I think most people will say that they don't like it or agree with it, but adopt a "live and let live" belief system.