A Stitch in Haste

Of all the various manifestations of anti-gay bigotry extant in the U.S. today, none confuses me more than hostility from black clerics professing to care about "pro-family" black empowerment.

Here's the latest example:

There is a general feeling in this community that they have been let down in Washington. A good portion of the million and a half blacks that [sic] voted Republican in 2004 did so because of the prospect of leadership on the marriage amendment.

Oh really?

This is the same gobbledygook that some gay Republicans spew out, without a shred of reliable, hard data to support it, when they chant "a million gays for Bush." Isn't it possible, just possible, that people whom one would not have expected to vote for George W. Bush did so because of his stance on the War on Terror, or to "stay until victory" in Iraq, or because John Kerrey just plain sucked?

News flash: Many, perhaps most, people who voted for Bush in 2004 did so despite, not because of, his half-hearted support of the FMA.

More:

We are talking here about moral ABCs such as discouraging pre-marital sex and cohabitation, emphasizing the importance of marriage fidelity and the role of the community in providing support, such as male mentoring for our many fatherless children.
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Why, I sometimes hear, is a community with such clear and immediate problems with education, employment and crime so obsessed with this issue? Are there that many black gay couples wanting wedding vows that black pastors should be taking valuable time from their daily responsibilities to become political activists for a federal marriage amendment?

The germane point that these black pastors understand is that the black community is the most exposed to and most likely to be injured by the problems of the nation as a whole. When America gets a cold, the black community gets pneumonia.

I'm pretty sure this one will win the "non sequitur of the year" award. Another news flash: black gays don't make fatherless black babies; black straights make fatherless black babies. In fact, one could posit that black gays, like gays generally, might have quite a bit of free time on their hands to engage in the very mentoring of fatherless black children that black pastors are lamenting is in too short supply.

Black gays do not have a tendency to be drug dealers, so don't blame them for rampant drug use in black communities. Black gays are presumably no more likely than black straights to commit violent crime, so don't blame them for crime crises in black neighborhoods. Black gays are presumably not discriminating against straight blacks in employment or housing, so don't blame them for any lack of opportunity in black communities. Black gays are not in positions of power in politics generally and especially not in the educational bureaucracy, so don't blame them for failing schools in black communities. Black gays are not responsible for heterosexual AIDS transmission in black communities, so don't blame them for what heterosexual needle-sharers are causing.

Black gays are not breaking up black families. As with every other subsegment of the gay community, often they're not considered part of the family to begin with.

Don't blame black gays for your problems. And while you're at it, don't blame white gays either. To the extent you're being oppressed, we're not the ones doing it. We've got enough on our plate right now.

As black leaders celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act (or, as the case may be, lament the expiration of some of its provisions in 2007), how sad, how very sad, that many black leaders take the apparent stance of "we got ours, to heck with them," or worse "if they have the gays to hate, then maybe they'll leave us alone."

Black civil rights activists knew throughout their struggle that they were on the right side of history. How depressing that some are now on the wrong side of history, and for all the wrong reasons.