From Dan Savage’s column on The Stranger:
African American voters in California voted overwhelmingly for Prop 8, writing anti-gay discrimination into California’s constitution and banning same-sex marriage in that state. Seventy percent of African American voters approved Prop 8, according to exit polls, compared to 53% of Latino voters, 49% of white voters, 49% of Asian voters.
I’m not sure what to do with this. I’m thrilled that we’ve just elected our first African-American president. I wept last night. I wept reading the papers this morning. But I can’t help but feeling hurt that the love and support aren’t mutual.
I do know this, though: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there—and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum—are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color.
This will get my name scratched of the invite list of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which is famous for its anti-racist-training seminars, but whatever.
Finally, I’m searching for some exit poll data from California. I’ll eat my shorts if gay and lesbian voters went for McCain at anything approaching the rate that black voters went for Prop 8.
I am not part of either of these inner circles. I’m not gay and I’m not black. I’m not even a democrat. I have, however, been on the outside of the gay community looking in for a long long time and I have noticed a few things that might explain the loss.
First and foremost most straight white Americans, unless they are close to someone who is gay or are Evangelicals probably don’t have a clue what Prop. 8 is all about. The gay community didn’t do much to reach out to them and what they did do was apparently watered down (polite) and ineffective. If white America doesn’t know what Prop. 8 is, it’s a good bet that black America doesn’t either. I’m not going to get into whether or not blacks are homophobic. I suspect some of them are and some of them aren’t. I have no idea if blacks are disproportionately more homophobic than whites or other ethnicities. It’s a bit hypocritical to paint all blacks as homophobic.
Gay activists are intimidating and practically militant. I do not feel welcome by most gay activists. I am tolerated but not really welcome. I have been a vocal supporter of gay rights for a while now, I have gotten involved. Yet when I read many of the gay activist blogs and websites I have to wade through numerous references to “bitches”, “cunts”, “whores” and a whole bunch of other horribly offensive descriptions of women. I feel much like Dan Savage does about blacks when I read some of these articles and posts, I feel disgusted and betrayed. And I feel like taking my ball and going home.
I’m not religious but I am republican. In the gay world, at least on these blogs and sites that are well known and widely read, republicans and Evangelicals are lumped together. I don’t know a lot of Evangelicals, I try to steer clear of them, but the ones I do know are not republicans. Most of the republicans I know, and I do know a lot of them, don’t go to church let alone speak in tongues. Lumping them together is offensive, stereotyping and hypocritical.
If gays want the same rights that straights have then it would help if the gay activists would reach out to straight America rather than ridicule them. The anger isn’t helping the cause. It scares people and when people are scared they try to protect themselves… I can’t believe I am going to say this but… they cling to their beliefs, no matter how wrong and uneducated they are.
But wait, why shouldn’t straight America reach out to gays? Because they aren’t. You want what they have and they are the ones in power. It isn’t right but it’s the truth. The world really isn’t any different than high school, its just there is more at stake. And the same jerks are in control, white suburban, blond cheerleaders. See, now I’m doing it.
I understand the anger and it is certainly well founded and understood but it isn’t helping. The comparisons to racial equality are appropriate. Barrack Obama would not have won the presidency if he wore his pants down around his knees, spoke unintelligible English and talked about how The Man had been keeping him down. The Man is keeping all of us down. Wouldn’t it make more sense to work together to achieve the equality we all desire?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Very interesting and thoughtful post Jen, probably you will get it over these comments but it has a lot of truth to it.
Thanks Sooo, I hope not, discussion is welcome but flaming etc is not. I’m just throwing in my observations…
Jen,
My first reaction is pretty similar to Dan Savage’s. What the #3\ have the meaux done to the African American community for them to vote to rip away civil rights from us? Based on some second-hand stories and readings, I gather that there is not a lot of love for the LTGBQ(etc.) folks in the black community, and nobody knows why.
You can see more at Pam’s House Blend and The Republic of T. Both bloggers are AA and LGQTB(etc.).
I’m not planning to say much on this topic anywhere for a couple of days until the anger and hurt calm down a bit. Thanks for the thoughtful post, though. It’s good to get another set of eyes on the issue.
Well, dang! A thought-provoking post, and I’ve only had two cups of coffee this morning.
In my humble opinion, fear is nearly always at the root of these situations. Put a strange object in front of a group of primates, and they usually beat it to death & then get rid of it. It's an instinctual mob-mentality response to fear.
I agree that the GLBT community's dialogue can be reactive, and sometimes leads to separation rather than unity. We saw the same thing during the last century with the public struggles for civil rights for blacks. All voices need to be heard, but the GLBT community has yet to find our own MLK.
The important thing is that we view Prop 8 as a set-back, not a death blow. A battle was lost, but we still fight the war.
“You want what they have and they are the ones in power…The world really isn’t any different than high school, its just there is more at stake”
Which is precisely why human rights should not be put to a popular vote.