In Search of a Black Gay Agenda

In search of a Black Gay Agenda
From marriage to health-care, priorities may differ from general gay rights groups

By RYAN LEE
Feb. 15, 2008
http://southernvoice.com/print.cfm?content_id=8134

When about 100 black gay and lesbian leaders gathered in Los Angeles last month for a first-of-its-kind presidential forum entitled “It’s a Black Thang: The Black LGBT Vote ’08,” the disconnect between the crowd and mainstream gay rights organizations was almost instantly obvious.

“Same-sex marriage, as far as I’m concerned, isn’t in the top five concerns for me as a black gay man,” said panelist Jeffery King, founder of In the Meantime, a Los Angeles group for black gay men. “And I believe that also speaks for a lot of other people as well.”

King’s comment drew applause from the audience and unanimous agreement from his fellow panelists. The consensus denunciation of what for years has been a top focus of gay rights organizations and the media illustrates the profound detachment many black gay Americans feel toward the so-called “gay agenda.”

Prior to the forum, the event’s organizer, black lesbian journalist and activist Jasmyne Cannick, rebuffed a request from members of the Human Rights Campaign who wanted to register voters and recruit black gay attendees to canvass black neighborhoods in favor of same-sex marriage.

“The folks leading the gay rights movement have traditionally never cared about anything other than that,” Cannick said. “They are nowhere to be found on bread-and-butter issues which same-gender loving people who happen to be minorities are often dealing with.”

But it’s a mistake to assume that black gay men and lesbians don’t support marriage equality, or that they are the only gay Americans who disagree with the major priorities of mainstream gay rights organizations, said H. Alexander Robinson, CEO of the gay National Black Justice coalition.

“You can find as many non-black gay folks who would not put marriage equality at the top of their list of priorities,” said Robinson, noting that NBJC formed in late 2003 primarily to respond to the increasingly hostile rhetoric coming from black ministers about same-sex marriage.

“What I hear from my folks is we didn’t choose it as a priority, no one asked us if this was our priority, so there is some resistance,” said Robinson, who added that millions of dollars have been spent fighting the “worthy cause” of legalizing same-sex marriage. “But there are many other issues that rise to the top of the list as things that need attention.”

NBJC has hosted numerous town hall meetings across the country to gauge the concerns of black gay men and lesbians, and is in the process of preparing “America’s Black LGBT Political Agenda.” An early draft of the agenda ranks improving access to health care and eliminating economic racial disparities as the top two objectives, followed by ending homophobia in black neighborhoods and institutions, and “realizing all civil rights as LGBT citizens.”

Ronald Moore agrees that class plays as much a factor as ethnicity in gay people feeling ambivalent about the issues on which gay rights organizations focus. But the former diversity manager for Hewlett Packard, who is now diversity and inclusion director for Kimberly-Clark, also knows that even financially successful African-Americans have a difficult time breaking into the country club culture of many gay rights groups.

“At some point, I’m always sort of reminded that I am on the outside,” said Moore, a longtime activist who is currently the political board chair for Georgia Equality. “When you’re willing to write checks, a lot of homes get open to you, but you’re rarely invited to these places without it being a fundraiser.”

The most urgent issues Moore would place at the top of a black gay agenda would be fighting racism within white gay organizations, and eliminating homophobia among black families.

“Coming out [as black gay men and lesbians] is the most potent weapon we have, but that’s still the hardest step to take,” Moore said. “We need more people of color to come out and we need more of the white GLBT organizations to understand we can’t and will not leave our blackness at the door.

“I’ve found that the mainstream gay organizations, unless they do the work, are coming from a majority white background,” Moore added. “I think there’s still a strong feeling of we’re all for diversity, as long as you’re just like us.”

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights group, recognizes that it has “a longstanding reputation of not being good on issues dealing with race and gender identity,” said Cuc Vu, chief diversity officer at HRC. Vu and HRC are currently collecting information and data on gay African-Americans as part of a potentially historic diversity initiative.

As gay rights groups have drawn much attention about anti-gay hate crimes like the killing of Matthew Shepard, Vu said she learned that some black gay folks continue to confront a “much more intimate and direct threat of violence.”

“The violence is directed to them by their own family members,” Vu said.

Other issues that black gay men and lesbians hope to incorporate into a more holistic agenda include fighting homelessness, boosting mental health resources and dismantling the social structures that place many young black men on the fast track to prison.

The AIDS epidemic — which was a catalyst for forming mainstream gay rights organizations — continues to be a top worry, and sometimes the sole focus, of many black gay groups; gay and bisexual African-American men outpace every other demographic category in HIV infections.

But gay health care activism must expand beyond AIDS, said Robinson of NBJC. Finding a cure for HIV/AIDS won’t rescue the many black gay HIV-positive men who don’t have health insurance, or the black lesbian who is battling diabetes, high blood pressure, or any of the numerous other afflictions that take a disproportionate toll on blacks.

Despite its rich history and reputation as a black gay mecca, Atlanta has yet to distinguish itself as a hotbed of black gay activism.

“I think there is still work to be done in Atlanta and other places … when it comes to political mobilization,” said Robinson, who noted metro Atlanta should have more than a single openly gay black elected official — Kecia Cunningham, a Decatur City commissioner. “We have a critical mass of individuals with the capacity and know-how to do this.”

Atlanta’s large and diverse black gay population sometimes makes it difficult or overwhelming to try to mobilize a large group of people, said Stephaun Clipper-Wallace, a black gay activist and organizer of a Feb. 23 forum entitled “Black Gay Consciousness in Atlanta.”

“People feel like people don’t care, there’s too much apathy in the community or there’s not enough people in the movement,” Clipper-Wallace said. “But even throughout the civil rights movement, it wasn’t everyone who was on board.”

Vu’s first exposure to HRC came during one of the group’s fundraising dinners in the 1990s. The room full of white faces inside black tuxedos made an unfavorable impression on Cuc, who avoided the organization for a decade before being asked to serve as HRC diversity chief last year. Cuc accepted the position because she wanted to “put my money where my mouth is,” while helping HRC examine its core mission.

“What we heard from African-Americans is that their sexual orientation is not their No. 1 identity, which is very powerful to understand as an LGBT organization,” Vu said. “What it means is our mission of equality must be broad and inclusive, and can’t be limited just to LGBT issues.”

HRC took a step into the non-gay political arena last September when Executive Director Joe Solmonese spoke at a Washington D.C. rally in support of the “Jena 6,” a group of black teens jailed for beating a white teenager after racist attacks. Many people applauded HRC’s involvement, although the group was criticized for veering into topics not directly related to gay equality, Vu said.

But some activists believe the tactics of groups like HRC sometimes overshadow their good intentions.
“I am so sick and tired of people talking at me and about me, and not talking to me, and I think that’s how a lot of people feel,” Cannick said. “They’re going to have to go to some uncomfortable places, and hear some uncomfortable things, but if this is what you want to do — move forward and make change — then this shouldn’t be too hard to do.”

Many mainstream gay groups have spoken convincingly of being more sensitive to the unique needs of black gay men and lesbians, but there’s little to show for it, Robinson said.

“I think there continues to be something of a disparity between the intentions and the actual implementation,” Robinson said. “We need to make sure the strategies or tactics that are used are not just window dressing.”