The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
The NAACP is celebrating its 100th year as the nation's oldest, largest and most widely recognized civil rights organization, and it was expected that some LGBT-related issues would be addressed, specifically marriage equality and HIV/AIDS prevention, would come up during its national conference (July 11-16) and in discussions with the MSM as the org marks its centennial in New York.
Looking over the 96-page program, there is no session specifically addressing the issue of LGBT rights, though Barney Frank shows up for a session on "Advancing Big Dreams, Securing Bold Victories: Advocating the NAACP's Federal Legislative and National Public Policy Agenda to Congress." There is also a panel today on "The Great Silence: The Impact of HIV/AIDS on African American Women," clearly providing an opening to discuss homosexuality, bisexuality, and denial and lack of safer sex practices in the community that has caused infections to skyrocket. One can only hope that some honest discussion will take place. BTW, one of the artists to serenade the conventioneers during the Gospel extravaganza is the evangelical, anti-gay recording duo Mary Mary (more on them here). President Obama will speak to the group on Thursday.
Often seen as irrelevant by the younger generation of black activists, the NAACP selected Benjamin Todd Jealous to serve as its 17th president and CEO, the youngest person to hold the position in the organization.
Ben Jealous has has a strong background on social justice issues; his efforts have been forward-thinking in many respects, including outreach to the blogosphere. I met Mr. Jealous last year as he was starting on the job at the NAACP, and I asked him specifically about the organization and its public stance on marriage and LGBT rights. At the time he was quite firm in saying that there is strong support for marriage equality in some individual chapters (they are autonomous) and in leadership in the NAACP(board member Julian Bond is also a strong ally as well).
But it's clear, based on this interview with T.J. Holmes of CNN the other day, that he's getting the message loud and clear from membership that this it's a third rail issue they don't want to touch. Jealous says now that "We don't take a position on that nationally." (CNN, the full transcript is below the fold), here is a snippet.
HOLMES: What do you think when you hear people - I know you heard this comparison, heard out in California plenty of times, where people would compare the gay-marriage debate and struggle with the civil-rights struggle?
What do you think when you hear that? Is that a fair comparison?
JEALOUS: When people say, you know, this is - this is deeply personal for me. I have a young man who I grew up with, the only two black boys our age in the town where we were born. Our moms were best friends. We became blood brothers when were 4. I call him my brother; he calls me his brother. He's transgender; he's gay.
I've seen the homophobia he's been subjected to in the black community. I've seen the racism that he's been subjected to in the gay community. And I know that one of those identities he can - he can and has hid when he's had to. And nobody should have to hide their identity, nobody.
But when people say gay-straight, black-white, same struggle, same fight. Not exactly. Not exactly.
At the same time - now, the - you know, I have been personally very supportive and encouraging of people who are fighting the battle for gay marriage.
Huh? How is marriage itself not a social justice issue? It's clearly an issue in the black community, given how many out-of-wedlock babies are being born into poverty-stricken situations to single mothers without a father present? Would it not behoove the NAACP national to support marriage equality so that more children can be raised and supported in any loving two-parent homes, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity? There are ways to frame this in better terms for the community without rendering black LGBTs in particular, invisible yet again.
I am glad Ben Jealous spoke out in personal, human terms (though he's clearly not down with terminology; it's unclear if his friend is transgender and gay, or he's conflating something, and refers to our relationships and status as "lifestyle decisions")
All of this, including the issue of hostility towards LGBTs of color in the white LGBT community which Jealous also raises here, needs to be aired out before the people at that conference. The debate and discussion needs to happen in the context of all the other social justice issues of concern to the black community that affects all of the community, not just straight ones (and the ones pretending in the closet).
This is so sad. Dr. King and Coretta Scott King are rolling in their graves over the way some of the members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization the slain civil rights leader founded, are treating the Rev. Eric Lee, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the org.
Lee stood up against many of his fellow members and opposed Proposition 8 in support of marriage equality. Now his status as a straight ally has put his head on the chopping block for the small-minded, narrow-thinking people around him at SCLC. (NYT):
Mr. Lee said that his opposition to Proposition 8 had "created tension in my life I had never experienced with black clergy."
"But it was clear to me," he added, "that any time you deny one group of people the same right that other groups have, that is a clear violation of civil rights and I have to speak up on that."
In April, Mr. Lee attended a board meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Kansas City, Mo., and found himself once again in the minority position among his colleagues on the issue of same-sex marriage, but he was told, he said, by the group's interim president, Byron Clay, that the organization publicly had a neutral position on the issue.
A month after that he was told to come to Atlanta to meet with the National Board of Directors. When Lee said he could not come on short notice he was sent two letters from attorneys for SCLC that he faced suspension or firing if he didn't "explain himself."
The thing is, since the chapters are autonomous (Lee was elected by a local board), it's a question whether the national board can do a damn thing other than look like top-down homophobic bullies. Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, who is chairman of the local board has contacted the national board to clarify if any SCLC regulations have been violated -- there has been no response.
Mr. Lee, the former pastor of In His Steps, an African-American Wesleyan church in Los Angeles that he described as "very conservative," said he saw failures both in the leadership of the conference ("Dr. King would be turning over in his grave right now," he said) and the largely white anti-Proposition 8 movement that did not more actively seek the support of church-going African-Americans.
"The black church played a significant role in Proposition 8 passing," Mr. Lee said. "The failure of the campaign was to presume that African-Americans would see this as a civil rights issue."
And he's right. Anti-Prop 8 forces readily admit that outreach to the black community was poor or non-existent. The challenges of reaching the religious conservative black community (non-church attending blacks voted no different than the rest of the pop) are myriad. One approach that has been launched recently by Equality California and the Jordan/Rustin Coalition. This ad hits the mark, featuring, Xavier and Michael Boykin-Haggood, along with three of their five children, Dante, Emmanuel and Fatima, who live in LA's Leimert Park neighborhood.
(Note from Pam: OK, I know people can be hesitant to jump into a thread that touches upon race. Don't let it become an orphan thread. Speak your mind - be part of the solution of open communication, not part of the problem - continued silence about this thorny issue.)
As someone who is black and lesbian, it's tiring and absurd to encounter the argument that the black civil rights movement somehow exclusively owns the ability to use "civil rights." And the result of that is any challenge to this thinking amounts to stepping on the third rail.
There is no Oppression Olympics that requires a certain level of historic suffering by a group of people to be able to use those words. I refuse to cede them to anyone.
In the Bay State Banner, there is an article by Talia Whyte, "Black gay couples in Mass. mark marriage anniversary," that shows just how black gays, even prominent ones, have had to deal with the issue of being rendered invisible -- but how marriage equality in the state has begun to crack through the wall of homophobia within the black community there.
Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons celebrated the occasion at City Hall as the city was the first to issue same-sex marriage. Simmons is the first out black lesbian in the country to serve as mayor, following in the trailblazing footsteps of Kenneth E. Reeves, was the first openly gay black man to become mayor.
Over the last five years, the mayor said, she has noticed that some in the black community have come around to accepting gay marriage, possibly because they realize married gay couples are no different from married straight couples.
"Marriage is a marriage is a marriage," Simmons said. "Once we start to think that way, some of those barriers that keep us from thinking inclusively will erode."
...Like Simmons, Reeves said he has also seen attitudes toward marriage equality change for the positive in the local black community. But, he added, the community still needs to be more honest with itself about homosexuality.
"There are gay people in the black community, but the community pretends we don't exist," he said. "We have to have a new conversation about this."
Well, the reason we are rendered invisible is that too many in the black community don't want to intellectually deal with our existence and the homophobia fomented within the culture, particularly large elements of the religious black community. It's something that I experienced that quite publicly a couple of months ago when I lobbied the chair of the NC legislative black caucus, Rep. Alma Adams (D-Guilford), who actually votes with us on the issues, but refused to offer to engage her caucus colleagues who support a marriage amendment:
With several black LGBTs standing right there in front of her, Rep. Adams actually said "your issues are not the black caucus's issues" -- as in social justice for black LGBTs is not their issue.
Obviously, it's not as if they don't know we are there, but that we present an obstacle to a reality-based conversation about equality, and the fact that an oppressed minority group is advocating oppression (or allowing for it to fester by not engaging the issue). Thus the bluster over the use of "civil rights" in the LGBT equality struggle.
Dr. Sylvia Rhue, Director of Religious Affairs at the National Black Justice Coalition, has written a guest post for the Blend that needs to be saved and circulated.
Over the last few days we have seen the White House struggle toanswer questions about the failed discriminatory policy known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell, as well as respond intelligently to the recent positive domino effect of marriage equality occurring in states -- moves that affirm those governments realize separate is not equal.
Candidate Obama decided to regress his political position from supporting full marriage equality to a "God is in the mix" conflation of religious and civil marriage when he ran for president. What was seen as a political necessity/reality at the time has wreaked havoc on the PR front of late, but it has also allowed the anti-gay establishment to cite his opposition to marriage equality over and over again. The old unintended consequences -- at our expense.
Marc Fisher in the WaPo takes the position that yes, pols like Obama and fellow equality regression-sufferer Marion Barry are indeed using the LGBT community as a political football.
In 1996, Barack Obama responded to a Chicago newspaper's questions about the issue with these words: "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages."
...Obama has characteristically reached out to the center, writing in his 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope": "It is my obligation, not only as an elected official in a pluralistic society but also as a Christian, to remain open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided . . . and that in years hence I may be seen as someone who was on the wrong side of history."
Yeah, that's his political escape hatch -- that he will have some "moment of clarity" sometime in the future, a political revelation (guided by polls, of course), that separate is not equal. Fisher offer this rationale for both Marion Barry's opposition to marriage recognition in DC and Obama's absurd position on equality:
Barry's claim to be "a moral politician" was catnip to the late-night TV comics. But he has positioned himself of late as the voice of pre-gentrification D.C. -- older black residents who feel that their city has been taken over by newcomers, especially affluent young whites. Add the faceoff between Barry and Mayor Adrian Fenty -- whose deepest support comes from exactly those newcomers -- and you have a compelling political rationale for Barry's flip.
The president's position is also rooted in electoral concerns, including the simple desire to be true to a campaign stance that helped him demonstrate that he is not a knee-jerk liberal. Just as Obama's selection of evangelical minister Rick Warren to deliver the prayer at his inauguration raised the hackles of many liberal and gay supporters, the president's stand on same-sex marriage sends a message of moderation to religious voters, even as he assures gays that he supports them on civil unions and repealing the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.
In other words, Obama and Barry don't want to challenge religious voters (or rather anti-gay religious voters, since there are those of faith who support equality, but they are always rendered invisible in these discussions) on their ignorance about the difference between religious and civil marriage.
Politicians such as Obama and Barry won't hesitate to go where the people are when the time is right. But on difficult and divisive issues, they're happier to hold back until the people have spoken. Call it timidity, call it craven, but it's how things work.
It's all about politics, friends, and LGBTs are still the field hands, not a player in the Big House. There is no LBJ with political courage to look to on these issues, and Fisher gives them the classic out.
***
But I want to return to the subject of black homophobia, and the impact of President Obama's decision to purposefully confuse the issue, despite being a Constitutional scholar.
Craig Hickman delivered a personal, powerful essay that intelligently gets to the heart of why civil marriage equality is necessary and important for the black community to support. It's the kind of messaging that leads and challenges, rather than follows, on this issue. It's something the President has abandoned since taking up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Some of you may not know a lot of hip-hop artists, but Xzibit is probably well-known because he hosts the hilarious "Pimp My Ride" (one of Kate's favorite shows -- the 2005 rehab of a rat-infested Pacer was her #1 show). Anyway, Xzibit was recently interviewed by Clay Cane, and had something to say about hip-hop and homophobia.
When all of that drama came out about Diddy and the gay club, you made a comment on your MySpace about homophobia and hip hop. Do you think homophobia is a big issue when it comes to hip hop?
It started as just common place; it was just part of the language. I think the overtones that it creates, is not what really exists. I don't think if you are gay and you go to a hip-hop club that you'll get beat up for being gay. That's not what is going to happen. I think words are the way that people express themselves-just like if you say bitch on a rap record for a long time you can rally thousands of women that will say that's incorrect. You can't focus on one single thing or bad aspect of what happens in hip hop and try to blanket it. That's not the root of the problem. It exists, I think it's how you portray it, and it's how you use it. You gotta paint with a broad brush when you talk about homophobia because it's a lot of things that exist in hip hop that aren't exactly right, but it's part of the landscape.
But, were you surprised at how people freaked out about what you said on the radio about going to a gay club with Diddy? No, people want to draw eyeballs to their sites-that's not even what I said. If you're going to quote me, at least quote what I said. But, it's more exciting to say, "He took me to a gay club." The problem I saw was, it's not they were trying to get headlines, but the fact that they were trying to say it's a negative thing-period-to be gay. You know what I'm saying? Off top! You can't really shoot people down because if we're going to start that we might as well start from square one and jump off the slave ship! [Laughs]
Hmmm. Drama, Diddy and the gay club? I must have missed that one...
Why can't we clone NAACP's Julian Bond and Rep. John Lewis? These are two black men deeply involved with the civil rights movement who get it when it comes to civil equality -- it's not a zero-sum game. Chris Johnson of HRC Back Story has a post, "NAACP National Chairman Julian Bond: It isn't 'special' to be free from discrimination", about the speech Bond gave at HRC's Los Angeles Gala Dinner last Saturday. Some of the remarks by the civil rights leader:
When someone asks me, "are gay rights civil rights?" my answer is always, "Of course, they are." Civil rights are positive legal prerogatives: the right to equal treatment before the law. These are the rights shared by everyone. There is no one in the United States who does not, or should not, enjoy or share in enjoying these rights. Gay and lesbian rights are not special rights in any way. It isn't "special" to be free from discrimination. It is an ordinary, universal entitlement of citizenship.
...People of color ought to be flattered that our movement has provided so much inspiration for others. That, it has been, that our movement has been so widely imitated. That our tactics, our methods, our heroes, our heroines, and even our songs, have been appropriated or served as models for others.
...Now, no parallel between movements is exact. African-Americans are the only Americans who were enslaved for more than two centuries and people of color carried the badge of who we are on our faces. But we are far from the only people suffering discrimination; sadly, so do many others. And those others deserve the law's protection and civil rights too.
• Gay and bisexual black men 13 to 29 years old have the highest rate of infection. In 2006, 5,220 infections were reported in that group.
During that time, 3,330 infections were reported in young gay and bisexual white men and 2,300 in young gay and bisexual Latino men.
• For white gay men, new infections were more common among those in their 30s and 40s, prompting experts to call for renewed efforts to find ways to prevent new infections among older men.
• Among women, blacks had the highest rate of infections, 56 per 100,000. The rate for white women was 3.8. For Latinas, it was 14.4.
The Coopers have a right to put on this ode to irresponsible sexual behavior in the face of the tragic spread of HIV/AIDS in the black community before a student body, however, there needs to be some sort of balance -- such as HIV/AIDS statistics and literature available at the door to counter this tripe.
[T]he play "features the religious church mother, the money hungry deacon, the financially strapped college student that is having an affair with the deacon, the choir member that lives an alternative lifestyle, the members that are in love with the pastor, the 'down-low brother' that's hooked on pornography, and the playboy minister of music."
It's not simply about entertainment or humor to promote a message that one can be cured simply through prayer. As I blogged yesterday, QNotes reported that the Coopers claim an associate pastor with AIDS has prayed his disease away. They are clearly not delivering any sort of responsible message in these critical times.
What wonderful news in my state. Winston-Salem's PFLAG chapter is celebrating its 20th anniversary of advocacy. What's also notable is that this branch is part of the The Families of Color Network (FOCN), which builds coalitions with people of color in local communities and on the national level.
The Winston-Salem Chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG Winston-Salem) announces the beginning of a new African American support group designed specifically for family members, friends, and straight allies of black gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people as well as for black GLBT members of our community. "A support group for GLBT African American's, their families, and friends is very much needed in this community. This is a large step in the right direction for PFLAG and I am hoping that it promotes awareness and acceptance in the African American community as a whole around the issue of homophobia," said TaMeicka Clear, board member and chairperson of PFLAG Winston-Salem's African American outreach program called OUT Like Us.
The first support group meeting will be Monday, August 11, 2008 at 7:30 PM at the Southside Branch of the Forsyth County Public Library, 3185 Buchanan Street. The topic at the first meeting is "Does Your Mama Know? Telling the Kinfolk" which deals with coming out issues in the African American Community. The monthly meeting will be held at the Southside Library on Buchanan Street on the second Monday of each month thereafter.
"The announcement of this new support group for our African American community is something PFLAG Winston-Salem has wanted to do for a very long time. TaMeicka Clear has really brought a great deal to the table in helping all of us at PFLAG recognize and respect the differences between the black and white cultures around GLBT issues," said Thomas Farmer, chapter president.
This is the kind of program that is sorely needed in so many areas of the country -- even in Blue ones -- where the homophobia in the religious black community still has a foothold because of the silence.
Over at The Bilerico Project, the National Black Justice Coalition's chief executive officer, H. Alexander Robinson, has contributed a powerful essay on CNN's non-coverage of black gay men in its segment on HIV/AIDS in Black in America.
I have heard the arguments that one CNN special could not be all things to all people, or cover all the aspects of the complex issues facing America and her Black citizens. However, when it comes to their presentation of the Black family and HIV/AIDS, their efforts were an exercise in journalistic malpractice.
HIV respects neither race, gender, class or sexual orientation, but Black gay men remain the most heavily impacted by the disease and we have largely carried the weight of the HIV prevention message on our backs from the beginning until now. Of course we had allies and partners but let's get real- it was Black gay men who led on Black AIDS--and we are still leading.
What was the thinking of the documentary's editors which allowed the series to side-step the issue of men who have sex with men and women without disclosing their sexual practices with their partners? What of the ravages of drug use and addition left unchecked during our endless war on drugs? The disproportionate numbers of HIV infections in Washington, DC noted in the series can be traced in no small part to our failure to adequately address the drug use and needle sharing habits of addicts.
When addressing the issue of the many Black children who are being raised by single parents, CNN seem to suggest first that only Black women were raising our children alone- ignoring the significant number of Black men both gay and non-gay who are raising children. CNN renders invisible the thousands of children being raised by two loving parents in same-sex couples.
...In almost every segment there was an opportunity to bring Black gay men, lesbian women, bisexuals and transgender men and women into the discussion.
Yet there was nothing, not even a suggestion that we exist.
Thank you, thank you. It was also a missed opportunity to present a segment of the community that is also vibrant, positive and has ties to accepting faith communities. But it's clear CNN producers went out of their way to avoid the issue; it's hard to believe this was a simple oversight.
I posted my thoughts about the CNN's two-part, six hour Black in America special over the weekend ("CNN does Black in America 101"). It re-aired several times over the weekend. One of the major issues I had with the program, since a good deal of time was spent on the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS in the community, was the complete invisibility about what it is like to be black and gay in America. It takes a lot of effort to dance around the issue, but CNN did it. More below the fold.
Cambridge, Massachusetts may be light years ahead of many other places around the country regarding electing openly gay officials, but Mayor Denise Simmons, the country's first openly lesbian black mayor and City Councilor Ken Reeves, the first openly gay black mayor, received a rude political awakening from the homophobic elements of the religious black community. They addressed it in a talk to students at Harvard. (Cambridge Chronicle):
Though Simmons has had her conflicts with School Committee members and Reeves has clashed with the press, by and large, both said most of the homophobic sentiment they've incurred as politicians and as people has been at the hands of black clergy and religious leaders. One incident Simmons pointed to as being among her most discouraging as an elected official was a City Council meeting shortly after the 2004 legalization of same-sex marriages in Massachusetts. After numerous attempts to tap the support of the black religious community on education, crime and economic issues relating to the black community, Simmons said she was shocked that one of the only unified communications the council had received from the city's black churches was a letter denouncing gay marriage.
"Without forewarning, the black clergy got together and wrote us a letter saying that they were against gay marriage," Simmons said. "The really horrific part is that they never came and talked to us. I've never been able to explain it. It was one of the saddest moments for me in my political life, because I expected so much more."
...Reeves, who recently left as a member of St. Paul AME Church, said he too had been let down by the clergy. Reeves said he had loved being a part of the St. Paul family, but the church's opposition to gay marriage ultimately forced him to find a new parish.
"I got to the point where I was sitting on the edge of the pew, wondering when the denouncement was going to come," Reeves said. "I wasn't going to be denounced without having something to say back."
This is sad, people, and yet another example of why this hurts the very people hurling the hatred. These ministers are so homo-hate obsessed that they ignored Simmons attempts to tackle serious issues of concern in the black community like crime, education and economic opportunity, and bound together to write a letter about their fixation on gays. Marriage is a done deal in Massachusetts, but here are pastors are wasting precious time and energy trying to heap their disapproval on a mayor reaching out to them.
This is a tragic disservice to the black community, and further proves how pathological and deep a problem this is. I'm glad that Simmons and Reeves are speaking out and it's being covered in the media.
"I will be leaving the choir at the top of the year because 80 percent of the tenors are homosexuals and act more like a female in choir rehearsal than I do."
-- female choir member of the DC-based Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church in an e-mail to Bishop Alfred Owens Jr. She then proceeded to out more than 100 church members by sending the names to a Yahoo church group.
If you need any further evidence of the pathology of homophobia in the black church, here is something that will make your blood boil.
Already fearful of losing connections, friendship and emotional shelter provided by their faith community if they come out, black gays and lesbians in the church now know that the homophobes in the pews and choirs, along with the bigoted pastors spewing hate from the pulpit, feel empowered to destroy those ties because of their own fear and ignorance. It makes you want to weep. It. Must. Stop. (Lou Chibbaro @ the Washington Blade):
One of Washington's largest black Baptist churches was rocked by a female member of its choir who sent separate e-mail messages to the pastor in December and January outing more than 100 church members as gay, mostly male choir members.
...The e-mail, sent in December, identifies about 45 fellow church members as gay. She sent a second e-mail to Owens on Jan. 2 identifying another 62 church members as gay.
"The following people I am asking you to monitor very closely and my prayer is that you will sit them down from their ministries," she told Owens in the December e-mail. "Because they are ushering in the presence of sin, lies, a spirit of homosexuality and sexual spirits."
She sent a copy of her e-mails to a Yahoo list group that goes to more than 300 church members, the gay former church member said.
Bishop Owens, by the way, is notorious for his anti-gay views, sermons, and advocacy of ex-gay therapy, so the emailer had no fear of being reprimanded for her actions. This is what he said in April 2006 in a sermon. You can listen to the unhinged recording here.
"It takes real men to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior," Owens said in the sermon, which was recorded by the church. "I'm not talking about no faggot or no sissy...Wait a minute! Let all the real men come on down here and take a bow. All the real men-I'm talking about the straight men," he preached. "You ain't funny and you ain't cranky, but you're straight. Come on down here and walk around and praise God that you are straight. Thank him that you're straight. All the straight men that's proud to be a Christian, that's proud to be a man of God."
So, what do you think Owens did as a result of that email? He called the various choirs of the 7,000-member church together and offered to help those outed by showing them how they could pray-away the gay, since the Calvary's web site has twice monthly outreach sessions listed called "Breaking the Chains of Homosexuality," led by Minister Dennis Sawyers.
A response by the National Black Justice Coalition is after the jump.
At noon tomorrow, civil rights leaders and activists will march down to the at U.S. Justice Department of Justice to serve notice that the feds have done a miserable job of taking on open hate crimes. With nooses being used around the country to intimidate and beatings based on racial and ethnic heritage on the rise, this march is going to bring attention to the matter.
HRC's Chris Johnson announced that Donna Payne (the org's HRC Associate Director of Diversity) will deliver remarks on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign; she joins Reverend Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, both supporters of LGBT rights, at the march.
What's also notable about Donna Payne's appearance there, as Chris points out, is that there has been progress on inclusion of black LGBTs in this kind of event. The last large-scale gathering the Million Man March was held in DC in a acouple of years ago, and it was a fiasco of black homophobia,
Prior to the march, these leaders were assured during discussions with MMM march organizer Louis Farrakhan and Washington minister Rev. Willie F. Wilson, the march's executive director, that GLBT activist/blogger Keith Boykin would be able to address the crowd from the main stage. However, their agreement was inexplicably annulled by march organizers at the last minute and Keith was prevented from addressing the crowd. Black GLBT leaders and Keith, who was president of NBJC at the time, spoke out forcefully on the snub, which was largely attributed to the influence of Rev. Wilson, an outspoken critic of gays and lesbians.
This time around, Wilson has invited Donna Payne to take part in Friday's rally for justice. That's progress -- of course one has to see whether that actually pans out this time.
Wilson by the way, to my knowledge, has never apologized for what has to be one of the most homophobic sermons ever recorded. Read it and hear it after the jump.
Those daring to come out in the conservative black church know that the price they may pay is very high -- social rejection by a circle of people that has always been their support system, their community.
When pastors step forward, either by coming out of the closet, or moving to provide open support for the church's LGBT worshippers, the judgment can be swift and harsh. The Denver Post's Lisa Kennedy takes a look at the dilemma in a lengthy piece that is worth the click. It takes a focused look at the sad perspective of churches that want to remain in denial, willing to cast out beloved leaders if they are gay or gay-affirming.
It had been just a few minutes more than 238 days since Reynolds, on Oct. 29, 2006, had delivered his final sermon as senior pastor of Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church in Colorado Springs, the church he was born into. His parents, Ledell and Mary, were founding members of the "E," as the faithful call their spiritual home. In 1992, he returned like a character from a Bible passage to become its minister.
The shared journey of pastor and flock came to an end when Reynolds revealed he was a "same-gender loving" man, a designation for gay and lesbian identity gaining favor among gay African-Americans.
..."We've chosen what we believe to be a biblical position," Pastor Cleveland Thompson said over the phone, explaining Emmanuel's decision not to speak about Reynolds.
As for the pastor himself, yes, he fell down. He wept. After he left EMBC, he was adrift. One year into his life as an openly gay man, the 46-year-old preacher would not claim yet to being found.
Kennedy spends a bit of time going over the travails of Ted Haggard and the media storm surrounding his mind-boggling outing, as well as that of Denver's Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel Church, which happened in the wake of Haggard's debacle. When "the fall" comes in the black church, the difference is that no one talks about it. If a pastor applies the tradition of civil rights advocacy for LGBTs, they are usually quietly shown the door, or there is an exodus from the congregation.
Conflicts over sexuality are on the rise. And - if Emmanuel can be held up as an example - preachers who wield the church's civil rights tradition on behalf of gay and lesbian people will be rebuffed by their members, if not sent packing.
But in contrast to the predominantly white churches, where the departures of gay clergy have been followed by everything from news conferences to extended homilies to the formation of restoration committees, black congregations are more likely to shed their gay preachers with a deafening silence.
...Those who do push the envelope receive a response as old as the Good Book: God's laws are unchanging; they must be obeyed, not debated.
But debate appears unavoidable. After wrestling to understand his son's coming out in relation to Scripture, the Rev. Dennis Meredith, minister at Atlanta's Tabernacle Baptist Church, challenged his congregation to become more accepting of gays and lesbians. Over the three years since, the church shed nearly 300 of its 1,100 members - and the financial pledges they brought.
The hypocrisy, of course, is rampant. There are plenty of gays and lesbians sitting in the pews, in the choir, directing the choir, for goodness sake. But in these churches, you're expected to sit there and listen to the homophobic bile spewing from the pulpit. Silence.
Read what happened to Rev. Reynolds when he came out to his congregation. It's painful -- and below the fold.
Homophobic dance hall music artist Beenie Man, whose lyrics call for violence against LGBTs, is now denying that he signed the Reggae Compassionate Act, which some fellow artists have agreed to sign. It calls for them to "respect and uphold the rights of all individuals to live without violence due to their religion, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity or gender."
In the Jamaica Observer, he gives a ridiculous interview where he cannot even bring himself to say "gay" when asked about the situation. Apparently a call to quell hate music is a "white man's thing," since Beenie Man refers to the blowback as the work of European promoters.
International Grammy-winning deejay, Beenie Man, in an about-turn Friday denounced violence against homosexuals, but made it clear that he did not support that lifestyle.
The deejay was responding to questions about an alleged deal with international gay rights groups, including the UK-based Outrage, in which he was said to have agreed to renounce violence against gays.
He denied signing any such deal, which Outrage last month announced as the Reggae Compassionate Act, but at the same time said that violence against gays was wrong.
"We don't need it," he told reporters shortly after closing Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest's Dancehall Night at approximately 7:15 Friday morning. "We don't need to kill dem. We just need fi tell the people dem the right ting because I not supporting a gay lifestyle because it's not wholesome to me."
Beenie Man explained that the Reggae Compassionate Act to which Outrage referred, was brokered by European promoters under fire from gay rights groups furious that they continued to support certain Reggae acts whose lyrics incited violence against homosexuals.
"It's a ting from the promoters of Europe. They are getting so much fight from the Christian and "g" organisation and everything," said the self-proclaimed 'King of the Dancehall', who apparently could not bring himself to say the word gay.
He also wouldn't comment on whether he would stop singing the songs that generated the call for the agreement in the first place.
This makes me sick. The fundies dragged out their black pastors to rail about the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which would extend protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
And guess who's behind the little road show of bigotry -- Alan Chambers of Exodus. (365gay):
Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., Pastor Marvin Winans, Bishop Larry Brandon and Bishop Liston Paige, Jr. were joined at a Washington news conference on Tuesday to denounce adding gays to the hate crime bill.
The Black pastors said sexuality cannot be equated to race and civil rights.
"We stand today with many in the African-American community who also recognize that one's sexuality can be changed, but one's skin color cannot," said Alan Chambers, the President of Exodus International, the largest of the so-called ex-gay groups.
"We call upon Congress to promote legislation that affirms authentic equality and protects our religious freedoms." he said, adding that the legislation "says that we, as former homosexuals, are of less value and worth less legal protection now then when we were living as homosexuals."
It's another one of those sad state of affairs stories. Once a refuge from discrimination as blacks were not allowed to attend white universities in the South, some of country's more than 100 historically black colleges and universities are today making life difficult for gay and lesbians on campus. The closet is alive and well (365gay):
"You've got to recognize the history of HBCUs," said Larry Curtis, vice president for student affairs at Norfolk State University, where students recently formed a gay-straight alliance. "Most of them were founded by religious organizations."
Church leaders are often cited as setting the tone regarding homosexuality across the black community.
Nationwide, black pastors have opposed gay marriage and shot down comparisons between the struggles for civil rights and gay rights; others have attacked "down low" bisexual men for contributing to the rising AIDS rates among black women, though the topic is a matter of debate in the public health community.
On historically black campuses, those tensions make life uncomfortable for gay students.
"It's kind of hard to be out on campus and still be successful," said Vincent Allen Jr., head of Safe Space at Atlanta's Morehouse College. "As an out gay man, if I wanted to pledge, that door is pretty much shut to me. That's just the way it is."
You know it's bad when school administrators at some of these schools even deny having gay students at all. The article recounts HRC's coming out project to engage college campuses in 2002, which involved sending materials out to colleges -- and the ones that showed no interest were the HBCUs.
A few have gay-straight alliances (those at Howard, Spelman, and Norfolk State University are mentioned), but is it any surprise when you hear reasoning like this for keeping gay rights in the closet.
But just as gay students can rightfully request campus inclusion, so too can black college administrators deny it, argued the Rev. William Owens, an HBCU graduate and head of the Coalition of African-American Pastors in Memphis, Tenn.
Those administrators may cite the Bible, or simply personal beliefs - and they don't have to be politically correct, Owens said. "They can say 'no' and I don't think they have to give a lot of reasons," said Owens, who joined other black pastors worried that, along with dismal marriage rates, socially accepted homosexuality "is a threat to the black family."
Last time I looked, LGBT citizens had nothing to do with adultery, divorce, out-of-child wedlock births, poverty, domestic violence or any other social ills affecting the community. If the family is the primary concern, these administrators have their priorities out of order if they feel the solution is to foment bigotry against out gays and lesbians who want to attend HBCUs and be part of the college life and community.
Should they choose to continue this public expression of discrimination, expect the schools to see their admissions drop further, something HBCUs hardly need. Keith Boykin blogs about the issue:
A few years ago, we ran a series of articles from black gay college students, including several who were students at historically black colleges and universities. In light of the recent murder of a black gay college student at Norfolk State University, an HBCU, it seems like an appropriate time to revisit the topic.
...At Hampton University, for example, Maxwell says "The people who are in charge, I really don't think they're for it." But school officials told AP that it's all a matter of stiff competition since there is a limited number of student groups allowed on campus. "No organization is given any type of special treatment," says assistant vice president for student affairs Barbara Inman. "The university doesn't have a position on gay and lesbian faculty and staff members."
The school doesn't have a position on its gay staff and faculty? In 2007, that's an outrage and that's part of the problem at Hampton. To force a gay and lesbian support group to compete with a basket weaving group for recognition is to misunderstand the history of anti-gay discrimination that makes LGBT support groups essential and basket weaving optional. Students are not being harassed or beaten up because they want to join the chess club. But they are being abused and gay bashed because of their sexuality.
"I'm a multitude of things. I'm black, I'm a lesbian and I'm a woman. Being a woman -- period -- has more of a burden than any of those." -- Dana Rone, Newark, NJ's first openly gay council member
It's a delicate balance to run as an openly gay candidate when the religious black community is a large constituency. Dana Rone has managed to navigate the land mines without compromising her ability to be out. (Star-Ledger):
Dana Rone was making her first run for Newark City Council in 2002 when she got a phone call from a local clergyman.
The caller had just heard a rumor Rone was a lesbian, and he and other church leaders demanded to know if this was true before they endorsed her. Rone toiled over a response.
When she finally faced the concerned clergymen, she said, "Whosoever believed in them shall be saved," a paraphrase of a Bible passage she cited after listening to a sermon that day to convey the message that as long as she be lieved in God, she would be saved even if being a lesbian was a sin in their eyes.
It was emblematic of the way Rone, 40, has handled questions about her sexuality: delicately, quietly but at the same time candidly.
Part of the delicate balance is that Rone doesn't mention her orientation in public, and didn't make an issue of it in her campaign, but she isn't hesitant to speak about it when asked, but she is a strong, vocal supporter of gay rights in the community.
Today marks the third birthday of National Black Justice Coalition, a group of black LGBT citizens and allies dedicated to the struggle full equality for all by fighting racism and homophobia. The organization envisions a world where all people are fully empowered to participate safely, openly, and honestly in family, faith and community, regardless of race, gender-identity or sexual orientation.
The organization was launched back in 2003 in response to black pastors who were trying to garner support in the black community for the Federal Marriage Amendment -- as you know, with so many blacks cowering in the closet because of the bile coming from too many pulpits, it was a welcome out gay voice of opposition and strong visibility. The group is committed to working with black candidates and officials at the state, local and federal levels to address LGBT issues openly.
Some of the accomplishments and goals of the NBJC:
* the organization hosted the first Black Church Summit dedicated to discussing gays in the church;
* it's the first and only organization focusing on gay civil rights that is a member of the National Black Leadership Forum;
* NBJC has launched a Political Action Fund to encourage voter support for initiatives and policies to establish racial justice and equality for LGBT Americans and to oppose anti-gay ballot initiatives.
It's an uphill battle, but there are notable LGBT equality advocates in the black community who have gone on the record in their support. That "coming out" process needs to continue.
The organization will host its second annual Black Church Summit next year on March 8-10 at Mother Bethel AME Church in Philly. It will feature Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and Rev. Deborah L. Johnson, Pastor of Inner Light Ministries in Santa Cruz, CA.
Congrats to all the good folks at NBJC who are working hard to make a difference.
Founder Keith Boykin has a post up on the organization's third anniversary, along with an excellent interview with NBJC CEO H. Alexander Robinson that's worth a read, particularly for insight on the concept of "same-gender-loving" in the black community versus "gay."
The NAACP is 
This is so sad. Dr. King and Coretta Scott King are rolling in their graves over the way some of the members of the 
Over the last few days we have seen the White House 
Bishop Owens, by the way, is notorious for his anti-gay views, sermons, and advocacy of ex-gay therapy, so the emailer had no fear of being reprimanded for her actions. 
