Picketing President Obama Is the Wrong Way to Get Blacks to Back Gay Marriage
The gay activists that picketed President Obama at a recent fundraising event in Los Angeles for allegedly not doing and saying enough to beat back Proposition 8 must have dropped in from another planet. Obama remains wildly popular among African-American voters and an attack on him for being less than resolute on gay rights does nothing but further tick black voters off. They'll need those voters now more than ever if they plop another initiative on the ballot in 2010. The measure would reverse Proposition 8 and legalize same sex marriage.
The Catholic Church and the Mormon groups dumped millions into the Proposition 8 initiative campaign. Yet even with their money and their drum beat media campaign, polls showed that Latinos marginally supported the proposition, Asians voted overwhelmingly against it and whites were split. Polls also showed that a majority of black voters in key parts of the state voted for it. Los Angeles was one. Nearly sixty percent of blacks backed the initiative. The black vote made the crucial difference in passing the initiative.
A well-heeled and probably well paid off core of preachers who head fundamentalist leaning, mega and medium-sized black churches held rallies and took to their pulpits and bible thumped their congregations to pass the initiative. Proposition 8 backers shrewdly flooded mailboxes in mostly black neighborhoods with a mailer that featured a stern faced Obama and his horribly out of context quote saying that he opposed gay marriage. Obama vehemently denounced Proposition 8.
Even if the ministers hadn't said a word about gay marriage, a significant number maybe even the majority of blacks might still have voted for it. The warning signs that black voters were susceptible to religious and conservative pitches to oppose gay marriage lit up in 1997. Then the late Green Bay Packers perennial all-pro defensive end Reggie White, an ordained fundamentalist minister stirred a firestorm when he took a huge swipe at gay rights and gay marriage in a speech to the Wisconsin state legislature. White became the first celebrity black evangelical to say publicly what many black religious leaders said and believed privately about gay issues. Few blacks joined in the loud chorus that condemned his remarks.
A year before White's outburst, a Pew Poll measured black attitudes toward gay marriage and found that blacks by an overwhelming margin opposed it. A CNN poll eight years later showed that anti-gay attitudes among blacks had not changed much since then. At a tightly packed press conference in October 2003, five of Michigan's top black prelates publicly called on the state legislature to amend the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. The ballot measure passed in November, and more than fifty percent of blacks backed it.
The same year the conservative Virginia-based Alliance for Marriage corralled a handful of top black preachers to plop their name on the Alliance's letterhead and tout the Alliance's anti-gay rights agenda.
At the NAACP convention in July 2004, there was some talk of taking a delegate vote to put the organization firmly on record backing gay rights. It didn't get far. Reverend Julius Caesar Hope, the head of the NAACP's religious affairs department, warned that a resolution to back gay marriage "would make some serious problems. I would think the membership would be overwhelmingly against it, based on our tradition in the black community."
Seven months before the November 2004 presidential election, a legion of black churchmen staged a rally on Capitol Hill, "We believed that we are faced with a challenge," Bishop Paul Morton thundered to the crowd, "God versus same-sex marriage and we will not compromise in that area." A day later an AME convention forbade its ministers from performing same-sex marriages.
In nearly every state since then where gay marriage bans have been enacted, conservative church-influenced blacks have been the driving force backing the bans. Christian fundamentalist groups have played hard on that sentiment.
At the same time, however, a significant percent of blacks have rejected the bigoted, narrow religious appeals of some black ministers and opposed gay marriage bans. Even in the winning Proposition 8 campaign, forty percent of black voters overall opposed the initiative. Many, perhaps the majority of blacks, can be won to back same sex marriage as a paramount civil rights issue. Because that's what it is. But picketing President Obama is the absolute wrong way to get them to do that.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, "The Hutchinson Report" can be heard on weekly in Los Angeles at 9:30 AM Fridays on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and live streamed nationally on ktym.com
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If people want to be homophobic bigots, that's their right, and their choice.
Don't blame the victims of their bigotry for not appeasing them properly.
Whether or not Black people really like President Obama is irrelevant on principle, the fact of the matter is as president Obama stands behind and defends descriminatory policies, and for that he has warranted being protested. Gays and allies shouldn't stop protesting because it might tickle some religious conservative Black people, they should work to convince them why they should protest along with them.
I get your point. Still, what you're asking is wrong. You are suggesting that gays should not exercise their free speech rights with the President because people with the same skin color as him will be angry with us. Let me ask you: If you wished to picket Richard Nixon, would you decide against it because it would upset the other people who had his skin color?
I think your approach, while peaceful, would lead to little change.
Seems like there always has to be at least one group of second class citizens in order for some to feel superior.
I don't understand... so we're *never* allowed to protest him ever just because he's bi-racial? How is this okay?
The more they scream against gay marriage, the more worried their wives should be.
It also remains to be seen how many African American voters will turn out in 2010 without Obama on the ballot. I can speak from Minneapolis, it was the gay ghettos which voted nearly as high a percentage as seniors EVERY election, and 85% of us voted Democrats.
The issue of marriage I find particularly offensive for African Americans to have a problem granting to LGBTS.
When the SAME hateful 1913 Law to ban recognition of inter racial marriages was used by Mitt Romney in MA, to ban out state couples from marrying in MA.
From what I read here many have missed the point of the article. Those who ask for alternatives are few and I have no answers. Race is a complex issue and dealing with it requires an open mind and intelligent discussion. The only thing I can tell people for sure is that the gay community has a race relation issue in the black community. Ignore it if you want but it exists.
And the black community has a problem with homophobia. Both communities can go around around and around and around and deny and deny and deny...but both problems exist. It's not like black gay people are exactly welcomed in the black community.
So what do we do?
Dio- the subject of "black homophobia" is not the issue.
We all continue to work to end all discrimination.
And, if gay marriage is going to be a state-by-state issue, we do not ignore any community. We inform, lobby, and engage everyone. We do not allow misinformation to stand. Given the nature of homophobia, we do not assume anyone or any group is supportive or inflexibly not supportive. We try to get as many allies as we can.
We do not rely on one person like Obama to tell the LGBT story or take a stance. We tell our own stories of gay oppression and discrimination. We speak for ourselves. We inform. We include. This did not happen in Cali.
I don't believe that Black people are more homophobic than White people. It's another way to sneak racism into the equation, and divide us. Homophobia needs to be dealt with by all people.
When are you going to realize that you speak for a teeny tiny itty bitty amount of people.
How so? Did the gay marriage ban passed in every state it was on? Yes, which means you're this tiny itty bitty amount of people you speak of and Tangars5 is right.
Hi, T. is was and is still being followed, so I limit by posting and comment. But don’t stop. Moreover, the gay community should listen to this writer and black posters. There're not helping their cause and is looked up on as white gay racism on this president and the whole black community.
Correction:...I* was and.....
I just really have a problem with this. We should not protest to our President using time-honored, traditional methods, when we want him to grant us our civil rights, because the "whole black community" will consider us racists?
WTF?
Note: Obama signed a proclamation Monday that declares the month of June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride month.
see http://www.politico.com/politico44/
We are the Ones I see you have been keeping up the convo.....good job.
I have not read all the comments but from what I have read so far.......typical
Did you see that Mr Hutchinson! You see, I think President Obama is a strong enough person not to hold that very small protest against anyone. I don't think he took it as a stab at his blackness. Mr Obama is a constitutional scholar and I am sure he understands the importance of peaceful protest.
Thanks "We-Are-The Ones" for help in proving that point.
so that means you won't protest anymore?????
I do not care why the President did it, I am just glad he did. I have been looking for press since finding this on politico. I haven't found anything. Why hasn't HuffPo mentioned this. The proclamation has some good stuff in it, but more needs to be done. There should be more news.
One year AFTER Georgia voters passed a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage a Black church organized a march to protest gays. 20,000 Black people strong showed up and marched against gays. Sound familiar?
You have it completely backwards.
20,000 Black people marching against gays do not represent the whole population.
There are an estimated 2,349,542 Blacks in population.
Again, just because "some" Blacks are against gay marriage, doesn't mean all Blacks are. Dont paint with such a broad brush.
I'll protest the Black churches and I'll protest the White churches, I'll protest any group that wants to restrict my rights.
A few years back here in Georgia a group of White supremacists led a march against Blacks in Forsythe County Georgia, I was a part of a very big group of counter protesters then and I'll do it again. Being called names by the kkk protesters of traitor to my race had no effect on my views.
Whether you like it or not there is wide spread homophobia in the Black community. Just as there is wide spread homophobia in the White community. I will not back off any group with blackmailed threats of being labeled a racist.
20,000 did not represent the whole population, but you live in fantasyland if you don't think there is widespread homophbia in the Black community.
Protest is as American as apple pie. To even imply that gays be held hostage because our President is Black is insane.
Protesting Obama while not protesting Congress, the Cali court, the Cali legislature, the Cali voters (not just the Black ones) and many others is racially suspicious.
Why protest Obama? Why not just protest the situation?
You totally miss the point and misdirect.
Being told to not protest a man because of his race is wrong no matter how you spin it.
1) There were abt. 100 people at this protest and not all of it was related to gay civil rights issues.
2) The entire Democratic Party is kind of out of flavor a little bit in the gay community right now (although it doesn't mean the repubs are more in favor...). Obama is the head of the Party; the gay community is equally disappointed at quite a few Congressmen (esp. Nancy Pelosi).
3) The Cali legislature has voted for gay marriage. twice. Arnold vetoed the bills, though he did come out against Prop 8.
4) Remember, rick Warren campaigned for Prop 8 as did the Mormons and the Catholic Church and they get unrelenting criticism, far more than Obama, in fact. The media doesn't tell you about that.
Prop 8 is a CALIFORNIA ISSUE .............. NOT A FEDERAL ISSUE.
California has it's own governor, it's own state legislature, it's own supreme court, and it has 2 senators and 53 members of the house of representatives (including the SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE) in Washington DC.
These are the people the proponents for gay marriage should be picketing, because these are the people who can solve their CALIFORNIAN problem.
As for DADT and DOMA .............. There was no picketing for President Clinton (THE PRESIDENT WHO ACTUALLY SIGNED THE BILLS FOR DADT AND DOMA)............... So why grandstand just because President Obama is in office?
And again it is the 2 Californian senators and the 53 Californian members of congress that these should be picketed by the Californians, because both the repeals of DADT and DOMA have to pass on the hill, BEFORE it gets to the President's desk for signature.
People ignore this because they want someone to blame. As in much of our history, Blacks are an easy target. One poster below even suggests targetting the funding for minority children so that LGBT can obtain leverage.
There are Blacks in the LGBT community and there are Black allies for the LGBT community.
I totally agree with you. Targeting Obama for what is a state election issue seems like bad strategy in general, as well as a possibly alienating factor for potential African American allies of gay rights who might perceive that he is being unfairly blamed. California's many elected Democratic officials should never have allowed Prop 8 to happen or been so quiet in accepting it. They should be made to take the lead on correcting the failures of their State government. These anti-gay marriage laws need to be knocked down state-by-state. California's economy is so fragile right now that large, well-organized sit-ins and boycots in Sacramento and major cities would probably bring the State to its knees on this issue.
Clinton was picketed. Just because we are invisible to you, doesn't make your words and thoughts true. Pay attention or join the discussion on an issue that is a little easier for you to understand.
Anyone who sets themselves up as the spokesperson for an entire group of people should be viewed with suspicion. No single individual speaks for Blacks or LGBT's or Jews or anybody else.
Oh, don't you just love identity politics?
No. I don't. I think identity politics is short-sighted, a historical and divisive.
I hope a day will come when we can see the "them" in us. We are not there, yet.
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