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

Comments

[ANIMIST]

As a Black man I overstand exactly what Earl is trying to say in this article. It's an issue which upsets many Black Folk when we get into Gay Rights=Black Struggle in America.

I can't tell you how much this angers Balck people whose ancestors were taken as slaves from a different continent, forced into slavery for hundreds of years. Then lived as second-class citizens who were subjucated to lynches & police brutality. They were also segregated until the 1960s.

The struggle for Gay Rights cannot compare to the ongoing Struggle for Black Rights. Just last week an undercover White cop shot an off-duty Black cop. This is the 6th Black beating/shooting which resulted in death, just this year alone.

Blacks & Jews have a unwritten rule, we don't try to compare the Holocaust to the History of Slavery in America. They are seperate issues with unique cultural implications. My advice to the Gay Movement in attempting to threaten Blacks into voting with them is NOT to try to align their movement with ours.

This is America, the Natives (now called Indians, due to a mistake by Columbus, Mexicans (SW America used to be part of their country, Women (Suffrage movement), Immigrants (language, cultural barriers, Muslims (9/11)... all face discrimination & harassment by this country. All I have to say is welcome to the club. This is America, unless you're White, male, rich, straight & christian, you're gonna have problems here...

[tel8034]

AMEN ..........­...... Well said......­..........­"This is America, unless you're White, male, rich, straight & christian, you're gonna have problems here..."

[fixitfakeitcreateit]

The truth hurts dont it.... That should be a T-shirt Bumper sticker...­that should be at all major airport terminals.

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

It is unproductive to compare which oppression was the foulest, EACH is dispicable. Whether it's racial, sexual, disability, orientation, gender.
I can rattle off OUR (LGBT) Hate Crimes, like three transgendered women shot execution style in Memphis last year, children so bullied they kill themselves, military personel kicked or bashed with baseball bats until the corpse is UNRECONIZABLE to their mothers. I can testify what it's like being the victim of three thugs with clubs, or having anti gay and AIDS cr*p sprayed all over my home, or a lesbian friend knocked to the pavement and repeatedly kicked in her head, or friends brutally beaten by police, or having a hotel manager screech at me a half hour after my lover's heart failed, how the wallpaper and carpet would have to be ripped out because his cardio myopathy was due to AIDS.

[Dorraj]

This is a presumption and I think you presume that all gays liken their efforts to the black civil rights movement. I don't. In many ways, the two are similar, but the one fundamental difference is that black kids don't have to struggle to come out to their parents before they even think about dealing with society. Gay kids are far more alone than black kids.
---------------

Oh Lord, really? Well let me be alone with a good education and a nice home, as oppose to growing up in poor crime ridden neighborhood. Coming out to your parents is what you call struggling? Gays act like they have been such a stalwart ally to black. the truth is no one has. That is why we still have pro-slavery confederate flags flying today from state capitols. Prop 8 should not have been up for vote anyway.

[Lisa-G]

If any African-American person won't support equality because we are standing up for ourselves, then they weren't a supporter of equality anyway. As usual, your blog is bias-filled drivel. We will protest each and every president until we achieve equality. If you don't like reality, then focus on something a little more comfortable for yourself.

[tel8034]

So you are prepared to picket the President, but not your own senators and congressmen/women, or your governor, or your legislature, or your supreme court.

They are the ones to solve your problem.

By the way what have you done for civil rights for African Americans?

[gloriousbeing]

This is a civil rights issue. Period.
As to black churches and those African-Americans who are religious and see homosexuality as a "sin" and/or "wrong", please look into your hearts and remember, truly remember the acceptance of Jesus Christ. I also worry, with the recent suicide of two black youngsters who were being called "gay", did they receive messages in their home and/or church that homosexuality is an "evil" that must be rejected? What if they felt they were gay? What messages have they received from our society, their homes, their churches, etc. that might have made them feel so alienated that they didn't feel they had anyone to turn to? Even if they were not, would it not be better to have conversations of tolerance in order to save the lives of these two beautiful youngsters and others who might be dealing with the same thing?

[mysistagirl]

At the risk of sounding "preachy", I feel compelled to straighten you out on a common mistake. You said:

"please look into your hearts and truly remember the acceptance of Jesus Christ".

Beloved, this is disingenuous and shows a lack of understanding of His character. I want to give you a small example of Jesus' acceptance in action:

Remember the story of the woman caught in adultery? She was brought before Jesus to be stoned to death. Jesus said let the one without sin cast the first stone, and all the accusers left because they were not without sin. Jesus, who WAS without sin could have stoned her to death, but he chose to accept her. But look at HOW He accepted her, see what He said to her:

"Go, and sin no more"

That's just five words, but they convey three very important things about Jesus' requirement for acceptance:

1. GO, -- as in you are free and forgiven
2. AND SIN -- as in your actions WERE WRONG. He did not sugarcoat it, He called it sin
3. NO MORE -- as in repent and turn away from the aforementioned sin or wrong actions.

Jesus is not in the "anything goes" business. He has requirements, and OBEDIENCE is the greatest. Sure He loves you, but He measures YOUR love for HIM by your obedience.

It doesn't help when you misrepresent Christ in making your case. It only makes students of the bible shake their heads at you more.

[SamX]

So please explain why we have divorce! Your argument is so hollow.

Divorce is a CHOICE which Jesus himself called an abomination. Yet I have never heard anyone say to a divorced person such nonsense as "Love the sinner, hate the sin. Never have i heard anyone say "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam eve then Cindy."

Jesus also said judge not lest you be judged. So tell us mysistagirl, what are your sins? Jesus gave us the right to ask since you gave yourself the right to judge.

[mysistagirl]

Gay marriage as a "civil rights" issue won't work in the black community. The majority of us are insulted by attempts to equate civil rights struggle with choice of marriage partner. A person's marriage partner pales in comparison with the civil rights struggles. Most blacks are incensed at this ploy.

A couple of other points:

1. Insisting that blacks should view the gay marriage issue through the prism of black struggles (or race), is in and of itself a form of bigotry. We are more than just our race, and we make decisions on issues based on other factors. Don't box us in and then claim that WE are bigots because we don't choose what your paradigm(based on our race) would have us choose.

2. The majority of blacks who don't support gay marriage, are opposed for RELIGIOUS reasons. A set of values and faith that gay marriage does not jive with. The church is and always has been HUGE in the black community. Faith isn't the domain of the far right. Faith has been the bedrock of the black community, and they are simply not going to abandon it because someone erroneously frames a contrary issue as "civil rights". We won't be played like that. It's a moral issue, not civil rights to us. Again, it is bigotry in and of itself to assume that blacks have no other compass from which to determine their position except that of civil rights or race.

It's our faith and values, stupid!

[DenverJim]

Open your mind. There's a whole big world out there, outside of church. Gays don't choose their orientation any more than you chose your race. Don't get insulted so easily. Your bigotry is showing.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

Your bigotry is showing as well. A Black gay person chooses neither race nor sexuality. Do you exclude these gay people because they are not white and suffer from multiple points of discrimination.

There are Blacks among the gay community. Never forget that.

[fixitfakeitcreateit]

Not to be contrary but has there been scientific fact regarding orientation. Links please?

[kofi1013]

Did it ever occur to anyone about the rampant racism toward Black people in the white gay community. This issue is mostly perceived by people of color as mainly a white priority. Just because someone is gay does not mean they give up white power and privilage. Given all of the issues faced by Black and Brown people marriage is not high on the list of priorities. HIV/AIDS is mostly a Black disease but, where is the white gay commuity? Hmmm

[Lisa-G]

Where the f**k were YOU when AIDS was decimating the gay community??? All of the many resources/­treatments for people with AIDS today came on OUR backs; they came from OUR sacrifice. Your comments are disgusting.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

Here you go again with "our" backs.

There are Blacks in the LGBT community. Yet, some of you seem to ignore them altogether.

[diogenes1967]

Thank you. Where was the black community in the 1980's when the gay community had no resources yet over 50% of the HIV/AIDS cases were black and Latino men.

Everytime the AIDS issue comes up (and I am a gay black man over the age of 40) I get soooooooooooo ticked off at the hypocrisy of African Americans. I really do.

[fixitfakeitcreateit]

Unfortunately, the treatment and supportive services for those suffering with HIV/AIDS never made it to Black/Hispanics neighborhoods. Thats why I keep saying we have bigger fish to fry. This division along race and sexual orientation is right out of the Karl Rove play book which I sure he stole from some kid. Anyway this is a NEOCON trick.

[DenverJim]

Why are gays obligated to be more evolved, and less prejudiced? It would be great if the whole world was that way, but I keep reading comments that if we were just better-behaved, then maybe we would get what we want. Is rampant homophobia in the black community excusible? Also, if the gay movement is percieved as a "white" issue, then what does that say about ethnic communites priorities? It's OK to hate your own family members and community members who are gay? Are they just disposible? Maybe a collective consciousness raising is in order.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

Why are gays obligated to be more evolved, and less prejudiced?

Why should Blacks or any other groups be more evolved and less prejudiced?

Because it is past time. Everyone should be less prejudiced. Blaming Blacks for Prop. 8 does not open the conversation on prejudice.

I do not understand why some of the LGBT community is focusing so acutely on Blacks. Prop. 8 was not made law because of the Black vote alone.

[SamX]

Where is the Black community when it comes to aids? NO where to be found in Atlanta, I can tell you that for sure. And just why on earth is it the white gay mans responsibility to educate Blacks? I can tell you that AidAtlanta started out as mainly a white gay male run organization because thats the only people who were affected at first. It is now a primary resource for Blacks and has had a tremendous impact on black aids survival rates. In the mean time the Black church has been mainly silent.

Cynthia Tucker the black editorial director of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution newspaper has pointed this out in numerous columns.

Where is the Black support for aids victims? And where do you get your misinformation?

[frogluv73]

We helped elect this man, partly because he wanted to change America for the better. He sold us on the the idea of ending "Don't ask, don't tell" along with other promises that would make our lives better. As African-Americans, who know better than anyone else about the struggle of civil rights, how can you continue to hold the carrot in front of us, asking us not to insist and protest what we believe in? We helped elect him! He is my president too! Knowing about the struggle for equality should make you have more knowledge that equality should be for all, that it shouldn't be a struggle. Your community laid the groundwork for women, Latinos, Asians, etc. I wasn't aware that when your community kicked in that door, that you only meant for it to be for your community, and everyone else was on their own. The United States has become a country of "me." It's time that EVERYONE come together and turn it back into a country of "WE!"

[We-Are-The-Ones]

Many helped elect Obama. And, Obama is your President too. He cannot achieve everything at once. He has committed to repealing DADT and has stated this repeatedly. But it has been four months. In this short time, he has given gay diplomats benefits for their families AND has required the DOD to study how repealing DADT will effect the military.

I am not saying wait years. I am saying wait more than 4 months.

Further, there are many Blacks in the LGBT community. Yet, the gay marriage issue seems to be impliedly framed as civil rights for white LGBT. Recognize the racial diversity among LGBT. if you make this a racial issue, blaming Blacks and deriding Blacks you will lose the support you have and the allies you have.

40% of Blacks were against Prop. 8. What do you want that 40% to take from a post like this?

[Brixtonville]

You're surely joking.

Gays supported Obama in force, and he didn't lift a finger to stop Proposition 8 from passing. You think supporting him more will convince black voters to help us out?

He's clearly disinterested in giving us civil rights, despite the fact that most black voters will not vote against him for any reason. Those black voters who don't support Obama are already lost votes to him; he's not going to lose any more.

I can understand how it might seem odd that we'd like some civil rights, but we shouldn't have to convince black voters - of all voting groups - to grant them to another group. Perhaps they should reconsider the side they want to be on when it becomes history.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

You ask: You think supporting him more will convince black voters to help us out?

Who is "us"? Surely you must recognize that there are Black LGBT folk. There are Black allies of LGBT folk.

When Prop. 8 was on the ballot, Obama was nothing more than a candidate. What did you expect him to do prior to November. Seems unreasonable to me.

YOu also are separate blacks from the LGBT community by refering to them as "they" multiple times and "us". They are part of us. We are part of them.

Gay marriage is not just marriage for white LGBT it is marriage for all LGBT . . . many of whom are Black.

[tel8034]

And pray tell what did your 2 CALIFORNIAN senators, your 53 CALIFORNIAN members of the house of representatives, your CALIFORNIAN governor, your CALIFORNIAN mayors, your CALIFORNIAN legislature and your CALIFORNIAN supreme court do to stop Proposition 8 from passing? ..........­.......

And many in the gay community supported ALL of those CALIFORNIANS for elected office.

You want to "beat up" on President Obama while giving ALL of your CALIFORNIAN elected officials a pass ..........­..... WHY IS THAT?

Proposition 8 is a California issue that need to be solved by Californians and THEIR CALIFORNIAN ELECTED OFFICIALS

Obama did not enter the debate or fight for same sex marriage in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa, Vermont and Maine ..........­........ All who have legalized same-sex marriages.

Nor did President Obama enter into the recent debates in New Jersey, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Colorado, District of Columbia, Oregon, Washington, Maryland, and New York.

So why should he enter the California debate? ..........­... Florida and Arizona also had same-sex marriages on the 2008 ballot which failed, and I'm sure they have not given up the fight, but we don't see President Obama being picketed in those states.

[fixitfakeitcreateit]

So now insult Black voters ala Rush Limbaugh. Blacks voted for him because he was Black despite the fact Black voters would support Clarence Thomas for gardner of the year. Its the issues white people the issues. And once again when the chips are down blame the Black folks-the same people who built this shill of a country for free.

[aftershock]

Earl... I'd just like to know what you propose, since you yourself even admit that "Polls show that more Americans than ever say that they support civil rights for gays, and a torrent of gay themed TV shows present non-stereotypical depictions of gays. But this increased tolerance has not dissipated the hostility that far too many blacks, especially hard core Bible thumping blacks, feel toward gays." So you admit these black "bible thumpers" with open hostility towards homosexuality aren't swayed by changing public perception or increased public visibility of homosexuals who shatter stereotypes, but we shouldn't picket President Obama because it might offend them (as if your bible thumper comments don't but yeah...)?!­? I mean, you really make no sense Earl. You basically said in the article I pulled that quote from that there's no reasoning with these folks, yet we shouldn't offend them by picketing Obama and demanding he keep promises he made (you know, those reasons we voted for him)??

[We-Are-The-Ones]

You did not get his points. The bible thumping Blacks do not represent all Blacks. He also stated "forty percent of black voters overall opposed the initiative­."

Demand that Obama keep his promises, but do not alienate your support among the Black community while doing so. There are Blacks who ally with the LGBT community. There are Blacks who are part of the LGBT community. Don't forget them when you speak this divisive language.

[pandarzan]

Like with AIDS during the Reagan years, a Whitehouse that makes no comment, has indeed made their comment.

This is not about winning the hearts & minds of others it is about the Goverment doing it's job in upholding the constitution. Given the option, and it has been proven many times, the majority will always choose to discriminate against the minority.

This is not a states rights issue, this is a federal human/civil rights issue and needs to be corrected on that level.

[LintLass]

Obama opposed Prop 8 and has been stronger on diversity issues than any President in living memory. The fact is, the GOP is using hurting *us* as a way of trying to hold some influence after bungling the economy so bad they have nothing else than issues they can point a Bible at and say 'Sex!'

He can't tell the Justices in Cali what to rule, (I think an amicus curae would have been nice, though) ...but he does need to know that a lot of his supporters, ..and a lot of Americans, are sorely-aggrieved in our real lives by what's happened over in Cali.

[TryToBeFlexible]

So, you are saying that if LGBT people picket Obama abuot a legimiate grievance, then African Americans will vote to strip LGBT people of their civil rights? Really?

Then I suppose you would advise blacks never to picket white politicians to address their own civil rights violations, because this would cause whites to then strip blacks of their civil rights?

I can tell you, the whites who believe in civil rights for all, would NOT ever change their mind and want to punish your minority group by stripping them of their rights, because they picketed in defense of their own rights. In fact, they would support you in your struggle.

Why would you think blacks would do this? Are you saying that blacks are more hateful, or dumber, or what?

Personally, I don't buy it. I think you need to look into your own heart. Do you just want LGBT people to "shut up"? Are you just "tired of hearing them"? Which side of the civil rights issues are you on? The one that says "freedom for all", or the one that says "freedom for my group, but not for any group that I am prejudiced against"?

[allonfla]

Dumb Bunny! Black people are fiercely loyal and this is a Black President. The more they see the LGBT community -always represented by a white person- continually attack Obama - the more they will solidify their vote against gay rights.

[Tanyars5]

THANK YOU- This is the point they fail to realize. This point flys right over their heads!!!!!

[JoyceBains]

"Do you just want LGBT people to "shut up"? Are you just "tired of hearing them"?

I do, and I am.

PT. ONE

I will never, EVER mark an X next to anything that denies the LGBT community (I know, you're not a "community", but bear with me) the same rights that I have as an American citizen. I firmly believe that if you can't get married, you shouldn't have to pay taxes - either you're an American citizen or you're not. But your arguments are weak. Your methods - little more than sulking and name-calling - are lazy and unimpressive. Your logic is flawed. Your impatience is childish - you can't make a BABY in four months, for goodness' sake. Your knowledge of history is LAUGHINGLY bad. (Didn't Loving result in the right for a MAN to marry a WOMAN, regardless of race? Didn't the Supreme Court pass civil rights laws? Weren't black and Latino transgendered people a large part of Stonewall?)

The LGBT community has the chance to march into history, yet you choose to piggyback off of ours - and then you wonder why you gain such little ground. It's like you all watched "Eyes on the Prize" and cherry picked the parts that inspired you, completely ignoring the rest. Seriously - how in the hell did you lose the right to marry in California after all of three our four months? CALIFORNIA? Really? Next thing you know, they'll be outlawing Spanish in Texas.

[JoyceBains]

PT. 2:

Get this through your gay heads: you will never, ever, EVER have the support of the black community as long as you keep comparing it to the Civil Rights Movement. You can be as mad about it as you want to. You can say it's unfair. You can sit there and wonder how in the world can descendants of slaves blah blah blah oppress blah blah blah and so forth. I wonder the same thing, myself. But you STILL won't have their support, not as long as you continue to dismiss them (well, us) as little more than ignorant, Bible-thumpers. My question is, what are you going to do about it? Sulk? Please, for your own sakes, go back to the drawing board and come up with another plan, because "What would Dr. Malcolm Rosa Martin Luther T. Washington do?" just isn't working.

Another thing - learn to take constructive criticism, and stop writing off everyone who disagrees with you in the slightest as homophobes. That's a *great* way to lose much-needed votes by the boatload. A lot of so-called homophobes just really don't know what's up. I had a conversation with my aunt and uncle the other day, explaining to them why "civil unions" aren't good enough. They wound up seeing things from my POV, and I didn't even have to mention any dead civil rights leader. IT. IS. NOT. HARD. Stick with the facts instead of trying to prey on people's emotions.

[jrw712]

I would suggest that the GLBT community organize its voters in opposition to all bond issues that would benefit the public schools, and which in large cities benefit minority populations disporportionately. After all why should the members of the GLBT community support insitutions whose beneficiaries systematically exclude them and reject their participation as parents. After a few funding inititative go down, then the GLBT community might have a bargaining chip or two: You want running water in the bathrooms of your schools, then help us gain marriage equality.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

This is ignorant and r*cist. Why penalize minority children for the society as a whole denying LGBT community members the right to marry? Unless you are being r*cist. Penalize Blacks, Latinos and the poor children so that they can be used as a bargaining tool.

If the LGBT community goes after children in this way, all support will die.

Calm down. Think. Don't divide your support. Do not harm children. Do not become like GOPers. Shame on you.

[SethBLiNK]

There are a number of Gay Rights activists who think they don't need to win over black voters to prevail on this issue. They also don't need to win over moderate voters, or voters who believe in civil unions but find the word "marriage" to be a stumbling block. In short, they don't need any voters at all. They just need the courts and they don't really care whom they piss off as long as they can be assured that everybody has taken note of their anger.

The sad part is, they are right about the issue (equal rights) but so wrong about how to go about getting it.

[LintLass]

Actually, given there's majority support for civil unions, then the electorate should pony up demanding them, ...At least you could make a stronger case that we don't 'need' marriage, cause it's 'only a word,' and since it's 'equal' it would of course take something away from straights if it were applied to 'inferior' same-sex marriage, but it's all just as good, but don't you dare claim equal protection under the law, cause that would somehow 'hurt straights,' but it's all the same....

Maybe voicing some stuff is necessary to make it a little less *comfy* to discriminate, though.

The voters are one thing. The voters can do a lot.

The *Courts* are there to defend our liberty and equality. Big. Difference. Making amendments to hurt gay people to bypass the Constitution isn't something people do cause some queer person cried out too loud.

[david43a]

I remember hearing this very same thing, in about 1965....

[We-Are-The-Ones]

In 1965, decades had passed with Black seeking equal rights. Administration after Administration after Administration.

Only 4 months have passed in this new administration. Extreme impatience.

[paisleyface]

The purpose of picketing was not to get the attention or support of the black community. It's egoism to believe so.

It was not support of the white population that finally gave blacks their due on paper, and I stress on paper.

The purpose of picketing Obama was to picket a president, not a black man and not any segment of the black population.

At least, that's how I see it.

[Tanyars5]

paislyface and suige- I and other self identified AA's commenters have been making comments for months about the behavior of gays (prop 8, rick warrren and Pres Obama). Many in the gay community may disagree with us but you seem to turn a deaf ear on what we have been writing. If someone from a group you want to identify/c­ollaborate with etc is telling you something it is wise to listen.
I will make the assumption this man is writing this article because he knows the sentiment in the black community. I don't know this man and he doesn't know me. I know none of the self identified black commenters on HP. They are telling gay people the same thing. You can ignore it all you want and call me race baiter all you want but in the end we will all tell you "I told you so."

[PlaceboStudman]

I don't have a problem with someone saying "dont picket, don't demonstrate, don't make your voices heard", but, when someone does say that without giving constructive criticism alternatives, what are we supposed to believe beyond that those people want to just propogate the separation and domination of one segment of people over another, when we should all be working toward equality.

Give us some constructive alternatives if you're going to criticize and put down the tactics we use, please

[paisleyface]

"If someone from a group you want to identify/c­ollaborate with etc is telling you something it is wise to listen."

This is a presumption and I think you presume that all gays liken their efforts to the black civil rights movement. I don't. In many ways, the two are similar, but the one fundamental difference is that black kids don't have to struggle to come out to their parents before they even think about dealing with society. Gay kids are far more alone than black kids.

[diogenes1967]

Then let me ask you something Tanya (if you come back here)

What do YOU think the gay community should do. Maybe we should communiticate more off-line, remember, I have 2 dogs in this fight and I understand both sides pretty well.