Why President Obama Hurts His Own Cause By Not Addressing Homophobia in the Black Community

I had book marked Pam Spaulding's post at Pam's House Blend (one of my must read blogs) on this topic for a follow up post only to find that it has now appeared on Huffington Post. Pam as always makes many good and balanced points even though there are many in the black community that don't want to hear the message - perhaps because it hits too close to home. Let me be clear, there are many gay affirming blacks and gay-affirming black churches. However, there seem to be far more that are not. As I have shared with Pam - who I met at the Blogger Summit last December - here in Norfolk, the problem of black homophobia spills over into the courts where the treatment gays receive from the courts depends in significant part on whether or not one has the misfortune of having their case assigned to one of the black judges. Should one have their case heard by one of the black circuit court judges (as has been my unfortunate fate), in my opinion, one can plan on being utterly crucified whereas the white judges seem to see one's sexual orientation as irrelevant to the issues before the court - which is how it should be and what is required under the Canons of Judicial Conduct which seem to never be enforced. From talking with other gays in cases before these judges, my treatment is not unique. Here are some highlights from Pam's article which I urge you to read in full since she is on the mark on Obama's failings (in reading Pam's post, remember that she is a black women herself):

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Over the last few days we have seen the White House struggle to answer 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.

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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. . . . . 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.

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In other words, Obama . . . and [Marion] 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.

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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. . . . . he has now left LGBTs, particularly black LGBTs, twisting in the wind to battle the ignorance he affirms. (It should be noted that LGBT POC are also frequently left twisting in the wind by the larger -- read: white-dominated -- LGBT community and leadership, that is loathe to address the racial discord that inhibits progress.)

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For me, civil rights is civil rights is civil rights. Equal protection under the law is equal protection under the law. In employment. In housing. In public accommodations. In adoption. In civil marriage. Either we all have it or we don't.

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This seems so simple to understand, so rational, right? You should see some of the comments that erupted in the thread at JJP. It shows you how difficult it is to penetrate 1) homophobia based on religious convictions and very selective readings of the Bible tossed casually out there as moral certainty while ignoring passages that condemn their own behavior; and 2) the odd zero-sum game that civil rights for LGBTs somehow diminishes rights granted to blacks as a result of the struggle of that civil rights movement. The fact that the two movements aren't wholly equivalent yet both have merit and seems to escape some commentators.

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There's no leadership coming from the White House to counter the issue of black homophobia that he called out so clearly in the past. From his speech delivered at the house of worship where Dr. Martin Luther King preached, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in January 2008: And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community. We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them.

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The sad reality is that if black equality of the 1960's was decided by the opinions of everyday God fearing, church going Americans, we'd still be eating at segregated lunch counters and riding on the back of the bus. Please stop using religion to cover your bigotry as I can assure you that since the advent of the slave trade, people have used those same arguments to defend the systematic racism, rape, and genocide of black people.

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Where does that leave us -- the black community, the LGBT community, the black LGBT community -- in dealing with a President reticent to do much of anything about LGBT issues or homophobia in the black community unless there's overwhelming support to give him cover? Obviously I don't have the answers, but I do know we have to to discuss these outside of the respective echo chambers in order to succeed.

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We need to have our acts together and working in concert for equality in order to make this administration hear us -- and hold Obama to his promises to embark on meaningful change, as well as challenge those who uphold bigotry in the name of religion who should know better.

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When I heard Obama's remarks at Ebenezer Baptist Church it brought tears to my eyes. Apparently, Obama meant none of it and it was political grand standing to garner LGBT money and campaign effort support. I look forward to the day when religion isn't allowed to be a smoke screen for hate and bigotry and when we have a president who believes in full civil equality for everyone. We are obviously not there yet. One should not find themself considering suicide because they cannot find justice in the courts due to the color of the judge's skin.