Inclusion sucks. This piece by Pam Spaulding (sitting in for Glen Greenwald) is an elegant summary of the danger of trying to get two superficially incompatible groups of people into the same coalition.
Obama has spoken out clearly against homophobia in the African-American community:
One of the things we've got to overcome is a stigma that still exists in our communities. We don't talk about this. We don't talk about it in schools. Sometimes we don't talk about it in churches. It has been an aspect sometimes of our homophobia that we don't address this issue as clearly as it needs to be.
But, Obama also is trying to bring these same religiously homophobic African-Americans (and others, for that matter) into a Democratic fold that includes many issues that these folks do agree with the GLBT community about (for the most part). Healthcare, Iraq, Education. So how do we get everyone on board? How do we get people who hate each other over one issue to come together over all the rest, and maybe, eventually, come to peace with each other over time?
There has been a lot of specious comparison between Donnie McClurkin and, say, David Duke, who headed the KKK, which is in all respects a terrorist organization that tries to kill religious, racial and ethnic minorities. This is wrong.
What we are up against is not organized, armed intimidation but religiously-based intolerance combined with unfamiliarity and ignorance, and we are not going to change it on ideological grounds. We will change minds, however, by 1)changing laws to make it illegal to discriminate, and 2)getting people to sit down next to each other and see that they're not so scary after all. Barack Obama has clearly been in favor of #1 all along. #2 is something that he has just tried, and now is causing problems.
How has our culture, as a whole, changed in its attitudes towards GLBT issues, and tolerance in general? Better laws, and exposure. Laws enabled more men and women to come out of the closet, and when more people worked and lived near openly gay individuals, more realized there was nothing to fear.
So the question remains:
Should a popular performer who has bigoted views towards the GLBT community, but who is quite popular with people we can otherwise bring into our coalition, be allowed to openly support our side? Or should we indicate that one of the African-American evangelical community's most prominent spokespeople is not allowed to sing to support us?
Does including McClurkin in a non-speaking role, whose presence indicates inclusion, but where his views are not promoted and are actually counteracted by Obama's speech, comprise a rebuke of gay rights? Or does it signal an attempt at unity, and at reconciliation?
How do we change people's minds? And are we big enough to try?
PS I meant to mention: Howard Dean got in the same hot water when he said we should include "white guys with Confederate flags on their trucks." This is the same issue. How do we get over our ignorance?