For 5 days now, thousands of people have flooded the California streets protesting the passage of Prop 8, which has made illegal equal marriage in California. This Wednesday a large protest is expected in NYC, followed by a massive nationwide protest on Saturday.
These are great moves and I will be attending my local protest on Saturday here in D.C., but protest in itself is not enough. We need a plan . A long term plan and the discussion should start now.
I posted in a previous entry my views of the LGBT outreach to key pro Prop-8 voting blocs, particularly Prop 8 outreach among African-Americans:
While I celebrate every active opponent of Prop 8, two particular groups of people stood out to me in this struggle: LGBT and allied Mormons who took a decided stance against their church, and African-American LGBT activists, who fought homophobia in their communities without much of the resources available to other LGBT groups...
Yes, we are hurt. As activists however, we must recognize that the answer is not to antagonize entire communities that do not at the moment see things like we do. Please remember:
Our end goal is not for American society to see us only as LGBTQ people, but it is for American society to allow us to integrate our multiple identities seamlessly.
When we utter hateful comments about African-Americans or Mormons, we are also hurling hatred at LGBT African-Americans and LGBT Mormons, many of whom are now stuck in the middle of two warring factions.
From one side, LGBT blacks and LGBT Mormons are being told they are a contradiction and shouldn't exist. The other side is lumping them together with anti-gay forces just because of their skin color or religious affiliation. This madness must stop.
These protests are largely affirming and inclusive, however segments of participants are antagonizing people of the Mormon faith and African-Americans. We've seen this in the N-word being hurled at African-Americans passing by or participating in anti-Prop 8 protests:
A number of Rod 2.0 and Jasmyne Cannick readers report being subjected to taunts, threats and racist abuse at last night's marriage equality rally in Los Angeles.
Geoffrey, a student at UCLA and regular Rod 2.0 reader, joined the massive protest outside the Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Westwood. Geoffrey was called the n-word at least twice.
It was like being at a klan rally except the klansmen were wearing Abercrombie polos and Birkenstocks. YOU NIGGER, one man shouted at men. If your people want to call me a FAGGOT, I will call you a nigger. Someone else said same thing to me on the next block near the temple...me and my friend were walking, he is also gay but Korean, and a young WeHo clone said after last night the niggers better not come to West Hollywood if they knew what was BEST for them.
Los Angeles resident and Rod 2.0 reader A. Ronald says he and his boyfriend, who are both black, were carrying NO ON PROP 8 signs and still subjected to racial abuse.
Three older men accosted my friend and shouted, "Black people did this, I hope you people are happy!" A young lesbian couple with mohawks and Obama buttons joined the shouting and said there were "very disappointed with black people" and "how could we" after the Obama victory. This was stupid for them to single us out because we were carrying those blue NO ON PROP 8 signs! I pointed that out and the one of the older men said it didn't matter because "most black people hated gays" and he was "wrong" to think we had compassion. That was the most insulting thing I had ever heard. I guess he never thought we were gay.
We see this in our Mormon allies feeling unwelcome in our marriage equality movement:
Christine Alonso's body trembled and her lips quivered as she walked up and spoke to a few of the 50 protesters in front of the Mormon Temple in Oakland on Sunday.
"Don't think they're all against you," said Alonso, 27, explaining that she was Mormon and that despite her religious leaders' support of a ballot measure banning same-sex marriage, she was actively opposed.
As she walked away, she said, "I'm afraid that a gay or lesbian friend might hear that I'm Mormon and think that I want to
tear their marriage apart."
I will repeat this as many times as I need to because I fervently believe in it. Our future victories lie in persuading African-Americans and Mormons at the grassroots level to support equality. Many already do in these communities. It is some of the leading institutions of both communities, like conservative black church leaders and Mormon Church heads, who are misguiding many of their own flock into supporting bigotry.
If you want to belittle someone, belittle those homophobic conservative institutions, which are restraining the progressive spiritual forces within both communities. You can take away their power, but only if we commit to defeating these conservative institutions from the bottom up. We need out reach to African-American and Mormon everyday folk . The LGBT movement has grown too accustomed to it's liberal, middle/upper class, urban bastions.
When you neglect helping queer people of color communities, rural LGBT folk, LGBT people of faith, you neglect so many of the activists doing the hardest work in the most difficult environments. Our leading institutions have programs in place to focus on these communities, but our unanimous defeat on the ballot level this election is the clearest indication of a greater focus needed on these communities. As I stated before:
We cannot reach out to racial minority communities or faith communities only when we need them. We have to start conversations, build bridges and integrate identities so that those structures will be in place long before a crisis like Prop 8 occurs.
If this is not a clarion call for a substantive change in the structure of the LGBT movement, then I do not know what it. Our civil rights movement is falling behind the times. We do not reflect the increasing racial and religious diversity of America in LGBT media or organizing, and that is hurting us at the ballot box. We must change that, unless you care to see another Prop 8 stir up somewhere else in our own nation.
America's LGBT community, Wake The Hell Up!
Do you really want to hit the Mormon Conservative Leadership where it hurts?
Donate to Affirmation, America's leading LGBT Mormon organization
Donate to the National Black Justice Coalition and tell them to continue their work in the African-American community.