So, Maryland voted to recommit their marriage bill, assuring that it won't come up for a vote again in the foreseeable future - probably not until sometime next year. In the Maryland House of Delegates, the government body which held the vote, there are 98 Democrats and 43 Republicans. Somehow, a majority of those legislators teamed up to vote against marriage. White, black, woman, man, it was a majority coalition of antigay votes.
This is disturbing and hurtful. A lot of us have been outraged and inconsolable over the vote. Yet I'm seeing something at DailyKos that is inexcusable: the scapegoating of the black community for the passage of the motion to recommit. There is, simply put, no way this vote can be laid at the feet of the black community.
First of all, lumping people into a group based on the amount of melanin in their skin and then attacking that subjectively-defined group because some of its members voted in an antigay way defies logic on its face. Blackness does not result in antigay votes or any other strange behavior like that. There's not even any evidence that the color of one's skin in Maryland has been a factor in their vote. Simply saying that a black person voted against us therefore they did it because they're black goes against even a basic attempt at rational thought. There are a lot of things that make up a real, live, human person. Everything from religion to region to cultural practices to education makes up what defines someone. And the list goes on and on.
While it is not the best idea in general to say that the vote went down the way it did because of one of those defining factors, why not use a more obvious one like religion, anyway? Obviously at the very least, religion has a well-known opposition to gay people whereas blackness does not. I don't buy the idea of attacking a general group, and I honestly feel like the best strategy would be to provide outreach to everyone in the state in which the vote is taking place, but if you're going to attack a general group, it should have some basis in reality.
Those black legislators who opposed this bill are no more responsible than the white legislators who opposed it. Black legislators didn't "defeat the legislation" all by themselves. There was an obvious majority of people, even including Democrats (who should always be on the side of equality) who did this to us. That, to me, is more honest and more disturbing than just blaming a couple black legislators for ruining everything for the rest of humankind.
As Joe Sudbay pointed out, "Understand that we got screwed by people who were supposed to be our allies. They campaigned on their support for marriage. But, when it came time to take a vote, they freaked. Hopefully, we'll get the full list of all the traitors."
This isn't about people with darker skin who were supposed to be our allies, or white people, or women, or whatever. It's about asshole legislators who campaigned on our issues and then fucked us over in time for the vote. And even those weren't all people of one "race." This was an all-inclusive group of asshole bigots.
And this wasn't about "a group of people who have civil rights but want to deny them to others" as I've actually seen repeated in comments here. In fact, even white people have civil rights. The fact that whites didn't have to fight for them doesn't mean we never had them. We just never had to lift a finger. The white legislators who voted against marriage also have civil rights but are denying them to others. Women, as well. Hell, women had to fight for theirs and some of them still voted against us. The point is not to attack these groups of people, rather it is to point out the absurdity of blaming one group when the rationale you use could just as easily apply to any other group.
This also wasn't about intense black opposition to the Maryland bill. In fact, even Julian Bond from the NAACP strongly supported it:
As a civil right activist, I have spent my life fighting to make ours a more just and fair society. That's why I urge the Maryland General Assembly to support marriage equality and pass the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act. I firmly believe that this is a matter of civil rights, equal protection and equality. Civil rights are positive legal prerogatives - the right to equal treatment before the law. These are rights shared by everyone; there is no one in the United States who does not - or should not - share in enjoying these rights. Discrimination is wrong no matter who the victim is.
He didn't hold anything back with that statement. It is discrimination. And he would know, given his history.
Another problem with the "blame the blacks" theory is that there's so much blame to go around. Even gay activists made huge mistakes, if this report is true:
Advocates for gay marriage now say they underestimated the impact of the November election on the makeup of the House. Six Democrats —- including five who had supported same-sex marriage — lost or gave up their seats. And advocates didn't anticipate the mass mobilization of black churches, which began preaching against the legislation and urging parishioners to contact their lawmakers.
What? We didn't anticipate that churches would be mobilized against a gay marriage bill? Seriously? Indeed we didn't anticipate it during the No on 8 campaign, either. The church helped defeat the equality measure in Maine, as well. Given all that history, if the above report is true, then it's blatantly irresponsible. There is no reason not to expect and prepare for church opposition to antigay legislation. Anywhere. Even in liberal Maryland.
As I said, there's plenty of blame to go around, here. And in the coming year, we need to better prepare ourselves for the onslaught of antigay opposition. We need to focus on outreach and building strong campaigns in these states. We need broad coalitions with everyone from every race, religion and gender, working together to help each other win these battles.
We need to stop this divisiveness and work to reach the goals of equality under the law for everyone. In a situation like this, with so many things that went wrong and with such a broad group of legislators knocking down gay rights legislation, instead of scapegoating one minority, we need to work together to get the votes for the bill. There are real reasons why people turned on us, and why those who are able to be swayed evidently did not end up on our side, and we need to work to get the votes next time.