Read all about it here!! 

And please forward far and wide!!

 CONGRATULATIONS EARL!!

 http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=3689

Invisible Man

Filed by: H. Alexander Robinson
July 29, 2008 9:00 AM

Contemplating my response to CNN's Black in America series, I was reminded of something W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in the "Souls of Black Folk" published in 1903:

How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word. And yet, being a problem is a strange experience,--peculiar even for one who has never been anything else.

To be Black in America in 2008 means a "news" network has the audacity to present the Black American experience with all its diversity of genealogical, ethnic, economic, social, religious, regional, and sexual orientation in a 3-hour documentary. In CNN's view, it is a community riddled with problems, where even those who make it struggle with our identity and are seldom very far for the maladies of our brothers and sisters.

I have heard the arguments that one CNN special could not be all things to all people, or cover all the aspects of the complex issues facing America and her Black citizens. However, when it comes to their presentation of the Black family and HIV/AIDS, their efforts were an exercise in journalistic malpractice.

How could you possibly have an honest exposé on HIV and AIDS in Black America and fail to mention Black gay men?

HIV respects neither race, gender, class or sexual orientation, but Black gay men remain the most heavily impacted by the disease and we have largely carried the weight of the HIV prevention message on our backs from the beginning until now. Of course we had allies and partners but let's get real- it was Black gay men who led on Black AIDS--and we are still leading.

What was the thinking of the documentary's editors which allowed the series to side-step the issue of men who have sex with men and women without disclosing their sexual practices with their partners? What of the ravages of drug use and addition left unchecked during our endless war on drugs? The disproportionate numbers of HIV infections in Washington, DC noted in the series can be traced in no small part to our failure to adequately address the drug use and needle sharing habits of addicts.

When addressing the issue of the many Black children who are being raised by single parents, CNN seem to suggest first that only Black women were raising our children alone- ignoring the significant number of Black men both gay and non-gay who are raising children. CNN renders invisible the thousands of children being raised by two loving parents in same-sex couples.

Where was the issue of school bullying and anti-gay violence in the streets of Newark and other cities and towns or the epidemic of homeless gay youth?

Now I understand that as LGBT people, we usually have to settle for a one-liner--Bill Clinton's "I have a vision for America and you are a part of it" statement to LGBT supporters or Senator Obama's "there are gay people in red states" observation. Now before any of you get you panties in a knot, I am not bashing Bill or Barack. Certainly their commitments to LGBT civil rights and equality go far beyond these statements. Rather I am suggesting that when it comes to the main stage/primetime events, we are completely invisible or must settle for a passing mention- a pat on the head or a nod in our direction- but little in the way of real focus on the complex issues that challenge us each day.

And CNN was unable to muster even that. In almost every segment there was an opportunity to bring Black gay men, lesbian women, bisexuals and transgender men and women into the discussion.

Yet there was nothing, not even a suggestion that we exist.

So what is to be done? Of course we will call this omission to the attention of the producers at CNN with hopes to get some kind of response. I don't, however, hold out a great deal of hope that whatever they do will match the attention this much-hyped series has garnered.

In his essay By the Year 2000, published in the 1983 Black gay anthology In the Life, Max C. Smith wrote:

By the year 2000, gay Blacks ought to have a realization that Black is beautiful. That forward-thinking concept of self-acceptance will help save the Black family structure and correct a host of Black community woes by retaining within the Black community many gifted people who will no longer squander their talents in vain attempts to be people they are not. For in the final analysis, improving the quality of life within our communities depends on our willingness to be honest with ourselves and to be honest with others. The major thrust of Black gay activism ought to be toward that honesty.

It is now 2008 and we have not fully achieved that goal. CNN only reflected the conventional Black social and political conversation. Paradoxically, it is most often in conversations about HIV/AIDS in the Black community that gay men are excluded. It is our collective responsibility to be honest about who we are as men who love men, as Black gay men, as men living with HIV.

We must speak truth to power about our challenges and contributions.

If we fail to tell speak our truth and the realities of our families, or allow those who are not open about their lives and their families to speak for us, we will continue to be invisible. If we fail to support our own institutions, create our own media, tell our own stories--our stories will go untold.

Like my reflection in the magnifying mirror on a bad hair day, the reflection I saw on CNN was not one I wanted to see. But the mirror reflects reality, however unflattering or distorted, but in it, I am not invisible.

READ COMPLETE ARTICLE AND COMMENTS AT:  http://www.bilerico.com/2008/07/invisible_man.php

 SAVE THE DATE

Gays seek black allies in work toward equality

JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, July 25, 2008

Sylvia Rhue is still awed that Sen. Barack Obama broached gay rights at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

She said the nation's first major black presidential candidate could have faced awkward silence in January when he mentioned gays at the church where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached.

"If we're honest with ourselves," Obama said, "we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community. If we're honest with ourselves, we have to admit that there have been times when we've scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them."

The lines were so well received, though, that they generated applause and were echoed in other speeches that Obama later gave.

VIEW FULL ARTICLE HERE:  http://washblade.com/2008/7-25/news/national/12976.cfm

Michelle Obama received loads of praise last month when, at an event for gay Democrats, the potential first lady said, "We are all only here because of those who marched and bled and died, from Selma to Stonewall, in the pursuit of a more perfect union."

The "Selma" of which Mrs. Obama spoke refers to a 1965 march in Selma, Alabama, when police beat back civil rights activists trying to march to Montgomery as a protest to a black teenager's shooting. The event immediately became known as Bloody Sunday. The "Stonewall" of which Mrs Obama spoke, of course, refers to the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, widely seen as the launch of the contemporary gay rights movement. With that geographical reference, Obama sought to - and succeeded in - linking the civil and gay rights movements. The crowd - and the press - went wild, but not everyone agrees with Obama's optimism.

Racism and homophobia, some believe, are so completely and utterly different that drawing a comparison between the two amounts to a mortal political sin. That's a perfectly reasonable argument. Race and sexuality have exceedingly divergent histories in the United States, and thus result in entirely different emotional experiences. White people can't understand anti-black sentiment anymore than straight people can comprehend homophobia.

Black, gay people have felt both, of course, which puts the National Black Justice Coalition in a precarious position.

Straddling the civil and gay divide, the DC-based non-profit hopes to bridge the divide between the respective rights movements. And, in many ways, they are succeeding. In the mere four years since its founding, the NBJC has collaborated with big-wig groups like the NAACP, HRC, the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, dozens of churches and the Congressional Black Caucus. Despite these successes, the NBJC's evolution hasn't been without its hiccups, says Executive Director H. Alexander Robinson, "I think that our inability or our unwillingness to compartmentalize our experience as African-Americans from our experience as gay and lesbian people has caused some tension." If those tensions can be eased, however, the NBJC and its allies could change the face of the American political landscape.

READ FULL ARTICLE: http://www.queerty.com/black-gay-group-bridging-divide-20080722/

Religion, politics shape black views on gay issues
Black pastor denounces 'miseducation in the pulpit'

JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, July 18, 2008

..TR>

..TR> There's a typical response H. Alexander Robinson hears when he talks to black people about gay rights. "There are those in the community that continue to say the whole gay agenda is about special rights," he said. "In lots of segments of the community, I feel like we've addressed that and moved on from that question. But I still feel like it's being framed in that way by certain African-American ministers." Robinson, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, said he and other gay activists thus are pitted against religious and political influences as they work to win support from black Americans. And those influences are strong. The Pew Research Center found in July 2006 that 52 percent of black Protestants consider homosexuality "just the way that some people prefer to live." According to the survey, 22 percent of white mainline Protestants say the same. The survey also found that 20 percent of black Protestants say homosexuality is something people are born with, and 60 percent say that homosexuality can be changed. By comparison, 52 percent of surveyed white mainline Protestants say people are born gay and 22 percent say homosexuality can be changed. Positioned near the sensitive intersection of religion and politics, gay rights can prove a volatile topic for many audiences. But Rev. Larry Brumfield, a black pastor at Westminster Church of the Brethren in northern Maryland and a gay rights supporter, said some of his most heated discussions on the topic have been with fellow blacks. "I think religion plays a large role in it," he said. "I think it's because of miseducation in the pulpit." Brumfield, who is straight, said black congregants too often are wrongly told that gays choose their sexual orientation. "They see it as a choice, almost as a manipulative choice, rather than a natural order of things," he said. "And if it's a manipulative choice, 'They are not doing this just because they're sinful and lustful and out of control people. They're doing it to get a leg up on us as a group, as black people. They'll get the job. They'll hire them before they hire us. And they'll get this privilege before us. And they'll be competing for a scarcity of rights and privileges.'" Robinson said part of the problem gay activists face in countering such misconceptions is that many black congregants accept without question what they've heard from the pulpit. "Lots of individuals have not been forced to consider another option," he said. Cuc Vu, chief diversity officer for the Human Rights Campaign, said education therefore becomes essential to securing new support. "The reality is that many members of the African-American community believe you can choose to be gay, but you cannot choose to be black," Vu said. "We need to create safer spaces for African-American GLBT people to come out and challenge the perception in the African-American community that there are no gay black people." Brumfield said such steps could help diffuse the us-versus-them "siege mentality" that exists in some black churches. "I think that we as a group, as a community, after we get certain rights and privileges prescribed to us, we put our arms around them and hoard them and say, 'You can't have them,'" he said. "Some of my brethren preachers from the pulpit target this as a competitive position, or position this whole concept as, 'Gays, lesbians and transgenders are in competition with black folk for jobs, rights, privileges and those things,' which is totally nonsense to me." A complicated dialogue But no matter the legitimacy of such concerns, gay activists said the dialogue they're working to develop with black Americans is complicated. Robinson said activists must be particularly careful to avoid referencing any "hierarchies of oppression" that might present the struggles of one group as more difficult than those of another. "The first thing is that we just need to call it out," he said, "and be very clear that when individuals are discriminated against, regardless or whatever the logic or the reason given, we all have to stand against it." Robinson said such steps also are important because surveys show that discussing gay issues with black Americans in a civil rights context can be problematic. Four years ago, black voters generally agreed that they had "a historical responsibility to fight discrimination in all its forms." The assertion, presented in a March 2004 survey for HRC as one of several "arguments about gay marriage," asked, "How can we as African Americans, who have struggled and died to expand freedoms and rights in this country, support denying any group of people their human rights? As a community we have a historical responsibility to fight discrimination in all its forms." According to that survey of 600 black voters, 72 percent found the argument somewhat or very persuasive. Another 22 percent said the argument was not persuasive. Respondents also made clear, though, that they did not want the current gay rights movement linked to the black civil rights struggle. The survey showed nearly two-thirds of respondents — 63 percent — somewhat or strongly disagreed with a suggestion that the gay rights movement "is a continuation" of the earlier struggle. HRC has not fielded a similar poll since those questions were asked in 2004. Elbridge James, director of the pro-gay Maryland Black Family Alliance, wasn't surprised that the suggested link was poorly received. "When I first picked up the issue of needing to work with the struggle for LGBT rights, I said, 'OK, I come from a black civil rights perspective. These people are being persecuted.' And I made the mistake of saying, 'Like we were persecuted,'" he said. "That was a problem." James and Robinson said the best way to foster discussion is by respecting the unique nature of each movement. "We remain respectful of the experience that is unique in this country," Robinson said, "and speak to the uniqueness of that experience, while pointing out the uniqueness of the experience of gay and lesbian Americans." Even with such cautious approaches, though, many black Americans do not support gay rights. And the trend is not limited to adults. National Opinion Research Center found in 2005 that 58 percent of black respondents ages 15-25 opposed legalizing gay marriage. By comparison, 35 percent of young whites and 36 percent of young Hispanics who were polled opposed that move. The same survey found that 55 percent of young blacks say homosexuality is always wrong, compared to 35 percent of young whites and 36 percent of young Hispanics. Robinson said many young black Americans often hold such views because they're reflecting the philosophy of their parents, peers and role models. "I think the pressures to conform — the pressures to not do anything that is viewed as further risking marginalization or undermining the African-American community or its experiences — are tremendous," he said. "And part of what we're seeing among young African-American people is exactly that." Brumfield agreed. He noted that "education and engagement at an earlier age" would help prevent young black Americans from developing prejudicial attitudes toward gay Americans. "I would say it's just indoctrination from misinformed parents," Brumfield said. "The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree." By comparison, Robinson said, young white Americans don't require as many educational efforts because they're not under similar pressures. "I would suggest part of the reason why younger, non-African Americans might have different opinions is because 'Will and Grace' is part of their menu," he said. "Flipping through the channels and seeing Logo is part of their menu." But Robinson, Brumfield and James noted the increasing acceptance of gays in the United States isn't limited to young whites. "When we go across the state and we talk to young African-American adults, especially those who are in college or are college educated, we find greater support," James said. "So whereas there is this polling data, when I go to universities and colleges, and I speak on the civil rights, human rights aspect of African-American gays and lesbians, I find African-American young adults are very supportive. They haven't made up their mind on civil marriage, civil unions, but they are very supportive of the need for equal rights and equal protections."   ..TABLE>..P> 3:56 PM  0 Comments (Add Comment) | 0 Kudos Translate Last week: Black opposition to gay marriage remains strong Research shows opinions stubbornly unchanged despite growing mainstream acceptance Next week: How gay activists are working to engage blacks and win their support. Powered by English Albanian Arabic Bulgarian Catalan Chinese Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician German Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Latvian Lithuanian Maltese Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese