Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere – Los Angeles
Gender & Sexuality
The Tragic, Craven Undoing of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s Noble Mission
06 days ago
Even if radical anti-choice politics didn’t motivate Susan G. Komen for the Cure to discontinue its breast cancer screening, referral and education grants to Planned Parenthood, the damage is done all the same.
Before yesterday, the pink ribbon symbolized fundraising races, individual stories of breast cancer survival and not-very-attractive merchandise. Now, as far as I’m concerned, it’s synonymous with Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the staunchly anti-choice legislator who last September launched a sweeping audit of Planned Parenthood’s spending and practices dating back to 1998.
Yesterday a Komen spokesperson told the Associated Press that the foundation, which has raised more than $1 billion for breast cancer research, education and prevention, had simply changed its funding policies to exclude any organization under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. But in a widely circulated statement, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards cried foul:
“Over the past five years, Komen funds have enabled Planned Parenthood health centers to provide nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams and referrals for more than 6,400 mammograms. These cancer detection and prevention programs saved the lives of women who often had nowhere else to turn for care.
But when anti-choice groups began criticizing the Komen Foundation for partnering with Planned Parenthood, the foundation ended its support for Planned Parenthood health centers. We know our opponents put their ideology over women’s health and lives. What we never expected is that an ally like the Komen Foundation would choose to listen to them.”
And as Feministing noted yesterday, Komen’s new senior vice president for public policy, Karen Handel, pledged to defund Planned Parenthood when she was running for Georgia governor with Sarah Palin’s endorsement.
At the center of this debacle are, of course, the poor, often rural women who rely on the free or low-cost clinical breast exams, referrals and followup provided by Planned Parenthood. By Komen’s own account, socioeconomic factors (translation: being po’) are likely contributors to the high breast cancer mortality rates of black and Latina women. Here’s more of the race story, from a very useful Komen fact sheet:
White women have a higher rate of developing breast cancer than any other racial or ethnic group. However, among women under age 40, African Americans have a higher incidence of breast cancer than white women. They are also more likely to be diagnosed
with larger tumors than white women.Hispanic/Latina women have a lower incidence of breast cancer than white women. They are more likely to be diagnosed with larger tumors and late stage breast cancer than
white women.When Asian women migrate to the U.S., their risk of developing breast cancer increases up to six-fold. Asian immigrant women living in the U.S. for as little as a decade had an 80 percent higher risk of breast cancer than new immigrants.
The last bit about Asian immigrant women is really striking. Perhaps that’s why Komen has funded Planned Parenthood breast health education programs designed to reach Vietnamese women in hair and nail salons and other places where they meet. Is Rep. Stearns going to cover the cost of this kind of programming now that it’s gone?
Anyway, on Twitter, Facebook and Komen’s own message board, I’m seeing calls for pink ribbon boycotts and the firing of Handel. I don’t have a dog in that fight. But like so many women who believe the politics don’t belong in my damn uterus, that poor women deserve breast healthcare just like middle class and rich women and that women of color shouldn’t be casualties of war, I’m supremely disappointed that Komen would risk even the appearance of pandering to Republicans who refuse to meaningfully fund healthcare and therefore make Planned Parenthood so necessary. And if Komen takes a financial hit, I wonder which grants will go first.
Anti Choicers Pressure Pink Ribbon Organization to Nix Breast Exams for Poor Women
06 days ago
The nation’s largest and best-funded breast cancer organization in the US., Susan G. Komen for the Cure, will cutoff grants made to Planned Parenthood that were mostly used for breast exams.
The Associated Press broke the news Tuesday. More details below:
Planned Parenthood says the move results from Komen bowing to pressure from anti-abortion activists. Komen says the key reason is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation in Congress — a probe launched by a conservative Republican who was urged to act by anti-abortion groups.
The rupture, which has not been publicly announced as it unfolded, is wrenching for some of those who’ve learned about it and admire both organizations. …
Planned Parenthood said the Komen grants totaled roughly $680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before, going to at least 19 of its affiliates for breast-cancer screening and other breast-health services.
Feministing.com also points out “Karen Handel, the new Senior VP of Public Policy at Susan G. Komen, is a staunch anti-choicer, who went so far as to pledge to defund PP’s services when she was running for Governor.
“We are living in dangerous times in which breast health becomes part of an ideological battle,” said Colorlines.com’s Akiba Solomon said about Komen’s decision.
“Poor women should not be denied the preventative care they need because of anti-choice, political pressure. If we needed evidence that the radical anti-choice movement is willing to sacrifice the lives of women for what they claim is a pro-life stance, this is the smoking gun,” Solomon went on to say.
New Federal Rule Makes LGBT Housing Discrimination Illegal
01 week ago
On Saturday the Obama Administration announced historic new federal rules that will strengthen housing discrimination protections for transgender and other LGBT people.
The new regulations were announced by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan at the 24th National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, and will be officially published this coming week.
The new rule prohibits owners and operators of federally-funded or federally-insured housing, as well as lenders offering federally-insured mortgages from discriminating based on gender identity or sexual orientation. The update also clarifies the definition of “family” to ensure that LGBT families are not excluded from HUD programs.
“If you are denying HUD housing to people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, actual or perceived, you’re discriminating, you’re breaking the law, and you will be held accountable. That’s what equal access means, and that’s what this rule is going to do,” said HUD Secretary Donovan in a statement.
HUD cited The National Transgender Discrimination Survey showing that 19% of transgender and gender non-conforming people had been refused a home or apartment and 11% had been evicted because of their gender identity or expression. The study also showed that 19% of transgender people have been homeless at some point in their lives, and 29% of those had been turned away from homeless shelters and a majority were harassed when they could get in to a shelter.
Young Activists Plot the Future of the LGBT Rights Movement
01 week ago
A few minutes into a breakout session at last week’s Creating Change LGBT equality conference in Baltimore, the presenter noted that more than 150 colleges in the U.S. have programs aimed at supporting LGBT students–but none of those schools are HBCUs.
Historically black colleges and universities, presenter Dominique McIntosh said, “are lagging behind in providing institutional support.” While HBCUs have long been known for providing greater support for their students than majority-serving institutions, based on her research, she sees a different story emerging for students who fit outside of the dominant narrative of “black womanhood.”
Recently, McIntosh, a professor at Smith College, conducted a focus group at a southern HBCU–she declined to say which to protect the anonymity of her subjects–and there she found that traditional themes of black womanhood like “resisting domination, respectability, and relationship to men,” are being challenged by black lesbians and bisexual women, who, in addition to respectability, find “resisting stereotypes, and relationships to women” more important. These women also said traditional ideas of the positivity of sisterhood and “othermothers”–concerned female caretakers in the community–can be estranging and sometimes intrusive.
McIntosh’s findings were fascinating, but of the 2200 registered attendees at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s annual conference, only about 10 sat in on her presentation.
A few doors down, dozens of young people attended a session on how to build a youth-led organization–of which there are only a few in the country. The presenter drew parallels between the National Women’s Party (NWP) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), two successful youth-led organizations that found themselves frequently at odds with their more grown-up counterparts within the suffrage and civl rights movements.
Only a handful of youth-led LGBT organizations exist today. “We’re a very small tribe,” said Jason Landau Goodman of the Pennsylvania Student Equality Coalition. Most often, he added, larger, established LGBT advocacy groups bring in a youth voice as a token, or to represent the problems with mental health and bullying. Rarely is the resilience or proactivity of young people shown.
Audience members agreed. “Youth are portrayed as victims,” one attendee said. Another added, “By the time you’re no longer a youth, is when you’ll have a say.”
The session offered tips for creating a youth organization: fighting burnout and adultism, and recognizing privilege are key, said Goodman.
Perhaps a sign that young LGBT activists are hungry for help organizing, the conference attendees seemed to skew younger–though there were plenty of middle aged and older attendees–and they represented a wide range of racial diversity and gender identity. “Usually LGBT conferences aren’t diverse at all,” said Felipe Matos, a DREAM Act and LGBT activist.
And the sessions were pegged toward just about every intersection of LGBTQ identity. Of the 140 or so breakout sessions, caucuses, and open meetings on Saturday, 22 were explicitly about race. There were sessions about the black church, sex positivity and people of color, the history of Native Americans honoring “multiple gender traditions,” how immigrant and LGBTQ communities can work together, and ways of reducing violence agains transgender and gender-nonconforming people of color.
The Saturday plenary session was devoted to international LGBT activism. Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the death of David Kato, a Ugandan teacher and LGBT activist who was murdered in his home after winning a lawsuit against a magazine that published his name and address–along with those of others the editors believed to be gay or lesbian.
There are positive things happening in Uganda though, activist Val Kalende told the audience. “Journalists come to Uganda and all they say is people are being arrested.” But she says she’s seen a “new breed of activism” in the wake of Kato’s murder. “Now is the time to ask us what we need on the ground.” While it’s important to monitor things like the so-called “kill the gays” bill going before Uganda’s parliament–it would criminalize homosexuality as an offense punishable by death or life imprisonment–supporting the activism that’s happening in the country is critical.
On the domestic front, the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) was handing out statistics on black transgender people pulled from the results of a national survey conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality. In the results, half of black transgender people in school reported being harassed, 27 percent reported physical assault, and 15 percent reported sexual assault. Twenty-one percent left school because of harassment. Six percent said they were expelled due to bias.
If one theme emerged from the people I spoke to at the conference, it was that “activating” the power of under-heard groups like people and youth of color is desperately needed. “The youth of color community doesn’t feel like it has a voice,” says Rodney Nickens, Jr., a senior fellow with the NBJC. “No one is hearing their perspective.” For that, he says, Creating Change “has been phenomenal.”
Sarah Audelo, the senior domestic policy manager at Advocates For Youth, an organization that promotes reproductive and sexual health for young people, agrees that young people, “and youth of color especially,” aren’t being heard. “I love that there is something” for youth to attend, but she adds, “I think the conference could be more intentional about how it brings youth of color together.”
One suggestion? “We should have had some workshops to help youth of color organize,” Audelo says. “We just expect them to come into the larger queer movement.”
Film Reveals "The Invisible War" on Women in Our Military
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The documentary “The Invisible War” premiered last week at Sundance, and it is already bringing much needed attention to the problem of rape in the military. Watching clips from the film last fall, I found the experience harrowing. I was struck by the sense of betrayal as well as violation that too many women, and a smaller number of men, encounter when they sign up to protect the national interest. It is just really hard to watch one after another woman tell us how she was assaulted, how authorities failed to protect her both before and after the attack, and how post-traumatic stress disrupts every attempt to rebuild her life. As tough as it is to witness, though, it has to be harder to live, and more witnesses are clearly needed to pressure military leaders to act. Their failure to do so is unforgivable, in a time when a woman is more likely to be raped by an American soldier than killed by enemy fire.
The film itself features no women of color among the major protagonists. I don’t know why that is, and I won’t speculate. I do know that thousands of young women of color join the military every year; it isn’t possible that they could escape a fate that affects so many soldiers. I bet women of color are disproportionately affected by sexual assault, as they were by Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and, as we reported earlier this week, by homelessness when they return stateside as veterans. I hope that advocates working on this issue take into account additional or just different barriers faced by women of color. Putting proposed remedies through a racial equity impact analysis may help with that.
A slightly strange item in the production notes on the film’s website has director Kirby Dick comparing the military’s anti-racism efforts to its lack of action on rape. The armed forces had to integrate after centuries of racial exclusion, and many people argue that it did a better job of that than, say, our public education systems. Today racism is less evident in the military than in the larger society, Kirby points out, and he wants the institutions to achieve similar results on sexual assault.
It is true that such a campaign took place, but readers will understand my skepticism about lower rates of racial discrimination in the military than elsewhere. Recent hazing scandals in which Chinese American soldier Danny Chen was targeted with deadly, racially tinged assaults and 2009 reports that the armed forces had accepted white supremacists indicate that there’s still a lot to do on the race front. Acknowledging that ongoing struggle takes nothing away from the need to address sexual assault as aggressively as possible. If the model for fighting racism offers some lessons, that’s cool, but I suspect it isn’t as simple as the comparison suggests.
“The Invisible War” was inspired by Helen Benedict’s reporting on women soldiers that first appeared on Salon.com and then in “The Lonely Soldier,” which features in-depth profiles of a number of women of color, including several who were also covered in Michelle Chen’s excellent Colorlines story from 2008.
Benedict, who teaches at Columbia School of Journalism, followed up “The Lonely Soldier” with a novel that adds another critical dimension to our understanding of the female soldier, and of war in general. “Sand Queen” focuses on two women, Kate, a 19-year-old soldier and Naema, an Iraqi medical student, who strike a deal to help each other navigate their responsibilities. “Sand Queen” is a horrible victim-blaming term, a derogatory reference to supposedly unattractive women who supposedly allow themselves to be passed around among dozens of horny men who wouldn’t look twice if they had other choices. In the long tradition of stories about women on opposite sides of a war, Benedict does a great job of humanizing both, while dealing with the inequities, racial, gendered and economic, of the war in Iraq.
Many things need to be done to fight rape in the military. Sexual trauma isn’t currently included, for example, in the 2010 rules that remove barriers of proof for veterans to get help for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the prosecution rates for perpetrators reveal more concern about protecting them than their victims.
All Americans need to help push for reform, whatever our feelings about the military as an institution. This was my position on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and it hasn’t changed. For economic as well as other reasons, a great number of women of color, the vast majority very young, join the military, and they deserve our love and concern as much as anyone who is struggling through civilian life. Go see “The Invisible Soldier,” read Helen Benedict’s books, and get involved in the campaign to make real change.
Why Black Gay and Transgender Americans Need More than Marriage Equality [Report]
02 weeks ago
On Thursday, the Center for American Progress (CAP) launched the Fighting Injustice to Reach Equality (FIRE) Initiative in conjunction with the release of the report, “Jumping Beyond the Broom: Why Black Gay and Transgender Americans Need More than Marriage Equality,” which makes policy recommendations that could eliminate the social, health, and economic disparities faced by gay and transgender people of color.
“Despite significant gains in securing basic rights for LGBT Americans
over the past decade, the quality of life for black gay and transgender
Americans has remained virtually unchanged,” Aisha Moodie-Mills,
CAP Advisor on LGBT Policy and Racial Justice said in a statement.
“Marriage equality is vital
to overall progress, but marriage alone is not a silver bullet to reduce
the disparities black gay and transgender populations face.”
According to the report families headed by black
same-sex couples are more likely to raise their children in poverty,
black lesbians are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases, and
black gay and transgender youth are more likely to end up homeless and
living on the streets.
The report lays out policy recommendations for addressing economic insecurity, low education attainment and wellness disparities that could improve the lives of gay and transgender people of color.
On Thursday evening Colorlines.com’s very own news editor Jamilah King moderated a panel at the launch of CAP’s FIRE Initiative to discuss the new report. Watch the video of the panel below and visit the Center for American Progress to download the full report.
Massachusetts Gov. Patrick Signs Transgender Equality Bill Into Law
02 weeks ago
On Thursday, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick held a ceremonial signing for H.3810, “An Act Relative To Gender Identity,” which now legally protects transgender individuals from discrimination in housing, education, employment and credit. The new law also provides additional civil rights and protections from hate crimes.
“No individual should face discrimination because of who they are,” Governor Patrick said in a press release. “This legislation gives Massachusetts the necessary tools to stop hate crimes against transgender people and to treat others fairly. I am proud to sign it.”
The transgender equal rights law will make Massachusetts the 16th state to treat transgender citizens as a protected class. The law modifies language in Massachusetts statute to protect all individuals from discrimination, regardless of gender identities. This change will create equal protections for transgender individuals seeking employment, housing, credit and education. There are approximately 33,000 transgender residents living in Massachusetts.
“The passage of this bill is going to make an immediate difference in the lives of the state’s transgender residents, who desperately need anti-discrimination protections in housing and employment. I have been so moved by the courage of constituents who’ve shared their stories with lawmakers and shown the critical need for these civil rights protections,” Massachusetts Representative Carl Sciortino said in a statement.
The bill was signed in to law late last year but Governor Patrick held the ceremonial signing at the state house this morning.
In 2004, Massachusetts became the sixth jurisdiction in the world (after the Netherlands, Belgium, Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec) to legalize same-sex marriage. It was the first U.S. state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Survey Finds Majority of Latinos Hold Compassionate Views on Abortion
02 weeks ago
A survey released Wednesday found the majorities of Latino voters opposed politicians interfering in personal, private decisions about abortion, affirmed that they would offer support to a close friend or family member who had an abortion, and are willing to disagree with church leaders on abortion.
The poll was conducted on behalf of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and the Reproductive Health Technologies Project. “This is a watershed moment for the Latina/o community as it
provides, for the first time, hard data which defies long held
stereotypes about Latina/os and reproductive health,” Jessica
González-Rojas, Executive Director of NLIRH, said in a statement. “This poll underscores the
important role of Latino/a’s in the national debate about access to
reproductive health care.”
Key findings from the poll:
- A strong majority of Latino registered voters – 74
percent – agree that a woman has a right to make her own personal,
private decisions about abortion without politicians interfering. More
than half (57 percent) strongly agrees with the statement. Fewer than
one in five Latino voters disagree (18 percent).- Nearly three in four Latino registered voters (73 percent) agree that
we should not judge someone who feels they are not ready to be a
parent. More than half (57 percent) strongly agrees with this statement.- Two-thirds
of Latino voters (67 percent) say they would give support to a close
friend or family member who had an abortion. More than four in ten (43
percent) say they would provide a lot of support. A minority (23
percent) says they would not feel comfortable offering support.- Most Latino voters seem willing to disagree with church leaders on
the legality of abortion. Nearly seven in ten (68 percent) agree with
the statement “even though church leaders take a position against
abortion, when it comes to the law, I believe it should remain legal.”
- Finally, a majority of Latino voters agree that money should not
determine access to abortion. Sixty-one percent agree that the amount of
money a woman has or does not have should not determine whether she
could have an abortion when she needs one.
The survey that was conducted by the Lake Research Partners can be found at latinainstitute.org, along with the poll methodology.
What’s Not to Love About Tim Tebow? Start With His Anti-Abortion Ad
03 weeks ago
Denver Broncos second year quarterback Tim Tebow may not actually be Jesus, but he is capable of performing miracles. That’s according to the logic of one of the most captivating NFL story lines this season. And it was reinforced last Sunday, when Tebow led his underdog Denver Broncos to a surprise overtime victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Wildcard playoff game. The game turned out to be CBS’s most highly rated NFL Wildcard game in 25 years.
But the fervor surrounding Tebow has little to do with his actual playing ability. He’s an evangelical Christian who proudly and publicly backs conservative causes. That, of course, is not an anomaly in professional sports, nor should it be all that controversial. Yet it’s a prominent part of the narrative being written about Tebow as sports’ supposedly most endangered species: the underrated “good guy.” Or, through another lens: the white, God-fearing athlete who believes in so-called “traditional” family values.
Through that latter lens, Tebow’s narrative represents an enduring double standard in sports, one in which athletes are free to endorse conservative causes, while others are hounded as bad apples for progressive political stances, particularly those involving race. “Tim Tebow is just a window into how certain politics are not only respected, but they’re valued,” says David Leonard, a professor at Washington State University.
There’s no denying that Tim Tebow is a world class athlete. Before entering the NFL, he won a Heisman trophy and two national championships at the University of Florida on his way to becoming arguably the most celebrated player ever to take a college football field.
The Broncos drafted him in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft. While his second season has seen some serious lows–including a humiliating loss to the Buffalo Bills in which he threw three interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns–they’ve by and large been the understandable pitfalls of a young quarterback who’s learning his way in the league.
But it’s Tebow’s devout Christianity that’s drawn the most attention. He was born in the Philippines to Baptist missionaries. In college, he made headlines when he wrote his favorite Bible verse, John 3:16 (about God’s salvation), under his eye in black. His tradition of bowing down on one knee and praying after each touchdown, now known as “Tebowing,” has been adopted by school kids and was even taken up this season by the U.S. Marines, when they made an appearance on the field before a Broncos game against the New York Jets.
More prominently, Tebow and his mother, Pam, were featured in a 2010 Super Bowl ad for Focus on the Family, an evangelical Christian anti-abortion group that’s based in Colorado. In the 30-second spot that aired on CBS, Pam Tebow recounts Tim’s traumatic birth, in which doctors recommended that she abort her fetus because of potentially deadly complications. “I call him my miracle baby,” Tebow’s mother says in the ad. “There were so many times when I almost lost him.”
“The impact of the ad campaign was $37 million worth of media attention,” Focus on the Family spokesperson Gary Schneeberger told USA Today. But Tebow did it for free.
The group provides grants and medical training to so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” where women must have ultrasounds before receiving an abortion–a fast-growing and widely criticized practice that reproductive rights advocates consider cruel.
In addition to its anti-abortion stances, Focus on the Family opposes LGBT rights and same-sex marriage. In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center called the group one of a “dozen major groups [which] help drive the religious right’s anti-gay crusade.” The group also threw its support behind the Federal Marriage Amendment, a law that would have defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
CBS was widely criticized by reproductive health providers like Planned Parenthood, especially because it had declined to run ads by left-leaning groups like the United Church of Christ, MoveOn.org, and PETA.
While Tebow has been celebrated for his devotion to his ideals, athletes who take up progressive causes are often widely criticized–particularly when they’re black.
When news hit that U.S. special forces had killed Osama Bin Laden, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall, who’s black, spoke out. “What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side…” he tweeted. Later, he added: “We’ll never know what really happened. I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style.” The tweets caused such an uproar that team president Art Rooney had to issue a statement to the press reinforcing the organization’s pride in the military.
Tebow’s defenders argue that it’s unfair to criticize him for his religious beliefs, and that they shouldn’t be mixed up with discussions about politics. But his critics contend that there’s no getting around the fact that he’s explicitly endorsing a conservative political agenda.
“It’s not about bigotry against an abstract Christianity,” says Dave Zirin of the criticism facing Tebow. Zirin is a sports columnist at The Nation and the author of several books. “It’s actually about political opposition to Focus on the Family and to a whole set of ideas that the media’s giving him a pass for.”
There’s a double standard for black athletes throughout the history of sports, Zirin says. “African American athletes who take political stands are vilified and even lose their livelihood.”
Perhaps the most widely known example of this was the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City, where John Carlos and Tommie Smith each gave black power salutes after their performance in the 200 meter race. Both men were immediately suspended from the U.S. team and banned from the Olympic village, where athletes usually stay while competing in the games.
In 1996, NBA basketball player Craig Hodges sued the league, claiming that it blackballed him for his political activism. After Hodges helped the Chicago Bulls win the 1992 NBA Championship, he showed up to the team’s visit to the White House in a dashiki and delivered a hand written letter to then-president George H.W. Bush expressing his critical views of the administration’s policies toward poor and African Americans. That same year, he criticized mega star Michael Jordan for not being more politically active. The team waived him after the ’92 season and he didn’t receive a single offer try out for another team.
Cases like Hodges’ are unfortunate, but they’re all too often the reality in pro sports, according to Leonard.
“When people say that politics have no place in sports, what they’re saying is that progressive politics, oppositional politics, counter narratives have no place in sports.”
Hidden in the Open: A Photographic Essay of 140-Years of Black Male Couples
03 weeks ago
Historian Trent Kelly has collected 146 rare vintage photographs of black male couples from the past 150 years.
Although the large majority of the pictures depict gay couples, the collection also includes images of families and friends but they all have one thing in common: they capture images of love.
Below is a snippet of why Kelly started the collection along with a few photos from his archive.
Historically, the Afro American gay male and couple has largely been defined by everyone but themselves. Afro American gay men are ignored into nonexistence in parts of black culture and are basically second class citizens in gay culture. The black church which has historically played a fundamental role in protesting against civil injustices toward its parishioners has been want to deny its gay members their right to live a life free and open without prejudice. Despite public projections of a “rainbow” community living together in harmonious co-habitation, openly active and passive prejudices exist in the larger gay community against gay Afro Americans.
1920s
1990sLastly, if you skip to the 4:30 minute mark you can see an interview with the historian who’s archived this collection of images.
We’re ending the day as often as possible by celebrating love. We welcome your ideas for posts. Send suggestions to submissions@colorlines.com, and be sure to put Celebrate Love in the subject line. You can send links to videos, graphics, photos, quotes, whatever. Or just chime in to the comments below and we’ll find you. Be sure to let us know you’ve got the rights to share any media you send.
To see other Love posts visit our Celebrate Love page.