I'll say it right up front. I support gay marriage. So I guess it's a good thing that I live in California since it is now legal for gay couples to marry here. Well legal for the month at least. You see, Proposition 8 on the California ballot seeks to end gay marriage rights; and the proponents of Prop 8 are counting on black Californians, expected to come out in droves to vote for Barack Obama, to push their closed-minded initiative over the top.That projection disturbs me on so many levels, but Professor of Law at American University, Darren Hutchinson of the blog "Dissenting Justice", believes that if blacks vote down gay marriage, they are engaging in constitutional bigotry. ...
Although Obama opposes the California ballot initiative, Project Marriage, an organization that favors the measure, believes his candidacy could help its cause. The organization hopes that Obama will bring out enough black socially conservative and evangelical voters who, though Democrats, are pro-life, antigay, and committed to conservative religious values. Black religious conservatives, unlike white evangelicals, tend to vote for Democrats, due to the party's more liberal record on civil rights in modern U.S. history. But conservative organizations have successfully exploited social conservatism among blacks to advance discriminatory agendas, particularly in the area of gay rights. This has created some highly unusual political coalitions. One black minister from Chicago, for instance, boldly proclaimed that he would march with the Ku Klux Klan in order to protest the legalization of same-sex marriage (yes - this really happened).
Further Hutchinson argues that blacks voting to ban gay marriage are cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
My argument does not seek to equate homophobia and racism (a misguided analogy that gay rights advocates frequently invoke), but rather to demonstrate that they both constitute gross departures from the norms of equal protection and due process that are central to any progressive and anti-racist understanding of the constitution. Because anti-gay laws and policies undermine and erode these norms, black homophobia is inevitably anti-black.I would also add that when Democratic politicians (regardless of race) oppose same-sex marriage, they too legitimize discrimination.
Hutchinson has written an insightful article. I recommend you read it in its entirety.
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By: Opinonated on 10/08/2008 12:07PM
This sounds like a overshadow of the main issue. It's misleading and will solicit homosexuals in California to not vote for Obama. Proposition 8 is not a direct view of Obama and does not mean that if you vote for him, you are agreeing to end gay marriage. Let me guess, a McCain/Palin supporter contributed or approved this message? California gay community do not be fooled. Take a look at those YOU ALREADY voted for and are in office now. It is those people that have proposed this idea.
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By: Red on 10/08/2008 12:08PM
Let freedom Ring! Let my people go and be FEE to love who they want.” African Americans should be the last people on God’s earth to try to stop anyone form getting married! If we remember the history of this country we will recall that in the not so long ago past, Black people were not able to marry; therefore, the ritual of Jumping The BROOM was created as a sign of marriage of slave people. If we remember and PREACH in CHUCHES as well as in our HOMES the accurate teachings of Christianity we would see that Jesus would not be against gay marriage, but rather he would support it. For he stood always with those who are oppressed; therefore, we must remember what was said about Blacks. If we recall to mind the fact that Blacks were seems as sinful, bad, immoral, abomination by Whites, and recall how the Bible was used to prove that Whites were right in their treat me of Black and that the Bible also provided truth to the enslavement of African people. Hence, if we are to keep all of our present day freedoms we had better not stop someone else from having theirs.
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By: Opinonated on 10/08/2008 12:24PM
This sounds like a overshadow of the main issue. It's misleading and
will solicit homosexuals in California to not vote for Obama.
Proposition 8 is not a direct view of Obama and does not mean that if
you vote for him, you are agreeing to end gay marriage. Let me guess,
a McCain/Palin supporter contributed or approved this message?
California gay community do not be fooled. Take a look at those YOU
ALREADY voted for and are in office now. It is those people that have
proposed this idea
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By: Opinonated on 10/08/2008 1:02PM
To respond to RED...
If you are going to use Biblical resources to validate your opinion let's be truthful with the source. The Bible DOES NOT state nor indicate that Jesus would support Gay relationships in any fashion. Actually it's the opposite. If you ever read about Sodom and Gomorah. Man and Woman he created and this is why same sex cannot procreate.
We can gladly debate this fact at any time however this post is related to something else so I won't dive to far. The Bible does say love your neighbor but didn't tell you the neighbor was a male or female nor did it say you should marry him/her.
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By: 4REAL on 10/08/2008 1:55PM
GAYS CAN DO WHAT THEY LIKE.JUST DON'T CONNECT THEIR FILTHY NASTY LIFE STYLE TO BLACKS FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS SOMETHING WHITE GAYS KNOW NO0THING ABOUT. THEY STILL HAVE WHITE SKIN PRIVILEDGE.
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By: Rev Dr Deron C on 10/08/2008 3:01PM
I beg to differ. God is not pleased with same sex marriages. That to him is an abomination. But what has happened is people are becoming comfortable with it and allowing it to take place in the church. God created Man and Woman to replinish the earth. It is not possible for a Man and Man to create a child nor Woman and Woman. People often say they were born that way. Well, since you want to bring God into this the bible says in 2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
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By: CeCe on 10/08/2008 9:02PM
All I have to say is: Proverb 14:12-"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death". You all can take it any way you want to.
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By: IAN on 10/08/2008 6:27PM
RE "REV" DR DERON, WHAT DOES 2 COR 5:17 HAVE TO DO WITH THE TOPIC?
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By: Cherokee on 10/08/2008 4:12PM
First of all whether anyone likes it or not marriage and it's meaning in society are total constructs of the God of creation. The God of heaven. Mankind did not come up with the idea that women and men should get married,I'm sorry that I must disabuse many of you of the notion that God does not have a dog in this fight. He is the central figure to be dealt with if we are to discuss something that he instituted in the first place. If anyone wishes to know whether homosexuality or the marriage of homosexuals is ligit they need to inquire of the one who brought it here. There are countless examples throughout history that varify that humanities overwhelming propensity is toward depravity. We all would do well to remember that God is not mocked and we as a people and society will eventually reap all that we sow. And as far as the Constitution is concerned I doubt very seriously that the framers were thinking of homosexual behavior as a protected portion of society. Of course many will come forth with what they feel are valid arguments to debunk that line of thought. I quote the above article.."Black religious conservatives,unlike white evangelicals,tend to vote for Democrats due to the party's more liberal record on civil rights in modern U.S. history". I am puzzled by the words "more liberal record on civil rights". Just exactly what have the Democrats done for black people? Of course I am assuming that the author of this statement is using the word liberal to mean that Democrats have done more to further the cause of blacks than Republicans.Nothing could be futher from the truth. This whole mind set of us against them is so stupid! Exactly what is it that whites have access to that blacks can't get? Mr. Stanley O'Neal,former CEO of Merrill Lynch &Co.,just walked away with a severance package in the aggregate of 150 million dollars-institutional racism? Negro please!! Black people that are intelligent can do whatever they desire. But I degress. I know that a lot of people don't like it but the fact of the matter is is that homosexuality is a perversion of the truth,it has absolutely no redeeming qualities and does nothing for procreation which is why we were given marriage in the first place. It is a lie that it is in your genes. It is in your jeans alright, but definitely not in your genes! If people are born homosexual then God has to be a liar and a thief,there is no alternative explanation. GOd has made it indubitably clear by way of his word on how he feels about this particular lifestyle. People become persuaded at various times in their lives to give in to temptation towards lust and then try to justify their behavior by candy coating that aberrant behavior. They are only fooling themselves.
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By: Cherokee on 10/08/2008 7:11PM
Hey Red, I'm sorry but you have absolutely no idea of what you are talking about,you must at all cost begin to educate yourself in the truth. First of all,jumping the broom was not a custom that originated in the black exprience. Blacks learned this somewhat dubious custom from the whites they were enslaved to.We can see the same influence in black speech patterns,most blacks,if asked,would volunteer that when blacks say words like,dat,dem,I be,you be,she ain't,it don't,flo for floor,do for door,fo for four,dis for this and other mispronounciations,that these words are uniquely black but they are not. Indeed there was a misguided attempt by Jesse Jackson to label black speech patterns as Ebonics,like this was somehow a language that blacks had originated. This manner of verbal expression originated not in America but from a group of dialects that were spoken in the west and south of England during the 17th century. Subsequently these speech patterns came to America and were especially prevalent in the Virginia area and then spread throughout the populations of poor whites and blacks. For assorted reasons most blacks,nationwide,and some southern whites still engage in this old form of verbal expression. Now,as to your other assertion that "Jesus would be for gay marriage"shows,my dear friend, that you are so far out in left field that we will have to form a search party to go out and find you(smile). Just injecting a bit of levity in the discourse here, but seriously,Jesus neither said any such thing nor did he at anytime advocate any such thing as the promotion of homosexuality. Here is what he actually said."Think not that I am come to destroy the law,or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to filfill.For verily I say unto you" (Red)"till heaven and earth pass,one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." Matthew 5:17-18. I think that it is safe to say that the operative words here are "the law". Now there were many what we might characterise as, clauses,in the "law"and one of them was a prohibition against homosexuality. So we don't have to be rocket scientists to conceptualize the fact that Jesus did not support,advocate nor endorse homosexual behavior. And just for your benefit it is better not to say anything about the word of God if you don't understand the word of God because your errant speech can lead people into destruction while thinking that you are a credible source of information.
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