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November 13, 2005

If You Thought November 8 Was Bad, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

As Californian’s recover from an unnecessary $80 million special election and our mattress, engagement ring and lovable Kirstie Ally Jenny Craig commercials resurface on television, Democrats and Republicans have no time to waste in preparing for California’s June primary, which from the looks of things will be even more egregious than our November 8 Special Election.

Looking towards the future, to date, only one initiative has qualified for our June 6 ballot and that’s SB 1161, the California Reading and Literacy Improvement and Public Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act of 2006. If passed, this measure will allow a $600 million statewide bond to assist with financing public library construction.

Seems honest enough, but there are some especially nasty initiatives in circulation to qualify for the June ballot which may not draw the unison and cohesion that we saw among Democrats, Labor and minority communities to defeat the Governor’s Special Election.

The late Republican Senator William J. “Pete” Knight’s widow, Gail J. Knight, is supporting several proposed anti-gay initiatives on the upcoming June ballot. Among them are initiatives to amend California’s State Constitution to define marriage as only between one man and one woman, to rescind all previously approved domestic partnership benefits and to eliminate the option of domestic partnerships all together.

See what I mean nasty.

It’s expected that each of these initiatives will pass the circulation process with the 600,000 valid signatures necessary to qualify for the June ballot which is going to put to test the “united we stand” relationship that we saw with this year’s election between Democratic elected officials, labor unions, civic, community and church leaders. African Americans will undoubtedly be caught directly in the middle, as supporters on both sides of this issue will be out in attempts to court the Black vote.

But it gets nastier.

Five out of six Black elected officials already felt the backlash for their support of the vetoed AB 849, the bill passed by the California Legislature that would have provided equal rights and protections regardless of sexual orientation sending an outcry of dissent from Black clergy and congregations who oppose any legal rights for gays.

California’s gay rights movement, lead mostly by whites, has been able to make relatively no in roads within the Black community on this issue, even though they like to take credit for getting the endorsement of the state NAACP on AB 849. And while the NAACP’s endorsement of rights for lesbians and gays did set precedence, it is by no means an “in” into the Black community on this issue, nor does it represent the mindset of California’s Black civic leaders. It’s a widely known fact that white gays cannot create or deliver the message to the Black community on this issue.

Several high profile and influential Black pastors have already spoken out against marriage rights for gays including West Angelus Church of God in Christ’s Bishop Charles Blake, the newly installed Revered John Hunter of F.A.M.E., and television evangelist Fred Price, who hosted white anti-gay lobbyist Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition at his church earlier this year. But relatively few Black leaders have spoken out in favor of extending equal marriage rights to gays.

Labor union leaders have been relatively quite on this issue as well, even though we all know that many teachers, nurses, police officers and firefighters are either lesbian, gay, or bisexual and have just at much at stake in June’s election as they did in our November 8th election.

I guess the big question is, will the solidarity among unions and civic leaders continue into 2006 even when the initiative doesn’t directly affect the majority of its members? Will the big bucks used to defeat the Governor’s Special Election be raised yet again to defeat anti-gay initiatives that are hurtful to more than just union families but that attack any family that is not legally married containing one man and one woman? It should be noted that the anti-gay amendments that are calling for the removal of domestic partnership rights are not just going to harm gay families, but heterosexual families that are not legally married as well.

Can we expect to see the AFL-CIO’s Martin Ludlow campaigning on behalf of his lesbian and gay union members? Can lesbian and gay families depend on the Alliance for a Better California to come back to the table and defend equal rights with their millions of dollars? Or will everyone just retreat to their respective corners and expect someone else to take up this fight?

White gay rights organizations have been notoriously absent on minority issues in California. So it will be interesting to see how this battle is played out the Black community as it is perceived as being the most homophobic of all races, and at times rightly so.

The team spirit that prevailed and eventually beat the Governor’s Special Election is going to be even more pivotal in the upcoming June election to defeat the anti-gay initiatives headed towards the voters. Taking a lesson from the 2004 Presidential campaign where abortion and gay rights were used as wedge issues to drive religious and socially conservative Blacks to polls, California’s gay rights battle will be won or loss in communities of color. Union, civic and church leaders who have enjoyed the luxury of silence on gay issues will no longer be able to ignore the new battle for civil rights in California.

Let’s get ready to rumble.

Editor's note : Chosen by ESSENCE Magazine as one of 25 Women Shaping the World, Jasmyne Cannick is a social and political commentator and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. She is the co-chair of the National Stonewall Democrats Black Caucus and a board member of the National Black Justice Coalition. Based in Los Angeles, she can be reached via her website at www.jasmynecannick.com .

Posted by Jasmyne at 11:59 PM | Permalink |

November 06, 2005

Much Ado Over Outing

by Jasmyne A. Cannick

No single article that I have ever written or protest that I have participated in has garnered as much attention as the “Outing Black Pastors” campaign that I did with my colleague Keith Boykin.

It was a simple idea hatched in a casual conversation of Black gay activists while in Washington D.C. Frustrated with the increasing number of attacks on same-gender loving people by Black pastors, we decided to take action. The action in this case was calling out Black pastors on their hypocrisy as it relates to the gay community and their relationship to the current Bush Administration.

The outline of the campaign was straightforward. Each day for one week Keith and I profiled a Black pastor highlighting his relationship with the Bush Administration, recent homophobic gay comments, and ending with the question, is this pastor gay? Starting with mega church pastors Bishop Eddie Long and T.D. Jakes, we included profiles of other prominent pastors including Los Angeles’ Noel Jones and Bishop Charles Blake, D.C.’s Reverend Willie Wilson, Chicago’s Reverend Gregory Daniels, New Orleans’ Bishop Paul Morton, Georgia’s Creflo Dollar, and ended with a joint profile of ex-gay gospel singer Donnie Mclurkin.

For the record, there is nothing wrong with asking a question. My experience has shown that the people who are the most adamant on certain issues also tend to be dealing with their own issues. People who are comfortable with who they are usually don't care as much about what other people are doing. Which lead me to an obvious question, are these pastor’s gay?

Remember that despite all of his racist rhetoric, Senator and former segregationist the late Strom Thurmond fathered a Black daughter to everyone’s surprise. Conservative pundit and frequent Republican candidate, Alan Keyes caused a stir during the 2004 Republican convention by labeling Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter a sinner and calling homosexuality "selfish hedonism." Alan Keyes’ daughter Maya is a lesbian.

Being able to point out the hypocrisy that exists in our community is why we have a democracy.

To date, I have received over 1,000 emails regarding this campaign and they still continue to come in. While a good number of the responses that I have received regarding this campaign are positive, I will say that I have received many threats against my life for “bringing harm to a man of God.” And if the email wasn’t a threat against my life I was blasted for speaking badly about men of God, not notifying the pastors ahead of time and put on notice that I was going to be on a direct path to hell, as opposed to a more scenic view.

Do I have remind you that anyone can claim to be a man of God? Jim Jones said he was a man of God and because of him 913 people, many of whom were Black are dead. President Bush claims he is a man of God and was called upon by God to lead this country and look at where we are today. Reverend Craig Ward of the Brookins African Methodist Episcopal Church considers himself to be a man of God, but he was still arrested in Oakland for trying to negotiate a 20-dollar oral sex act.

So you see, claiming that you are a man or woman of God does not automatically elevate you to sainthood, at least not in my book.

The other issue that people took offense to was not notifying the pastors ahead of time that they were going to be the subjects of a vicious attack.

Well, I don’t recall a memo ever coming across my desk saying that this Sunday’s sermon was going to condemn me and those like me to hell. But I am supposed to send them advanced notice on what I plan to do. Seems like a double standard to me.

Depending on what you believe, heaven and hell are both up for interpretation as is religion period.

I find it hard to believe that someone who has never been to hell and does not know for a fact who’s in hell, knows that I am going to hell. Until you can send me a link to a Mapquest with clear directions on how to get to Lucifer’s lair, I reserve the right to question your claim that I am going to hell, or even heaven for that matter.

To date, the campaign never specifically “outed” anyone as it pertains to his or her sexual orientation and possible secret sex lives. However, we did expose in depth the ties that certain Black pastors have with the Bush Administration, which is equally dangerous and harmful to Black communities.

In order to institute change, sometimes you have to deviate from traditional methods. That was the case with this campaign. We pushed the envelope and brought the discussion of homophobia in the Black church and President Bush’s Faith Based Initiative to mainstream Black America. Had we done just another article about yet another Black preacher spewing hate against gays, we probably wouldn’t have garnered as much attention as this single campaign did.

In the words of the great Malcolm X, “usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.”

This campaign was a way to fight back and to challenge the validity and authority of people using God and religion as a way to oppress a group of people. It sent a clear message that there are those of us in the community, gay and non-gay that are tired of the hypocrisy and double standards where it concerns same-gender loving people and took this conversation out of the Black gay community and introduced it to mainstream Black America.

Personally, I feel that it is my right and my responsibility to get up each and every day and fight oppression in all of its many forms, government, big business, and yes the church. I feel especially duty bound to take up the issue of homophobic Black pastors so that they can redeem themselves before it’s too late and go to heaven with me and everyone else, including lesbian and gays that have earned a place up there.

Our campaign may have been the first of its kind, but it is a part of a much larger movement of oppressed voices beginning to speak up for themselves. The days of silence on these issues are long gone on the Black community.

Posted by Jasmyne at 09:37 PM | Permalink |

November 01, 2005

Porky Pig Picks a Fight

Republican porker and Republican Governor Frank Murkowski of Alaska is now pushing one of the most extreme anti-marriage amendments in the nation. When in Congress, Murkowski was famous for filling the bureaucratic hog trough of Alaska with frivolous swill. However, his glutton for pork hasn't endeared him to the thought of offering the most basic partner protections to the same-sex spouses of state government employees.

On Friday, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that barring partnership benefits to the families of city employees in Anchorage violated the state's equal protections clause. Now, Murkowski is pushing a constitutional amendment that would not only bar marriage, but would explicitly bar local governments from offering basic partner benefits.

Its ironic that the portly, porky King of Cronyism (who named his own daughter to the Senate) is taking a hard stand against the most basic of benefits.

Posted by TrailMix at 09:03 AM | Permalink |