Prop 8. Apparently over 70% of blacks voted for it.
Are gays represented in the Rainbow coalition ?
Know of any self professed gay black politicians ?
Know of any self professed celebrities ?
Ironically the first out of the closet gay I ever met was a young black man in southern Ontario back in the late 60s.
Some of my best friends have been black homosexuals.
Here are some. Of that lot the only one that immediately came to mind was Ru Paul. Honestly most of the rest I do not recognize at all but then I do not stay remotely current on pop culture much less black pop culture.
http://malalatete.typepad.com/mal_a_la_tete/2007/01/black_gay_celeb.html
So that leaves 30% of Blacks who did vote for it. Considering that only about 3% of the general population is homosexual, I’d say that Black Homosexuals are overachievers.
Blacks call it being on the “down low.”
It’s pretty hard being a regular black person and being gay. Yes Dorothy, blacks are homophobic. Check your civil rights at the door.
Homophobia in the black community is widespread. I know of historically black colleges that don’t have “open” LGBT student group. They had to stay underground. (E.g., decorating trees with pink triangles late at night.)
The MLK Jr.'s family has been quite openly split on the issue. Some were pro gay rights and others quite adamant against them. That latter of course claim not to be bigoted, just claiming that they are obeying “God’s will” and other phrases that were used to promote segregation.
If Prop 8 was on the ballot without a prominent black candidate, it wouldn’t have passed.
According to Jesse Jackson, gays are definitely represented in the Rainbow Coalition. He has spoken, quite eloquently, at gay rallies and marches.
I believe Samuel L. Jackson did some campaigning against Prop. 8, did he not?
James Baldwin was gay. He was a pretty good writer, too.
No, there are no black homosexuals.
Actually, as far as i know, “down low” is not used to refer to homosexuality in general.
It is, rather, used in the black community to refer to men—often married men—who have sex with other men, but who keep this a secret from their wives, partners, and families, and who openly identify as straight rather than as gay.
That reminds me - Samuel Delany.
They may identify as straight, but at the very least, they’re bisexual.
Here in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this morning, we had a piece from an African-American gay man studying to be a minister, on what it was like to grow up and experience segregation. And now, how it feels to see a black man elected President.
And gays have taken the high road in response http://rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline/2008/11/n-word-and-raci.html
.
But that’s the point of the whole “down low” thing.
YOU might describe them as bisexual, but the guys who do this identify themselves as straight. They just happen to have sex with men.
When i was living in Baltimore, the local free alternative weekly had an article on the phenomenon:
A Down Low Shame: What Some Black Women Don’t Know About Their Men Could Hurt Them
That’s pretty depressing.
Have they forgotten that, while blacks might have voted for Prop 8 in greater percentage than other groups, the fact is that about half of all Latinos and about half of all whites also voted for it? Singling out the black community, and responding with that sort of racism, is pretty nasty and narrowminded.
“About half”? “About half” describes both sides of nearly every major election this year. Show me a swing state where either side didn’t receive “about half” of the vote. That’s a truly meaningless statement.
Incorrect.
The point is that despite the inordinate focus on the black community by some members of the gay community, millions of whites and Latinos also voted for Prop 8. If you don’t understand why that might be relevant in the context of this particular ballot measure, i really can’t be bothered explaining it to you.
No.
First of all, the estimates of support for Prop 8 are based on CNN exit poll data, which may not be accurate. The exit poll has Latino voters supporting Prop 8 by a small margin. Given the funding and support for the measure by the Catholic church, the well documented hostility to gays in Latino cultures, and the pre election polling which showed Latino voters largely opposed to gay marriage, the polls claim of 53 to 47 support for Prop 8 is open to question. I suspect it’s much higher.
Secondly, black people are only 6 per cent of the population in Cali, and make up arguably ten percent of the voters. This Daily Kos poster goes into the math in detail.
The upshot is that Prop 8 passed because the majority of white men, the majority Latino men and women, the majority of Asian men and women, and the majority of black men and women voted for it. Black votes alone would not have been nearly enough.
If you lose in two of the largest categories of voters in CA - white men, Latino men, and Latino women, you will probably lose, without regard to what happens to one of the smallest categories of voters.
Now in a separate but related issue, in the state of Arkansas, black voters were slightly less likely than white voters to oppose gays adopting children. Whites voted for the anti gay measure by 58 %, blacks 54%.