I have not heard any vocies in the African-American community speak out in favor of gay marriage. Polls show that a higher percentage of blacks than whites are opposed to gay marriage.
I find black opposition to gay marriage ironic, considering that interracial marriage was banned in many states until a few decades ago, but that’s besides the point.
Whenever a story about gay marriage appears on the news, it seems like there’s often footage of a black minister speaking out in opposition to the idea. Could Bush’s recent support of a constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage be a move to draw more black votes … and thus more potential Democrat votes?
I could be wrong, but I would think the opposition would lie more in the “minister” and less in the “black” part of your statement. Ministers, or other people who are devoutly religious, are probably more likely to have a hard-on with gay marriage because many religions teach that homosexuality is wrong. I’m interested in hearing what the black dopers have to say on the subject.
Did someone call me? Seriously, this isn’t that much of a surprise to me, though here in the Bay Area, I’ve seen more white ministers speaking out against it than anyone else. We had a thread a while back on black people and religion with statistics, I’ll see if I can dig it up. But just anecdotally, I’d venture that most black people attend Southern Baptist type congregations, and would likely be more fundamentalist in nature.
That said, most people tend to vote their wallet. Since black people tend to historically fair worse in economic downturns, I’d think that would still be more of an issue than gay marriage. Amongst my friends and family members, I’d say support is probably around 40%.
You mean, of course, except for Al Sharpton, Carol Moseley Braun, Coretta Scott King, the organizers of theNational Black Justice Coalition, Keith Boykin …
Many blacks feel that there’s a big difference between interracial marriage and same sex marriage, and that comparisons between the two are misguided.
I find myself in sympathy with this view. Same sex marriage is a wholly different thing than interracial marriage, and should be argued on its merits alone.
Well, I don’t know first hand about blacks views or religious convictions, but most of my hispanic bretheren aren’t too keen on gay marriage. I doubt seriously this will drive them to Bush though, as most can’t stand the man and are die hard Democrats to boot. I think this is a case where they will compromise their principles and go with the lesser of two evils thing, voting for Kerry (who actually threw them and the blacks a bone with his ‘opposed but won’t prevent’ weasle).
Personally I DO see the similarity between same sex marriage and interratial marriage bars of the past…but most of my hispanic bretheren are deeply religious and don’t see it that way.
I’ve heard it speculated that Bush’s anti-gay stance is an attempt to pander to Hispanic voters, not black. Which makes some sense since Hispanics are the largest minority group now (and Bush knows those few words of Spanish, remember). But I doubt he’s pandering to Hispanics either. If anything, he’s trying to make Mama proud by doing this one last thing before his ass is kicked out of office.
I wouldn’t say an overwhelming percentage of blacks favor Bush’s anti-gay marriage stance. A significant number, yes, but then again–a significant number of white voters feel the same way. But even if blacks were in general anti-gay, I don’t think they or anyone else is dumb enough to give the thumbs-up to Bush over this one thing. Black folks have not forgotten the fiasco in Florida, or the fake war, or the increasing perception that guest workers are taking over, or the myriad of other things that are troubling this administration. If Bush is in fact pandering to blacks, he has a LONG way to go.
Among my immediate family members, opinions probably range from “I don’t care” to “Woohoo, ya’ll go gay people!” The latter opinion is held most surprisingly by my deeply religious mother, who is a civil rights activist. My father, also very devout, has a problem with the “marriage” aspect but favors civil unions. I’m all in favor. It helps that Bush is against it so vehemently, I admit.
Are we unique? No. But I’d be lying if I said that I think we’re typical. Black conservatism is something I’m all too familiar with, and unfortunatly homophobia is a part of it. The gay civil rights movement is seen as something that’s run largely by white, wealthy men (you can see where this myth comes from if you glance at a gentrifying neighborhood). It’s really really hard for people at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder (or a generation removed from the bottom) to look at this image and see victims of oppression. It’s especially hard when comparisons are constantly made between blacks and gays. The feeling is that if gay folk have it that bad, they wouldn’t have to constantly draw comparisons between themselves and the struggle of black people. I feel that there is some truth to this statement, but also some oversensitivity mixed with anti-white hostility.
