Racial Divisions Cast Shadow On Gay Rights Movement

Posted on December 5, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized

Votes for — and against — California’s Proposition 8, the so-called anti-gay marriage initiative, were close enough that neither side could declare victory on election night. But by Wednesday morning, it was evident the measure had passed. The gay community was stunned.

That morning, at a press conference called to announce a legal challenge to the passage of Proposition 8, lesbian activist Robin Tyler, with her wife at her side, offered, “This is not a culture war — a lot of times the press refers to [gays] getting married as a culture war. This is a civil rights movement.”

Jasmyne Cannick, a former congressional and Sacramento legislature press secretary who now works as a political consultant, says that’s exactly why more black Californians didn’t vote against Proposition 8. White activists’ insistence on linking the two movements — marriage equality and racial equality — was automatically rejected by many black voters. That equation, says Cannick, “is dead on arrival when it gets to the black community.”

Cannick, who is black and lesbian, grew up in Los Angeles. She says that just as black churches don’t often address the homophobic strain that runs through the black community, gays and lesbians don’t easily speak about the racism that is silently present in their community.

See Racial Divisions Cast Shadow On Gay Rights Movement
NPR -