The absolute disaster of the Proposition 8 results has many parents

A large proportion of African Americans voted for a proposition sponsered by a racist church that took away rights from the one group of voters that has consistently voted for African American candidates even when virtually no other non black voters would. It is possible, though unlikely, that black voters provided the entire margin for passage. In the final analysis, that really doesn't matter. Gay voters were Obama's third most loyal constiuency, after blacks and Jews, voting 70 to 27 in Obama's favor. In California, blacks voted against gays at a 2 to 1 clip. How did this happen?

Being that I am gay, and not black, I will start with the No on 8 movement. The ads that were run ignored black people entirely. Given the very real fact that many blacks consider being gay to be a white thing, this was disasterous. In addition, we ignored the Mormon funding of this proposition and that church's racist past stretching into the mid 1970's. Finally, we ignored the many times gay voters voted for famous black leaders such as Mayors Dinkens, Washington, and Bradley to name three. Take a negatively disposed group, run ads which ignore that group completely, and then act shocked when they vote against you in droves. Not our best plan.

We should have run ads highlighting the Mormon's racist past. Haters then, haters now, and haters forever should have been on every Californian's lips when we were done with them. Phase two should have been ads featuring both black politicians and gay supporters of Obama extolling the virtues of our decades long alliance. Tagline, what have we done for each other lately? Finally, there should have been outreach and robocalls to the black community. Would this have made the black vote 50/50? Who knows? It sure would have lowered the margin.

Second, it is far past time for the radical, biggoted, clerics of the church to be called, and treated, as what they are. No Democratic politician should be associated with hate filled, biggoted, clerics, no matter whom they endorse for office. This has to be non negotiable. These clerics are a huge part of the reason why the black vote went the way it did. We wouldn't let our office holders pal around with Klan chaplins, why do we let them pal around with these biggotted clerics?

We deserved better than we got, going forward we need to demand better than we got. Gays and blacks have been a beautiful politcal friendship, we should have remembered that ourselves and reminded our black brothers of it too. Our failure to do so may have cost us dearly.

www.InvalidateProp8.org

www.eqca.org

Unfortunately, my partner of 24 years and I are both disabled and live on a fixed income. We can't give much but it is given from the heart.

We will also be getting a donation from our daughter also which will be included. For us, the passage of 8 was heartbreaking. I don't pretend to know how my GLTB fellow human beings feel as I have never walked in your shoes. I just know the sick feeling in my heart hasn't left since Wednesday morning.

There are a few ways to amend the California constitution. Our legislators can amend it also; we need to keep the pressure up. Now is a critical time for the GLBTQ community, and their supporters (of which I am one). They need to refuse to accept "separate but equal" (and it's not really equal) RIGHT NOW.

The reason I care is because:

Assuming it is true to any extent.
Assuming it is true that the rw will continue it's out reach to the black churches in the so called"cultural wars".
Assuming it is true, it just negated the implications of all of the work we have done for our candidate of choice, Obama, as it just reinforced the idea that racial civil rights has made a giant step forward while GLBT civil rights has been shoved back into the closet and is now the subject of a multidenominational witch hunt.

1.) There is evidence the white churches actively seek to coalition with black churches on these wedge issues under the banner of "Cultural Wars."


2.) If that happens, they, the religious right, has just managed to create an over arching political movement that spans and supercedes party loyalty.

3.) I expect, historically and subjectively, a narrow mindedness from the cultural white right, after all they opposed civil rights, women's rigths and gay rights. That's why there was hope that those who fought for racial civil rights would see the connection to further GLBT civil rights struggles and if not actively campainging and working towards it, then, at the very least not actively working against it.

4.) I had hoped that social conservatives would not manage to form a coalition against GLBT folk with the African American community in a way that allows them to see a greater commonality to the bigotry of the right because of the mis-use of theological views.

The same mis-use that justified slavery.

The same mis-use that justified pogroms.

The same mis-use that justifed an social oppression of the "other" in thename of "faith."

I say write to the National Black Justice Coalition, a pro gay entity and ask for their action, advice and insights.

www.nbjc.org

Also, we need figures like Prof. Michael Eric Dysin to weigh in on these aggressive rw actions to start gay witch hunts with the blessing of all churhes.

..........

Check this out about the rw religious coalition:
http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=Daughter+of+Martin+Luther+King+Marches+in+anti+gay+marriage+rally&fr=slv8-tyc7&u=www.nd.edu/%7Edcampbe4/SAMESEX.pdf&w=daughter+daughters+martin+luther+king+marches+anti+gay+marriage+marriages+rally&d=DfdWf0LURvL6&icp=1&.intl=us