To
some in the LGBTQ community, Cleo Manago is hugely despised.
Descriptors like “homo demagogue,” contrarian, separatist,
and anti-white are just a few that can be expressed in polite
company.
But
to a nation-wide community of same-gender loving (SGL),
bisexual, transgender and progressive heterosexual African
American men, Manago is the MAN!, seen as a visionary, game
changer and “social architect”
focusing on advocating for and healing a group of men that
continues to be maligned and marginalized brothers.
“Without
an understanding of the deep hurt that Black men have around
issues of masculinity and their role as a man, you can’t
hope to eliminate anti-homosexual sentiment in Black men.
There has been no national project to address the psychic
damage that White supremacy has done to Black men. But there
is always some predominantly White institution waiting,
ready to pounce on a Black man for behaving badly,” Manago
wrote in his recent article, Getting at the Root of Black “Homophobic” Speech,
in which he castigates GLAAD for demanding CNN fire
Roland Martin for misconstrued homophobic tweets.
Unapologetically
Afrocentric in his approach in addressing social, mental
and health issues plaguing black communities of men, Manago
has created a national study on black men and has built
two organizations that for more than two decades have had
national recognition and have successfully secured millions
of dollars in funding- Critical Thinking and Cultural Affirmation
Study, AmASSI Centers for Wellness and Culture, and Black
Men’s Xchange.
Manago’s
study called the “Critical Thinking and Cultural Affirmation”
(CTCA) is a culturally informed preventive health strategy
that addresses positive mental, sexual and community health,
encouraging self-actualization, cultural empowerment and
responsibility. CTCA has been in practice since 2002.
As
the founder and CEO of AmASSI Health and Cultural Center,
Manago was one of the first innovators in the AIDS movement
to provide HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention services utilizing
a psychosocial, mental health model that was culturally
specific to African American identity. AmASSI has been in
practice since 1989.
Manago
is the national organizer and founder of Black Men’s Xchange
(BMX), the oldest and largest community-based movement devoted
to promoting healthy self-concept and behavior, cultural
affirmation and critical consciousness among same gender
loving (SGL), bisexual, transgender males, and allies, with
chapters in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento,
and Orange County, Detroit, Denver, Atlanta, Minneapolis,
Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Black Men’s Xchange has been
funded by the Center for Disease Control’s Act Against AIDS
Leadership Initiative program. And the CDC’s positions BMX
alongside other legacy community black organization such
as NAACP, the Urban League, the Congressional Black Caucus
Foundation and American Urban Radio Networks. BMX has been
in practice since 1989.
A
native of South Central Los Angeles, he began a vocation
in social services at the age of 16. While many would call
him a social activist, Manago does not like the term “activist” applied to him because
he considers black LGBTQ activism tethered to mainstream
white privilege, ideology and single-focused gay organizations
that are too culturally dissonant and limited in scope to
be meaningful and beneficial not only to African American
LGBTQ communities but also to the larger black community.
To
many in Manago’s community and beyond, he’s an unsung hero,
greatly misunderstood and intentionally marginalized by
LGBTQ powerbrokers.
One
factor Manago would contest contributing to his marginalization
was the debacle between him and Keith Boykin during the
10th anniversary of the Million Man March. In commemorating
the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March, the Nation
of Islam decidedly chose one LGBTQ organization over another.
And that decision highlights much of the political, class
and ideological differences in the African-American LGBTQ
community at large.
Keith
Boykin - the founder and then president of the National
Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), an African-American LGBTQ
civil rights organization of which I was then a board member
- was dropped from the event. But Cleo Manago was not.
Both
men had much to bring to the 2005 Millions More March, but
Manago mirrored the fundamental sentiment of Farrakhan’s
theology - a conscious separation from the dominant white
heterosexual and queer cultures- and he spoke at the historic
1995 Million Man March.
In
his open letter, Manago wrote in 2005: “BMX knows the Nation
of Islam (NOI). It’s an independent black organization not
funded by the HRC [a white gay organization] or any white
folks. The NOI does not, nor does it have to succumb to
White gay press laden, black homosexual coercives who want
to ram a white constructed gay-identity political agenda
- that even most Black homosexuals reject - down their throats.
Over the years, several members of the Nation of Islam have
been to BMX. As some of you may know, almost 10 years ago
BMX co-sponsored a very successful transformative debate
on Homosexuality in the Black community with the Nation
in L.A.”
As
a queer separatist organization, many LGBTQ African-Americans
applaud BMX for being unabashedly queer and unapologetically
black. But the terms “queer” and “gay” are not descriptors
Manago and his organization would use to depict themselves.
That would be “same-gender-loving” because terms like “gay”
and “queer” uphold a white queer hegemony that Manago and
many in the African-American LGBTQ community denounce. As
a matter of fact, he is credited
with coining the terms “men who have sex with men” (MSM)
and “same gender loving” (SGL).
To
some in the LGBTQ community, Manago is a dangerous demagogue.
But to the tens of thousands African American brothers and
generous funders, he’s seen as a brother driven with a dream.
And he’s perhaps dangerous because he’s effecting change.
BlackCommentator.com
Editorial Board member, the Rev. Irene Monroe, is a religion
columnist, theologian, and public speaker. She is the Coordinator of
the African-American Roundtable of the Center for Lesbian and
Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS) at the Pacific
School of Religion. A native of Brooklyn, Rev. Monroe is a
graduate from Wellesley College and Union Theological Seminary
at Columbia University, and served as a pastor at an African-American
church before coming to Harvard Divinity School for her
doctorate as a Ford Fellow. She was recently named to MSNBC’s
list of 10 Black Women You Should Know. Reverend Monroe is the author
of Let Your Light Shine Like a Rainbow Always: Meditations on Bible Prayers for Not’So’Everyday Moments.
As an African-American feminist theologian, she speaks for
a sector of society that is frequently invisible. Her website
is
irenemonroe.com.
Click here
to contact the Rev. Monroe.
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