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"Any reaching out to communities of color will,
undoubtedly, dredge up the history of how this
country’s same-sex marriage debate created much
consternation and polarization between LGBTQ
communities of color and white LGBTQ communities."
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With
this June’s historic Supreme Court ruling — Obergefell v. Hodge —
that legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states, many white LGBTQ
organizations nationwide have been questioning what to do next.
Last month the Harvard Alumni Association and the Harvard Gender &
Sexuality Caucus picked up the gauntlet to answer that very
question, co-sponsoring a conference titled “What Should We Do
After ‘I Do’?: Conversations on the Challenges That Remain for the
LGBTQ Community."
Harvard alumni, students, staff, faculty, and friends came from
across the country for a day-long gathering exploring the topic, with
hopes of perhaps charting a future course in the unfinished struggle
for LGBTQ rights and equality.
The challenge of what to do next among many of the conference attendees
appeared daunting, that is to reach out to LGBTQ communities of
color. And for good reasons.
Any reaching out to communities of color will, undoubtedly, dredge up
the history of how this country’s same-sex marriage debate created much
consternation and polarization between LGBTQ communities of color and
white LGBTQ communities. With white LGBTQ political and religious
organizations now attempting to bridge this historic divide, many
communities of color are asking what’s in it for them.
While many LGBTQ communities of color will embraced the larger LGBTQ
community’s offers to be inclusive, others feel that the white queer
community, in 2015, is coming a day late and a dollar short. And
any effort now is seen as disingenuous if not patronizing.
The bitter internecine feuds among LGBTQ communities of color and the
dominate community - concerning framing the marriage debate and
strategies employed - have left both sides battle worn.
And needless to say, the trip down memory lane is a painful one.
With the passing of Proposition 8 and blaming the African American
community for its victory at the ballot box, the struggle for
marriage quality showed us all that it would be a
state-by-state battle, where the demographics of each state indeed came
into play.
Some strategists had felt all along that communities of color - both
straight and queer- were liabilities, slowing, if not disrupting,
the process, progress and momentum in this nationwide culture
war. These activists openly stated and showed in their community
strategies and organizing that they didn’t want or need queer
communities of color, especially in predominately white states, to win
the battle.
And their reason was the following:
With enough successive wins from less heterogeneous LGBTQ and straight
communities, like Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont, and, yes, even my state
of, Massachusetts, these judicial endorsements of same- sex marriages
not only increase public acceptance of LGBTQ nuptials, but these
endorsements could conceivably push more quickly the issue of marriage
equality to the federal level for LGBTQ Americans all the way to the U.
S. Supreme Court, circumventing our internal wars of class, race, and
homophobic faith communities entirely.
Sadly, however, many of our state-by-state battles for marriage
equality continued, after being advised otherwise, to be framed as a
single-issue agenda, addressing the concerns and values of an elite
few, regardless of the size of its LGBTQ communities of color.
And, with the LGBTQ community being the fastest disenfranchised group
to touch the fringes of America’s mainstream since the Stonewall Riots
in 1969, some contest the only thing holding the larger community back
is LGBTQ communities of color.
Communities of color fought back stating we cannot be deployed in the
marriage equality battle in a used-when-needed basis, like token
moments for photo-ops.
In response to the how the marriage debate initially took shape many
LGBTQ communities of color organizations sprung up to address their
needs, focusing not only on HIV/AIDs ravaging their
communities, but, also, focusing on unemployment, gang violence,
LGBTQ youth homelessness, and homophobic clergy, to name a few.
I have been asked by several white activists and organizations
post- marriage equality is it now too late trying to reach out to
communities of color. It’s a similar questions that was asked of me in
2005 when a board member of a statewide gay organization, who did not
want to be identified, wrote to me stating the following:
“The board is interested in looking at its own white privilege as it
seeks to work with the African-American religious community. We have
realized that most of our communities of faith are predominantly white
communities. This concerns us.. We [have] voted to begin a process of
understanding white privilege and the ways in which we can seem to be
antiracist."
I cannot speak for all communities of color let along the ones I
identify with. However, as one who sits at the intersections of several
identities my query to white LGBTQ activists and organizations is the
following:
Will efforts to reach out to communities of color be matched by the
same agency, urgency, time and dollars spent on marriage
equality?
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BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, 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. Contact the Rev. Monroe and BC.
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 is published every Thursday |
Executive Editor:
David A. Love, JD |
Managing Editor:
Nancy Littlefield, MBA |
Publisher:
Peter Gamble |
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