The Reverend Irene Monroe

The historical legacy of the devaluation and demonization of black motherhood was both applauded and rewarded at this year’s Oscars. And the point was clearly illustrated with Mo’Nique, capturing the gold statue for best supporting actress in the movie “Precious,” based on the novel Push by Sapphire, as a ghetto welfare mom who demeans and…

Given the history of the exploitation of African American women’s reproductive system for involuntary sterilization, medical experimentation, monetary compensation, and political gain, it’s difficulty for many of us in the black community to not see an anti-abortion ad campaign specifically targeting the African-American community in Georgia with a message of “Black Children are an Endangered…

Missing from the annals of African American history and the history of Nazi Germany are the documented stories and struggles of African Americans, straight and “queer.” Valaida Snow, captured in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen and interned in a concentration camp for nearly two years, is one such story forgotten every Black History Month in celebrating our heroes…

In celebrating Black History Month, I want to personally celebrate the courage and strength of sistah-warrior Gladys Bentley (1907-1960). Bentley, a 250-pound African-American lesbian (who today we would consider transgender), was known as “America’s Greatest Sepia Piano Player” and the “Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs.” Her fall from the entertainment spotlight, however, is a cautionary…

Since the world community has descended on Haiti with relief aid in response to the January 12th earthquake, I am wondering how Haiti’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities are being helped. As one of Haiti’s most marginal groups, the question arises in response to how some American LGBTQ New Orleans were treated…

Religion-based bigotry has been the mainstay of Rev. Pat Robertson’s bully pulpit. And he mounts this pulpit as an uber-God, possessed with an inherent omniscience in knowing not only the mundane and wicked thoughts and actions of man but also in knowing the cataclysmic actions of God’s wrath on man. While scientists explain Haiti’s recent…

As we celebrate MLK Day 2010 we no longer have to hold King up to a God-like standard. All the hagiographies written about King immediately following his assassination in the previous century have come under scrutiny as we come to understand all of King – his greatness as well as his flaws and human foibles.…

Just as my enslaved ancestors could have never imagined an African American family residing in the White House, nor could my African American lesbian, gay bisexual transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) brothers and sisters who fought in the Stonewall Riots of 1969 in New York’s Greenwich Village could imagine that one day a special invitation from…