My partner got a forward from a friend, which started a war on email. It was an essay by Andrew Sullivan (a libertarian conservative, Roman Catholic gay political columnist who is thoughtful and sharp, but I find him to be way off on many social issues) in which he partly blames the "turnout of Obama voters" for throwing off the Prop 8 election.
Very quickly, part of the aftermath of the Proposition 8 is being framed as Blacks (and people of color) against gays. As I've said before, this is a distraction from the true culprits. I don't deny that some people of color are conservative, and many are religious. Sometimes those things intersect with being gay. But also, many many white people are conservative and religious. Why is it that they are not blame, but only those darn Black people who came out to vote for Obama. In the Bay Area, I've seen a number of prominent Black religious leaders speak against Prop 8. The NAACP came out against it (along with Samuel L. Jackson and Magic Johnson, for those of you who vest your authority in actors and sports figures). Last of all, many of the photos of "Yes on 8" celebrants look like white people to me. The Latter-Day Saints Church, a prominent supporter of the amendment, is largely a white church. I just want to say again that we need to get over this tired cliche of race vs. sexuality - and eventually get over sexuality vs. religion, too. Though that's more complicated.
Anyway, I'm basically just angry that already it's falling out like that. White privilege regularly turns white gay people against people of color, which is maddening.
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Can we talk more about this? I'm feeling frustrated and am feeling a lack of knowing what to do concerning the dynamics of race and sexual orientation. I think that whatever there is of a gay rights movement needs to change so it's not only representative of largely urban, middle and upper middle class white gays and lesbians. But what does that mean in reality?? At some point someone in the movement chose marriage as the thing we should go for. Does a more inclusive same gender loving movement focus on something else? Or does it still focus on marriage but do it differently?
Am feeling exasperated at the fact that queer folks in California had to split the joy of an Obama win with the disappointment of a Prop 8 victory. Am even more frustrated with white gay folks whose sadness and bitterness over Prop 8 overtakes the pure joy of the reality of President Obama. But that's me judging feelings, perhaps inappropriately. So now what? How do we remake a civil rights movement for queer people into something that is less prone to this kind of race baiting?
oof, you ask some really good questions. Cory and I have been talking about this, too. I think the best action right now is to keep bringing up the race thing and pointing out the dynamics. I found some statistics about exit polls that do show that Latino/as and African-Americans were more likely than other races to vote for the amendment - but not significantly more likely than suburban dwellers, self-identified Christians, people in the Central Valley, and households with kids under 18. PLUS, people of color don't make up a significant enough portion of the population to pass the amendment. Why is the race issue the one that gets reported and blamed? It also has to do with coverage of the Obama campaign, as if Black people ONLY voted for him because he's biracial. That doesn't hold up to reason.
You bring up a good point about whether or not marriage is a white gay issue vs simply a gay issue. I don't really know the answer to that, but it deserves some soul-searching. I also wonder how much coalition-building took place, vs just issuing broad invitations to attend No on 8 events and actions.
Last of all, the issue of race baiting is also inherent to white racism, regardless of sexuality. It's an issue that the media distracts our attention by skewing it with this angle, and the Yes on 8 people seemed to have taken advantage of the stereotype by mis-using Obama, for example. I learned afterward how the NAACP took criticism by standing against 8 - but I didn't see or hear any coalition work around that (for example). I don't know, soul-searching and critiquing the dynamics seem to be a place to start - and also to do more reaching out and getting involved in anti-racist efforts, for example.
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