The absolute disaster of the Proposition 8 results has many parents

[dsc]

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.

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Two words, and then I'm hiding this thread

Bayard Rustin

[dsc]

2. good point

but why are you hiding the thread?

[Karenina]

14. Prophetic piece here:

Black Voters Not to Blame if Proposition 8 Passes

http://bloggernista.com/2008/09/21/black-voters-not-to-blame-if-proposition-8-passes/

September 21, 2008


A troubling New York Times article on Proposition 8, the proposed California anti-marriage constitutional amendment, asserts that some marriage supporters are concerned that strong support for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy among Black voters may spell trouble for efforts to defeat the proposal to take away marriage rights for same-sex couples.

<snip>

3. The article and thinking among some white activists on both sides of the proposed amendment falls into “Black community as voting monolith” frame that sees Black voters as a kind of electoral Borg in which we all think the same and vote the same. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. That thinking does, however, make it possible for some to see outreach to communities of color as an afterthought only to be performed in the closing weeks of a campaign if at all. Then, the lack of success in persuading a majority of voters of color of the important connections between LGBT issues and the larger civil rights movement is talked about as the result of an especially virulent strain of homophobia in communities of color rather than as a failure to aggressively target voters of color with persuasive messages.

The article does go on to cite the critical work of the Barbara Jordan/Bayard Rustin Coalition, an organization of Black LGBT people and allies:
“This is black people talking to black people,” said Ron Buckmire, the board president of the Barbara Jordan/Bayard Rustin Coalition, a gay rights group in Los Angeles. “We’re saying, ‘Gay people are black and black people are gay. And if you are voting conservative on an antigay ballot measure, you are hurting the black community.’ ”

Unfortunately work like this, efforts among LGBT people of color to dialogue with and work within communities of color, are among those given the least amount of resources and investment by LGBT organizations even as it becomes increasingly clear the key role that people of color can play in advancing LGBT civil rights. It is also clear that the work to build the necessary coalitions that strengthen the potential ties between communities of color and LGBT communities is something that needs to occur before we are facing a political crisis and not in the final hours of a campaign.

[midnight]

7. Wow. What an amazing man. I had never heard about him

before. I googled his name, and found some impressive work done by him. He is being credited with bringing nonviolence to the civil rights movement. For this man and all the others who cannot live with simple freedoms they are entitled to, never accept this idea that discrimination is law.

[bliss_eternal]

3. Your comments reflect some I read recently...

...on the blog of a black glbt female activist. I don't always agree with her, but I always try to consider where she's coming from. I always appreciate her passion and concern for those sharing her cultural background. She writes well and seems very concerned about the relationship between the two communities. (pm me if you're interested in a link to her site).

I wonder if ads featuring glbt's of color would have made a difference. Over the years on DU, I've had to remind people of color that the glbt's of color are the one's that suffer, and seem invisible to both communities. It usually happens when I've witnessed a person of color making comments that seem to reflect the idea that "it's a white thing." Erroneous presumption, and hurtful.

[fishnfla]

4. Should/could not then the 'no on 8' movement appealled more to all the parents?

?

[dsc]

5. they appealed to white and to a lesser extent, Latino parents

but not black ones.

[bliss_eternal]

6. Another link:

you might be interested in:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=258&topic_id=4822&mesg_id=4822

:hug:

[MH1]

8. "when virtually no other non black voters would"

what time frame are you talking about? Because I'm wondering if I'm virtually no one. :shrug:

I think you're post is mostly good and it's nice to see a rational thought out post on the issue. But you might be stretching with the idea that the only non-bigots at some point were gays.

[dsc]

9. Mayor Washington carried one white ward in Chicago

and that ward had gays and Jews. Even Obama didn't manage a majority of whites while getting 7 out of 10 gay votes.

[EFerrari]

10. I've been wrong about the number of black yes voters.

I've been saying that as only 10% of our electorate, they didn't pass it with their 7%

Well, it turns out, they are now only 7% in all of our electorate, not 10%. I've been checking my numbers and I was wrong.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06075.html

There was one very good ad here that compared Prop H8 to racial discrimination. It only came out about 10 days ago. It got good response from blacks and latinos but, too little too late -- someone should have seen this coming. :(

Imho, there was more than 1 kind of yes voter. There were homophobes, people confused by the lying Yes campaign but also, people to whom the case hadn't been made as you point out. I don't give up on the black community at all. If we invest in them, I believe they will vote with us in greater numbers.

[Karenina]

11. People for the American Way Memo

http://site.pfaw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_equality_prop_8_memo

“Yes on Prop 8” leaders whose view of the campaign as a battle between good and evil led to an “ends justifies the means” campaign that included grossly distorted ads, mailings, and robocalls directed at African Americans and falsely portrayed Barack Obama as a Prop 8 supporter.

There will be plenty of post-game analysis of the No on 8 campaign’s choices and strategies, and that’s not the purpose of this memo. But it is clear that the Yes on 8 campaign had a far more aggressive and systematic outreach to African American religious leaders and voters. If we either take black voters for granted because they are “supposed to” be liberal, or we write them out of our campaign strategies because we label them inherently homophobic, we cannot turn around and make them the scapegoat for our failings.

Here’s a fact that creates some perspective. On November 4 there was an anti-gay initiative on the ballot in Arkansas to prohibit unmarried couples from adopting or being foster parents. White voters supported that anti-gay initiative by a 16 percentage point margin, twice the margin for African Americans in the state. So it’s clearly not the case that African Americans are inherently more prone to supporting discrimination than white Americans.

We need a broad and ongoing strategy to create and sustain constructive dialogue at the intersections of race, religion, sexuality, and politics. And it should go without saying that partnership is a two-way street. How many white LGBT leaders and activists have been at the forefront of battles to preserve affirmative action, or raise the minimum wage?

The Right’s Big Investments Pay Big Dividends

The Religious Right has invested in systematic outreach to the most conservative elements of the Black Church, creating and promoting national spokespeople like Bishop Harry Jackson, and spreading the big lie that gays are out to destroy religious freedom and prevent pastors from preaching about homosexuality from the pulpit.

In addition, Religious Right leaders have exploited the discomfort among many African Americans with white gays who seem more ready to embrace the language and symbols of the civil rights movement than to be strong allies in the continuing battle for equal opportunity. At a series of Religious Right events, demagogic African American pastors have accused the gay rights movement of “hijacking” and “raping” the civil rights movement.

The effort to stir anti-gay emotions among African Americans by suggesting that gays are trying to “hijack” the civil rights movement is not new. During a Cincinnati referendum in 1993, anti-gay groups produced a videotape targeted to African American audiences; the tape featured Trent Lott, Ed Meese and other right-wing luminaries warning that protecting the civil rights of lesbians and gay men would come at the expense of civil rights gains made by the African American community. It was an astonishing act of hypocrisy for Lott and Meese to show concern for those civil rights gains, given their career-long hostility to civil rights principles and enforcement, but the strategy worked that year. Eleven years later, however, African American religious leaders and voters helped pass an initiative striking the anti-gay provision from the city charter. (The story of that successful fairness campaign is told in an award-winning mini-documentary — A Blinding Flash of the Obvious — that is part of a Focus on Fairness toolkit produced by People For the American Way Foundation.)

In California this year, national and local white anti-gay religious leaders worked hard to create alliances with African American clergy; Harry Jackson was busy in both California and Florida stirring opposition to marriage equality. None of the Right’s outreach to African Americans on gay rights issues in recent years has been a secret. Neither has polling that showed some deterioration in African American support for full equality. But there hasn’t been the same investment in systematic outreach from the gay rights community.

[EFerrari]

12. And in spite of this horrible campaign and a huge black turn out

we did BETTER by ten points this time than we did last time.

Don't give up, CA. :hug: :grouphug:

[EFerrari]

13. Another thing: Alameda county voted H8 down.

They have a 14% black pop, bigger by 3 points than LA County, who passed the proposition.