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JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, July 18, 2008
Research shows opinions stubbornly unchanged despite growing mainstream acceptance
Next week: How gay activists are working to engage blacks and win their support. |
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There’s a typical response H. Alexander Robinson hears when he talks to black people about gay rights.
“There are those in the community that continue to say the whole gay agenda is about special rights,” he said. “In lots of segments of the community, I feel like we’ve addressed that and moved on from that question. But I still feel like it’s being framed in that way by certain African-American ministers.”
Robinson, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, said he and other gay activists thus are pitted against religious and political influences as they work to win support from black Americans.
And those influences are strong.
The Pew Research Center found in July 2006 that 52 percent of black Protestants consider homosexuality “just the way that some people prefer to live.” According to the survey, 22 percent of white mainline Protestants say the same.
The survey also found that 20 percent of black Protestants say homosexuality is something people are born with, and 60 percent say that homosexuality can be changed.
By comparison, 52 percent of surveyed white mainline Protestants say people are born gay and 22 percent say homosexuality can be changed.
Positioned near the sensitive intersection of religion and politics, gay rights can prove a volatile topic for many audiences.
But Rev. Larry Brumfield, a black pastor at Westminster Church of the Brethren in northern Maryland and a gay rights supporter, said some of his most heated discussions on the topic have been with fellow blacks.
“I think religion plays a large role in it,” he said. “I think it’s because of miseducation in the pulpit.”
Brumfield, who is straight, said black congregants too often are wrongly told that gays choose their sexual orientation.
“They see it as a choice, almost as a manipulative choice, rather than a natural order of things,” he said. “And if it’s a manipulative choice, ‘They are not doing this just because they’re sinful and lustful and out of control people. They’re doing it to get a leg up on us as a group, as black people. They’ll get the job. They’ll hire them before they hire us. And they’ll get this privilege before us. And they’ll be competing for a scarcity of rights and privileges.’”
Robinson said part of the problem gay activists face in countering such misconceptions is that many black congregants accept without question what they’ve heard from the pulpit.
“Lots of individuals have not been forced to consider another option,” he said.
Cuc Vu, chief diversity officer for the Human Rights Campaign, said education therefore becomes essential to securing new support.
“The reality is that many members of the African-American community believe you can choose to be gay, but you cannot choose to be black,” Vu said. “We need to create safer spaces for African-American GLBT people to come out and challenge the perception in the African-American community that there are no gay black people.”
Brumfield said such steps could help diffuse the us-versus-them “siege mentality” that exists in some black churches.
“I think that we as a group, as a community, after we get certain rights and privileges prescribed to us, we put our arms around them and hoard them and say, ‘You can’t have them,’” he said. “Some of my brethren preachers from the pulpit target this as a competitive position, or position this whole concept as, ‘Gays, lesbians and transgenders are in competition with black folk for jobs, rights, privileges and those things,’ which is totally nonsense to me.”
A complicated dialogue
But no matter the legitimacy of such concerns, gay activists said the dialogue they’re working to develop with black Americans is complicated.
Robinson said activists must be particularly careful to avoid referencing any “hierarchies of oppression” that might present the struggles of one group as more difficult than those of another.
“The first thing is that we just need to call it out,” he said, “and be very clear that when individuals are discriminated against, regardless or whatever the logic or the reason given, we all have to stand against it.”
Robinson said such steps also are important because surveys show that discussing gay issues with black Americans in a civil rights context can be problematic.
Four years ago, black voters generally agreed that they had “a historical responsibility to fight discrimination in all its forms.”
The assertion, presented in a March 2004 survey for HRC as one of several “arguments about gay marriage,” asked, “How can we as African Americans, who have struggled and died to expand freedoms and rights in this country, support denying any group of people their human rights? As a community we have a historical responsibility to fight discrimination in all its forms.”
According to that survey of 600 black voters, 72 percent found the argument somewhat or very persuasive. Another 22 percent said the argument was not persuasive.
Respondents also made clear, though, that they did not want the current gay rights movement linked to the black civil rights struggle.
The survey showed nearly two-thirds of respondents — 63 percent — somewhat or strongly disagreed with a suggestion that the gay rights movement “is a continuation” of the earlier struggle.
HRC has not fielded a similar poll since those questions were asked in 2004.
Elbridge James, director of the pro-gay Maryland Black Family Alliance, wasn’t surprised that the suggested link was poorly received.
“When I first picked up the issue of needing to work with the struggle for LGBT rights, I said, ‘OK, I come from a black civil rights perspective. These people are being persecuted.’ And I made the mistake of saying, ‘Like we were persecuted,’” he said. “That was a problem.”
James and Robinson said the best way to foster discussion is by respecting the unique nature of each movement.
“We remain respectful of the experience that is unique in this country,” Robinson said, “and speak to the uniqueness of that experience, while pointing out the uniqueness of the experience of gay and lesbian Americans.”
Even with such cautious approaches, though, many black Americans do not support gay rights.
And the trend is not limited to adults. National Opinion Research Center found in 2005 that 58 percent of black respondents ages 15-25 opposed legalizing gay marriage.
By comparison, 35 percent of young whites and 36 percent of young Hispanics who were polled opposed that move.
The same survey found that 55 percent of young blacks say homosexuality is always wrong, compared to 35 percent of young whites and 36 percent of young Hispanics.
Robinson said many young black Americans often hold such views because they’re reflecting the philosophy of their parents, peers and role models.
“I think the pressures to conform — the pressures to not do anything that is viewed as further risking marginalization or undermining the African-American community or its experiences — are tremendous,” he said. “And part of what we’re seeing among young African-American people is exactly that.”
Brumfield agreed. He noted that “education and engagement at an earlier age” would help prevent young black Americans from developing prejudicial attitudes toward gay Americans.
“I would say it’s just indoctrination from misinformed parents,” Brumfield said. “The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”
By comparison, Robinson said, young white Americans don’t require as many educational efforts because they’re not under similar pressures.
“I would suggest part of the reason why younger, non-African Americans might have different opinions is because ‘Will and Grace’ is part of their menu,” he said. “Flipping through the channels and seeing Logo is part of their menu.”
But Robinson, Brumfield and James noted the increasing acceptance of gays in the United States isn’t limited to young whites.
“When we go across the state and we talk to young African-American adults, especially those who are in college or are college educated, we find greater support,” James said.
“So whereas there is this polling data, when I go to universities and colleges, and I speak on the civil rights, human rights aspect of African-American gays and lesbians, I find African-American young adults are very supportive. They haven’t made up their mind on civil marriage, civil unions, but they are very supportive of the need for equal rights and equal protections.”
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