The Advocate trumpets that gay is the new black

Gay civil rights activists have since held noisy protests across America, boycotting businesses that supported the anti-gay campaigns, and some have vandalized Mormon churches because the Mormons donated a whopping $20-million to California's anti-gay campaign.

Like comic legend Robin Williams said at Place des Arts last week, "Mormons defending marriage is like lepers giving facials."

But instead of blaming Mormons for their successful hatemongering campaign, as well as chastising gay activists for running a poor campaign, many gay activists are blaming black Americans.

That's because California exit polls revealed 70 per cent of black voters voted against same-sex marriage.

But nailing blacks for that loss is racist because it took a whole lot of white people to pass the measure in the first place. Analysts agree, however, that first-time black voters shifted support for California's gay-marriage ban from 48 to 52 per cent. In other words, blacks enabled a win for the anti-gay movement.

That win was huge because, when it comes to gay marriage, California is the U.S. bellwether state. So goes California, so goes America.

And I understand the fury of gays in America. Gay people are my people. While many activists say gays should embrace the peaceful protest model espoused by Dr. Martin Luther King, I am - as readers of this column very well know - a graduate of the Malcolm X School of Rhetoric.

"When political attacks are launched from churches, political responses will be delivered to churches," columnist Dan Savage screamed last week. "If goddamned McDonald's had organized and paid for [California's anti-gay] Prop 8, we'd be marching on goddamned McDonald's."

Pundit Andrew Sullivan snarled, "I respect [the Mormons'] right to freedom of conscience and religion. In fact, it is one of my strongest convictions. But when [the Mormon church] use their money and power to target my family, to break it up, to demean it and marginalize it, to strip me and my husband of our civil rights, then they have started a war. And I am not a pacifist."

While a majority of straight people voted to deny gay people their civil rights, many blacks are asking, "How can you compare the black experience and the black civil rights movement with the gay experience and the gay civil rights movement?"

I have long said there is no hierarchy when it comes to the oppressed. You either are persecuted - like the million gay men Himmler boasted the Nazis killed in WWII, or the hundreds more killed each year by anti-gay paramilitary death squads in Iraq and Guatemala, or the estimated 100 gay bashings in Montreal each year, or the millions of gay Americans denied their full civil rights in America - or you are not persecuted.

Black Americans can scream all they want - and they are, loudly - over the new catchphrase, "Gay is the new black."

But it is true that the global gay liberation movement is the last great civil rights struggle.

If you don't believe me, listen to Bayard Rustin, my gay hero and Godfather of America's Black Civil Rights Movement, the man who taught Dr. King nonviolent protest at the 1956 Montgomery bus boycott and organized the 1963 March on Washington.

"Twenty-five to 30 years ago the barometer of human rights in the United States was black people," Rustin noted before his death in 1987. "That's no longer true. [Gay civil rights are] the [new] barometer for judging the character of people who [support] human rights."

In America, and in much of the world, that day is still not upon us.

Here in Montreal, three of my friends are helping poor Montreal families this Christmas. Soul singer Michelle Sweeney headlines her fourth annual Christmas concert at Ogilvy's Tudor Hall on Dec. 17, benefiting Bob White's Westend Sports Association for the Kids.

"The money raised will pay for Christmas turkeys and baskets," Bob says.

Michelle - who owns more wigs than every drag queen in this city combined, and headlines the House of Jazz weekly - will bring her band, guests Rosalyn Hunt and Skipper Dean, plus the Four Gs female backup singers. "I'm going to try to keep it light - a little Mahalia Jackson Christmas gospel music, and I'm working on getting a choir from the Rev. [Darryl Gray]!"

And if I scream for Proud Mary?

"Then we'll throw in a little dance music!"

Meanwhile, promoter Karyn Lewis presents eighth annual Free Caribbean Dinner and Toy Giveaway, which will give 1,000 meals to Montreal's poor, Dec. 25 at Caribbean Paradise Restaurant in LaSalle. Skipper Dean and his Soul Stream Band will headline during a live CKUT broadcast. To donate $20, toys, health products or food, call Karyn at 514-486-4423.

Also, Michelle Sweeney & Friends at Tudor Hall, Dec. 17 at 7 p.m., $40 (tax-deductible).
 
 

		Write your comment on this article!

Mormons are the new blacks!     It should be noted Mormons were one of the 1st to support the Abolitionist movement against Slavery! I am Gay and I am Mormon, I donated to Equality Ca (on the No side) but you are defrauding the public when you try to spin the FACTS that Blacks as a community have a extremely low tolerance /acceptance of Gays or and other minority group. My cousin who is in a WHeelchair and disfigured lives in Newark, NJ where he cannot go past a group of Black men without being mocked, mimicked or laughed at. You paint Mormons as a bigoted group and quote Robin Williams who is making fun of Lepers who were sick and disabled themselves. The truth is there is a much larger population of Blacks in CA than LDS and when you stop with your angry Gay/ Black BS we will win our cause. Dr King never condoned violence or hatred in his speeches, why can't Gays learn from someone they always seem to reference when they find it to their benefit? Your article is another MSM spin that doles out prejudice and condones bigotry against Mormons more than anything the Religious right did on Prop 8. We live in a Democracy, if the No side worked as Hard to win rather than WHine we would have won. Elections always have a loser. It's just unfortunate this time the losers are acting like spoiled brats. Tim Overtun Santa Monica "But instead of blaming Mormons for their successful hatemongering campaign, as well as chastising gay activists for running a poor campaign, many gay activists are blaming black Americans. That's because California exit polls revealed 70 per cent of black voters voted against same-sex marriage. But nailing blacks for that loss is racist because it took a whole lot of white people to pass the measure in the first place. Analysts agree, however, that first-time black voters shifted support for California's gay-marriage ban from 48 to 52 per cent. In other words, blacks enabled a win for the anti-gay movement."
Brad Overtun		December 2nd, 2008
Equal Rights     The passage of Prop 8 is an excellent example of the Tyranny of the Majority. The Civil Rights of any individual or group of individuals should never be taken away by a Simple Majority, or be put on the ballot at all. All this talk about children & churches' tax status is nothing but distraction from the main constitutional debate - such ban is illegal & against the Constitution, period. That said - let's be thankful & stay hopeful, reflecting upon Milk's story & message. We, the people of freedom & justice, are not just on the right side of the history but also on the winning side, so long we're ready to stand up for ourselves & others when called for action. March, blog, donate or just talk to someone who may become an ally! The set-back by Prop 8 is just another obstacle we WILL overcome.
Pak Tam		November 30th, 2008
Fornication - having sex outside of marriage     Neither Fornicators nor Gays deserve special civil rights. However, Fornicators who are not Gay, have the basic civil right of marriage. Gay Fornicators (twice damned, apparently) cannot marry according to bigots like Tracy Hall. Does this make sense to anyone?
Lance Bergstrom		November 30th, 2008
Prop 8 and the California Supreme Court.     I have total faith that the California Supreme Court will destroy prop 8. Until then I have absolute hatred and intolerance for religious bigots/zealots for voting my right to marry away. I support any type of activity that will humiliate them, shame them, and destroy them. This is exactly what they want for us, so I will gladly rub their disgusting faces in their own shit! They deserve it. I'm planning my June wedding at San Francisco city hall in 09', and stick prop 8 up your ass, religious pigs!
Flex Colby		November 28th, 2008
As a Gay Man, we already have the rights in California     As a Gay Man in California. We already have all the rights of a married couple, that California can give. When we pushed the straight people to take from them their longheld and sacred term "marriage", we crossed the line! ANd they voted to let us know that. If we are so special, why do we want to use "their" phrase for our "civil unions"? I want to be recognized as different, WE ARE! All I want is the same "RIGHTS", who cares what it is called. The phrase "marriage" is already taken, why not pick a new name for what we are doing? Beat up the Mormons for using their money, votes, and efforts to back up something they beleave in? Why? Isnt that what we are doing? At least they did it in a honest and dignified way. As we organize to hurt people through their businesses and jobs, if they were doing that to us we would be screaming "discrimination"! But it's RIGHT for us to do that to people who voted to protect their way of life? We are wrong, we need to re-think this. We are acting like spoiled highschool children, whos parents wont let us go to the football game. I am ashamed of how we are letting the ACLU and right wing activists take OUR fight and sue everyone in sight. They are making us look bad, they are organizing the protests, they are tapping into our community to file the lawsuits. Wake up, it is our "adult choices" that make us a minority. What right do we have to force the "average normal society" to give us their rights? WHen we are not acting normal, average or mature? Sex belongs in the closet, all sex, we are the ones forcing the MAJORITY of society to make decisions about how to protect their children, their "marriages", their normal adult choices for us. We need to be a little more tollerant of those we have asked to be tollerant of us.
sam millett		November 27th, 2008
Did I just Read Tracy right????     Seriously people, did I read the comment from Tracy Hall Jr correctly??? As I write this, I am the only respondent. As for Tracy's big lie number one, blacks fought for their civil rights so that they could escape that thing we called lynching and the other "inconveniences" that went along with looking dark and brazen all fucking year long. As with the "real" civil rights movement Tracy talks about, being beat and kicked to a plup on the pavement when people are yelling "fucking faggot" must somehow differ. How it differs, I would like to know. Maybe Tracy could explain that. Is it too much to ask the government of Canada that I have the right not to have the shit kicked out of me because of other people's problems with MY identity of MYSELF???? As for big lie number 2. I am a proud gay man, and my father is a passionate Baptist minister/missionary. Yes, we certainly have differing opinions. If Tracy was perhaps a little more informed of the Canadian law, Tracy might possibly know that gay marriage rights also gives the clergy the right to say no to performing a same sex marriage. Its the same right that gives a priest or a rabbi the right to say no to a catholic/jewish marriage if they feel so moved to do so. Tracy does not realize that the laws that grant Tracy the freedom/right to be as traditionalist as Tracy deems fit for Tracy's life... its the same laws that grant the rest of us to me as non-traditionalist as we see fit, when did separation of church and state become a crime? Once upon a time, it was tradition that every family own a nigger or two. My house would be a lot cleaner had that one been defended a bit better! As for the "traditional" definition of marriage, inter-racial marriages have been forbidden world-wide over the ages, even inter-tribal unions have been an extreme taboo. If Tracy wishes to keep the "original" definition of anything and everything, Tracy needs to maybe shut up and think about the lies that Tracy has already been s
Theo Myshrall		November 27th, 2008
Mormons and Prop 8     California's Proposition 8 added a single line to the state constitution defining marriage as being between "a man and a woman." It places into the California Constitution the same language that voters already passed by 61% of the vote in 2000. It may protect children from being taught in public schools that "same-sex marriage" is the same as traditional marriage. There are 29 U.S. states which currently have such a definition of marriage in their constitutions. The Mormon Church as an institution made no direct monetary contributions to the "Yes on 8" campaign. All monetary donations came from individual Church members, who decided if and how much they would contribute. When the Mormon Church accepted the invitation to join broad-based coalitions it knew that some of its members would choose not to support its position. The Church therefore made it clear to its members that voting choices by Latter-day Saints, like all other people, are influenced by their own unique experiences and circumstances. The quote of Robin Williams is ridiculous. The Mormon Church is well known for its support of the traditional family. The Church has not practised polygamy for a century and should not be confused with splinter groups who continue the practice. A number of Prop 8 protesters, however, do like to raise the issue of polygamy, and make no distinction between the LDS Church and splinter groups.
Ken Kyle	{1 vote}	November 27th, 2008
Same-sex "marriage" has nothing to do with civil rights     ". . . their successful hatemongering campaign . . ." " . . . use their money and power to . . . strip me and my husband of our civil rights . . ." Rhetoric like this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the campaign for the oxymoronic invention of "same-sex marriage" is a brazen attempt to force society to give a moral stamp of approval to homosexual acts. This requires acceptance of two Big Lies: (1) that homosexuals are a "minority" deserving of special protection beyond that due to every human being, and (2) that sexual activity once universally recognized as deviant and shameful is now morally praiseworthy. As for Big Lie #1, homosexuals are no more a helpless minority than are golfers or unicyclists. This is not a group of people who cannot change their behavior. Rather, it is a "club" of people who choose to act out their lust. Homosexual activity is no more a "civil right" than is adultery or fornication. Are adulterers and fornicators also a helpless minority deserving special protection? Must we also contrive a contorted definition of "marriage" to assuage their shame? But it is Big Lie #2 that requires extinguishing my freedom of religion, because my church declares that all sexual activity outside of marriage is immoral. If society can be tricked into redefining "marriage," suddenly homosexual activity is perfectly moral, and Mormons can be prosecuted for "hate speech" if they dare to speak out against such behavior. Those who demand that the time-honored definition of marriage be changed are not only seeking to ban religion from the public square: they are also seeking to ban all ethics from the public square. Only one "sin" will remain in their unholy writ: that of "homophobia." Shame on those who would force a redefinition of the word "marriage" for the purpose of acquiring, by theft, legal and social sanction of their immoral behavior! Tracy Hall Jr hthalljr'gmail'com
Tracy Hall Jr		November 27th, 2008

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