|
-- tips@phblend.com
PHB Mobile
| Best of the Blend |
|
Blog Posts
Special Events and Interviews
| Blend-o-licious endorsements... |
The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend:
"a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego)."Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist."
(Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger."
(MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
--"Joe"
|
Support the Blend
|
|
An Online Magazine in the Reality-Based Community.
|
Mon Dec 01, 2008 at 08:00:00 AM EST
|
| Charles Blow issues a lot of interesting and discussion-worthy points in his NYT op-ed "Gay Marriage and a Moral Minority." It is both frustrating and insightful in its look at the issue of black support for Prop 8.
The op-ed starts off on the wrong foot with Blow citing the now-familiar CNN exit poll results reporting 70% of blacks voted for the measure -- and thus "proving" that the Obama turnout surge was responsible for the initiative passing (this was shot down quite well by 538.com's Nate Silver). He goes on to give three theories about why this demographic voted for 8. (1) Blacks are much more likely than whites to attend church, according to a Gallup report, and black women are much more likely to attend church than black men. Anyone who has ever been to a black church can attest to the disparity in the pews. And black women's church attendance may be increasing.
According to a report issued this spring by Child Trends, a nonprofit research center, weekly church attendance among black 12th graders rose 26 percent from 1993 to 2006, while weekly church attendance for white 12th graders remained virtually flat. In 2006, those black teenagers were nearly 50 percent more likely to attend church once a week than their white counterparts. And it is probably safe to assume that many of them were going to church with their mothers since Child Trends reported that around the time that they were born, nearly 70 percent of all black children were born to single mothers.
(2) This high rate of church attendance by blacks informs a very conservative moral view. While blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic, an analysis of three years of national data from Gallup polls reveals that their views on moral issues are virtually indistinguishable from those of Republicans. Let's just call them Afropublicrats.
(3) Marriage can be a sore subject for black women in general. According to 2007 Census Bureau data, black women are the least likely of all women to be married and the most likely to be divorced. Women who can't find a man to marry might not be thrilled about the idea of men marrying each other. This latter point is a big dollop stereotypical portrayal of the desperate black woman looking for a mate, a notion that there's an immovable opinion that civil rights are a zero sum game to black women. Some other observations/suggestions from Blow to counter the above problems:
* Don't debate the bible because LGBTs cannot win.
* Don't mention interracial marriage, black women aren't down with that.
* Convey that applying yesterday's sexual morality to today's sexual mores backfires, and drives sexuality into the shadows and increases risky, closeted behaviors that place the health of black women at risk.
The interracial nonsense in the second item is insulting to black women -- is Blow saying these women cannot grasp Loving v. Virginia's relevance here? I say bunk. How would we know if the outreach hasn't occurred?
I think Blow makes another serious mistake with the first suggestion -- we cannot throw up our hands and cede a "religious beliefs" or bible-based excuse to those who don't support marriage equality. The Right and black religious conservatives don't own religion. There are black leaders of faith who do support equality, and they need to be front and center and supported by the LGBT community to do outreach.
The larger problem of dealing with the Bible and homosexuality is that too many leaders in LGBT community run away from religion kicking and screaming, writing off the entire religious black community -- heck the black community in general, as if it is monolithic -- on this issue. It's important and should be addressed, not dodged.
This lack of engagement -- the results seen in the open conflict and blame game in the aftermath of Prop 8 -- is a manifestation of:
1) discomfort with confronting the socially conservative religious black community on its faith turf - pointing out one can be of faith and not discriminate against a whole group of people wholesale appears to be seen as insurmountable;
2) discomfort with confronting the socially conservative (but usually otherwise progressive) black community on its literal turf -- I personally believe that our visible movement, largely not of color, simply doesn't feel it has the social tools or gravitas to engage blacks/minorities on this issue or any issue for that matter. IMHO, it's a lack of cultural awareness and irrational fear of dealing with people who aren't like you. It then becomes easier/more comfortable to write off the demo rather than confronting racial, religious, and cultural differences through outreach, with the former still a third rail for many.
More below the fold. |
| Pam Spaulding :: NYT op-ed on Prop 8, blacks and a 'moral minority' |
| That's not blame assignment, it's just a matter of folks in the dominant culture having no need to deal with immersing themselves in minority cultures at any level, or even knowing any minorities at anything more than a superficial level to get by in American society. In contrast, all racial minorities, if they want to get anywhere, understand the need to learn about and negotiate the dominant culture. One can say the same about LGBTs; that's why it's so troubling that anyone is surprised at what happened with Prop 8.
Friend Jim Toevs had this response to what I said above: I am a 67 year old White American gay male, whose Privilege in our culture is exceeded only by that of White American Heterosexual males.
Most of us white folks don't have a clue concerning how our "whiteness" impacts our, Privilege, behavior, and attitudes; not only towards people of color, but life in general.
To most of us white folks, "white" is "just the way things are", and life would be so much easier and less complicated if everything and everyone were simply "white". (This may be subconscious, but it is reality for most white people, none the less.)
People of Color confront their POCness every day of their lives. White folks seldom, if ever, consider their "Whiteness"; again, because white is simply the way things are.
The first step in becoming a White Anti-Racist Ally is for a white person to acknowledge and come to grips with their Whiteness.
Step two is to understand that while we may not harbor any personal racism, we unknowingly often collaborate with institutional and cultural racism.
Step three is LISTENING. No "yes,buts"! Listen, and take it in. Consider what is being said with an open heart and mind. At this point, there is no need to respond except with two words, "Thank you."
There is lots more that we white folks need to do, but the above three steps are a good start.
Anyone wishing to personally pursue this subject further is welcome to contact me off list. And the truth is that if you don't have the earlier difficult conversations to bridge differences, you're certainly not going to see the rubber hit the road when we need it to.
Blow's piece is full of flaws, but the premise that we haven't engaged or challenged wrong-headed beliefs of a community on terms it can relate to is correct. That he pairs it with the discredited nonsense and stereotypes makes it more damaging and difficult to undo.
The only way to counter it is with proactive efforts with facts and credibility; allies in the faith community have to be a part of the equation, no matter how many people in the LGBT community want to render believers as fantasists worshipping a Sky Daddy. It's hard to do that without getting in the trenches and hammering home the inaccurate conflation of religious and civil marriage. It needs to be broken and that takes time that hasn't been expended on a significant scale by our big orgs. Religious communities of color can be reached -- certainly politically, the LGBT community has more in common with blacks than the far-right white evangelicals -- but the latter saw the value of spending time and effort to do the outreach and spread disinformation to capitalize on misguided (but understandable) beliefs and cultural discomfort re: LGBT issues in a slice of the demo.
Diane Silver at the Bay Area Reporter issues a call for self-reflection about these conflicts emerging in such a painful manner: For us whites, this is a chance to finally learn to hear our black sisters and brothers. This is also an opportunity to confront the misunderstandings and racism - subtle or overt - we absorbed growing up in a nation where racial stereotypes still rule.
I won't presume to speak for what African Americans need to do, but I will note that those who work against queers are doing much more than hurting LGBT blacks. These folks are ostracizing one of the only groups of whites who know deep down to their socks what it means to be oppressed. Obama's election is a milestone, but as blacks know only too well, it didn't magically erase racism.
Our future depends on what you and I do next. Will we transform our street protests into the long-term action required for victory? Will we build the coalition that will free us all, or will we let our pain and misunderstandings break us apart forever? Good questions. Where do we go from here? |
|
|
