Now that we have a black president, racism is out. Obama did it. So what's worse now, being a black man or a gay man?
Ambrose Aban
Chief Blogger, QueerGasm
You know the answer to that one. Racism is out. Black people now no longer have to worry about becoming slaves (except maybe for Whoopi Goldberg). Racism was defanged by Obama's triumph, leaving gay people as the last group of Americans claiming that their basic rights are being systematically denied. Black people are equal now. They are being taken cared of. One of them is our president! But gay people aren't. What's worse now, being a black man or a gay man? Why did so many black people voted YES on Prop 8 in California? They have certainly forgotten (so fast) -- how hard it is to be discriminated and being denied.
The Advocate's latest issue screams Gay is the new black. The protest signs and magazine covers, casting the gay marriage battle as the last frontier of equal rights for all. Gay marriage is not a civil right, opponents counter, insisting that minority status comes from who you are rather than what you do. The gay rights movement entered a new era when Barack Obama was elected the first black president the same day that voters in California and Florida passed referendums to prevent gays and lesbians from marrying, while Arizonans turned down civil unions and Arkansans said no to adoptions by same-sex couples. Civil rights have come much further than gay rights. A lot of people in the gay community have been condemned for their lifestyle and promiscuity and drugs and sex, so it's odd that when they want to conform and model themselves after straight people and have the same rights for marriage and domestic partnership and adoption, they're being blocked. In a cover story for the Advocate magazine titled "Gay is the New Black," Michael Joseph Gross wrote, "These past few years we've made so much progress that we'd begun to think everybody saw us as we see ourselves. Suddenly we were faced with the reality that a majority of voters don't like us, don't think we're normal, don't believe our lives and loves count as much or are worth as much as theirs."
In the vote on Proposition 8 in California, which repealed gay marriage, about 70 percent of blacks favored the ban, according to an exit poll; Latinos' close vote may have favored it, though the poll's small sample left some uncertainty. In Florida, 71 percent of blacks and 64 percent of Latinos favored a similar ban. Opposition to gay rights often has a religious basis, and blacks and Latinos are more churchgoing than society at large. Twenty-six percent of blacks attend religious services more than once per week, compared with 16 percent of Latinos and 14 percent of whites, according to a 2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
So is gay the new black? Or did the election define a new and unique set of gay challenges? And in some ways, do gay people see Obama as a symbol of gay progress — even though he opposes gay marriage? Obama is in favor of civil unions, and during his victory speech, when he included gays in his description of America, it made them feel part of the historic racial milestone. Solmonese said that the election defeats of Nov. 4 have inspired a level of gay activism not seen since the early days of the AIDS epidemic. That is buoyed by equal parts anger and rage about Proposition 8, hope and inspiration about doing something that for a long time we didn't think possible — like electing Barack Obama as our president.
Chief Blogger, QueerGasm
You know the answer to that one. Racism is out. Black people now no longer have to worry about becoming slaves (except maybe for Whoopi Goldberg). Racism was defanged by Obama's triumph, leaving gay people as the last group of Americans claiming that their basic rights are being systematically denied. Black people are equal now. They are being taken cared of. One of them is our president! But gay people aren't. What's worse now, being a black man or a gay man? Why did so many black people voted YES on Prop 8 in California? They have certainly forgotten (so fast) -- how hard it is to be discriminated and being denied.
The Advocate's latest issue screams Gay is the new black. The protest signs and magazine covers, casting the gay marriage battle as the last frontier of equal rights for all. Gay marriage is not a civil right, opponents counter, insisting that minority status comes from who you are rather than what you do. The gay rights movement entered a new era when Barack Obama was elected the first black president the same day that voters in California and Florida passed referendums to prevent gays and lesbians from marrying, while Arizonans turned down civil unions and Arkansans said no to adoptions by same-sex couples. Civil rights have come much further than gay rights. A lot of people in the gay community have been condemned for their lifestyle and promiscuity and drugs and sex, so it's odd that when they want to conform and model themselves after straight people and have the same rights for marriage and domestic partnership and adoption, they're being blocked. In a cover story for the Advocate magazine titled "Gay is the New Black," Michael Joseph Gross wrote, "These past few years we've made so much progress that we'd begun to think everybody saw us as we see ourselves. Suddenly we were faced with the reality that a majority of voters don't like us, don't think we're normal, don't believe our lives and loves count as much or are worth as much as theirs."
In the vote on Proposition 8 in California, which repealed gay marriage, about 70 percent of blacks favored the ban, according to an exit poll; Latinos' close vote may have favored it, though the poll's small sample left some uncertainty. In Florida, 71 percent of blacks and 64 percent of Latinos favored a similar ban. Opposition to gay rights often has a religious basis, and blacks and Latinos are more churchgoing than society at large. Twenty-six percent of blacks attend religious services more than once per week, compared with 16 percent of Latinos and 14 percent of whites, according to a 2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
So is gay the new black? Or did the election define a new and unique set of gay challenges? And in some ways, do gay people see Obama as a symbol of gay progress — even though he opposes gay marriage? Obama is in favor of civil unions, and during his victory speech, when he included gays in his description of America, it made them feel part of the historic racial milestone. Solmonese said that the election defeats of Nov. 4 have inspired a level of gay activism not seen since the early days of the AIDS epidemic. That is buoyed by equal parts anger and rage about Proposition 8, hope and inspiration about doing something that for a long time we didn't think possible — like electing Barack Obama as our president.
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