No More Mrs. Nice Gay

(continued)

And with regard to African American voters, 70 percent of your community sided with the same kind of bigots who supported slavery, who fought against interracial marriage, who vote to send your people who are addicted to prison instead of rehabilitation centers (and I am clean and sober, so I know prison doesn’t work and their only chance is a program), and who vote to cut off aid to your families, saying that it is a moral issue because 70 percent of your children are born out of wedlock, and therefore, you should be responsible. These are the people whom you sided. You got in bed with your enemies, the very people who have fucked you again and again, in the name of morality and their religious beliefs.

But I want to say that despite my overwhelming sense of betrayal, I am, as is our community, still firmly committed to Equality for African Americans, still firmly committed to continuing our fight against racism. Because, as Dr. Martin Luther King said, “injustice against one is injustice against all.”

The California Supreme court struck down the ban on Interracial marriage in 1948, (Perez v Sharp) and thanks to the landmark Federal Supreme Court ruling in the case of Loving v Virginia, all state miscegenation laws were struck down in 1967.

And yet it wasn’t until 1991, 24 years later, that interracial marriage was supported by a majority of Americans. Had the Caucasian people who supported 'Yes' on Prop 8 been voting on your right to interracial marriage, until 1991, just 17 years ago, you would have lost. And as I sat in the California Supreme Court on March 4, 2008, the bigots, used the same argument against us that they used against you. "It was ‘tradition.” And the justices answered “so was slavery.” And the bigots argued, “God doesn’t want inter-racial marriage which is why he put the races on different continents.” And in 2008, California Supreme Court justices ruled “it is illegal to hide behind religious beliefs in order to justify discrimination.”

That is why we have a court system. That is why the United States constitution says that ‘the rights of a Minority may not be denied by the Majority.’ That is why Proposition 8 is Illegal. This is not just about marriage equality. This is about civil rights, which Dr. King said is for everyone. Bayard Rustin, the great African American leader who was gay, who called for and organized the 1963 March on Washington, D.C., turned over in his grave Nov. 4, 2008.

This is not an issue for only ‘rich white gays.’ Black male same-sex couples in the U.S. are almost twice as likely to be living with a biological child as a white same-sex couple. Black female same-sex couples in the U.S. are just as likely to be living with an adopted or foster child as a black married opposite-sex couple. Many of these African American couples want to get access to marriage so they can provide a more secure future for their children.

And Barack Obama, I voted for you -- even though you said your Christian religion would not allow you to support same-sex marriage. Well, I did not vote for you to be my Christian President. I voted for you to be my President.

You said you were going to be the president of all the people. You even mentioned the word “gay” in your election-night speech. Well, how can you be the president of all of us when LGBT Americans do not have one civil right on a Federal Level?

The Democratic Party has used the gay community for years. It promised us full rights but asked us to wait -- “until the election is over” -- and then gave us nothing, ever, even when Democrats were in total power. President Bill Clinton signed the two most anti-gay pieces of legislation: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” where LGBT people could serve in the military, and die for their country, as long as they didn’t mention their ‘sexual orientation’ and as long as their loving and grieving partners back in the USA did not try to claim benefits when their partner was killed defending the country who does not defend their rights. And Clinton signed DOMA, the "Defense of Marriage Act” where marriage is legal only between one man and one woman. Well, he should have read his own bill.

The gay community’s honeymoon with the Democratic party is over. We get in bed with you and you promise us everything. Then, the morning after the elections, we wake up to find you gone. With Democrats once again in total power in Washington, it is time the party made good on the promises made to our community since the 1970s! Now we are demanding that you make good on them, not one right at a time, but all of them. It has been a one sided engagement for long enough. We are through being screwed.

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