Comments on: prop 8 town hall: “it was almost a dismissive response”

By: PG

PG — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:47:20 +0000

If we knew the Mormon Church was one of the top supporters of Prop 8 possibly (the African-American community) would have backed off, we would have said, “hmm, let’s hear a little bit more about this Prop 8 and who is actually behind the scenes.”

I am glad to hear about where the No on 8 folks went wrong in their failures to reach out to African American (and Latino) communities, but I’m very disturbed by this “enemy of my enemy” vein of thought. The Mormon Church should be faulted for its current hetero/sexist stances on the demerits of those stances, instead of demonizing the church as a whole for racism in its past.

By: Pomeroy!

Pomeroy! — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:03:34 +0000

Well spoken!

Although, I think it stinks that there is a battle against equal rights for all American citizens in the first place.

By: Shum Preston

Shum Preston — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:05:22 +0000

Thank you for this. How offensive and short=sighted. It is my hope that the lgbt political movement can use this campaign as a learning experience, and we can work together in the future to build better, stronger, more inclusive coalitions for power.

I think it showed great kindness and restraint on your part not to call out the specific staffers who ha bumbled this. Many in the community are responsible to different degress.

By: tcs

tcs — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:53:56 +0000

Thank you for posting this eye-opening interview. I knew there were sins of omission in the campaign, but I didn’t want to believe that our glbt organizations were so disrespectful and simply dense.

At least I hope this will be yet another learning experience that should inform our future campaigns.

By: links for 2008-11-26 « natthedem’s domain

links for 2008-11-26 « natthedem’s domain — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:00:33 +0000

[...] prop 8 town hall: “it was almost a dismissive response” [...]

By: Withers: Prop 8, race, and an apology that is never going to come | Gay News Blog | 365Gay.com

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:36:58 +0000

[...] reduced if the folk running the anti-Proposition 8 team actually had a plan for minority outreach. They didn’t. But why do that right? Much easier to lose the battle then cling to numbers that aren’t [...]

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:45:15 +0000

I think this difference in ideology around how to approach the black community speaks directly to the difficulties in reaching the African-American community. By focusing on marriage as a civil rights issue through intentionally invoking the Civil Rights Movement, it’s as if the gay community is using the Civil Rights Movement to give credence to marriage equality, hijacking the imagery of the Civil Rights Movement to further an unrelated agenda. The thing I continue to not understand is how marriage equality folks could think that would be an effective way of promoting gay-rights to the African-American community. This isn’t to say that marriage isn’t a civil right or that this isn’t a civil rights issue but every issue involving a discriminated group, from woman’s lib to Chicano rights. In that sense, it’s not even worth mentioning. By making an association with the African-American rights movement as an argument for the gay-rights movement, one is essentially saying you (African-Americans) got what you wanted so we (the gay) deserve to get what we want. This isn’t an argument as much as it is a demand, one that doesn’t speak to the validity of either movement.

The much better way of fostering solidarity between groups was the course of action that was firmly rejected, focus on where the Yes on 8 money is coming from. The enemy (to use overly simple terminology) of my enemy is my friend. You make the racist history of the Mormon Church know amongst the African-American community and support for it’s initiatives will dry out and crumble like autumn leaves. It would also open up the opportunity to remind straight African-Americans that we are your brothers and sisters too and don’t deserve to be hurt this way.

By: Andrew Sullivan: “No On 8: Worse Than We Thought” « The Marriage Equality Project

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:43:02 +0000

[...] “No On 8: Worse Than We Thought” By Michael Sullivan points out an interview with Latrice Johnson of the group United Lesbians of African Heritage, She is an African-American lesbian activist who [...]

By: Hazel

Hazel — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:29:58 +0000

I guess ousslander was on the committee. The issue was to defeat the measure, and you reach out to people differently. If this is an indication of what those who were responsible for defeating the measure thought of other opinions, it isn’t so shocking that they were unsuccessful.

By: sandy

sandy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:09:16 +0000

As an African American, Latrice Johnson’s approach is exactly correct. Out reach to the African community is needed. And stressing the bigotry and hatefulness of prop 8 would have been much more productive. Black people know about and respond to injustice.