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Loading ...Black Vote Largely Favored Prop 8
11.10.2008 11:18am EST
(Washington) Aja and Miriam Aguirre rushed their trip to the altar in San Francisco a few weeks ago, fearful that the state of California might vote in favor of banning same-sex marriage on election day.
Their fears proved accurate.Yet as angry as the newlyweds are, they’re almost as outraged at the suggestion that African-Americans are to blame, especially as the country basks in the glow of Barack Obama’s historic election.
“I refuse to perpetuate a cycle of oppression because someone is telling me who to blame, who is at fault for my status as a second-class citizen, where I might displace my anger and frustration and outrage,” Aja Aguirre said Sunday, despite fears that her marriage could conceivably be deemed illegitimate.
“I won’t do that because it is false in every way. I know better than that. I hope we all do.”
A bitterly ironic battle has erupted in California in the days since Obama was elected the first black president in American history, a victory many African-Americans are hoping signals an end to generations of repression.
Proposition 8, banning the right of same-sex couples to wed, passed by more than three percentage points in the reliably Democratic state.
Much of that margin came from a flood of as many as 500,000 new black voters turning out to cast their ballots for Obama. According to various polls, African-American voters supported the ban by 70-30 per cent, while whites were slightly opposed and Hispanics evenly split.
“I’m not sure what to do with this,” Dan Savage, a well-known gay advice columnist, wrote on his blog in the aftermath of the vote.
“I’m thrilled that we’ve just elected our first African-American president … but I can’t help feeling hurt that the love and support aren’t mutual.”
The African-American community, Savage said, has a problem with homophobia that needs to be confronted.
“I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there -and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum – are a bigger problem for African-Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African-Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color.”
In the midst of such heated talk and hurt feelings, a rally late last week against Proposition 8 in Los Angeles turned ugly.
“It was like being at a Klan rally except the Klansmen were wearing Abercrombie polos and Birkenstocks,” said one attendee, a gay black man.
The UCLA student said he was twice called the n-word.
But many argue it’s not race that is to blame for Proposition 8, but the religious right. It was the Mormon church that pushed to get the measure on the ballot, after all.
Mormon church leaders badgered other Mormons countrywide to donate heavily to the campaign and recruited thousands of volunteers for door-to-door canvassing throughout the state.
Several progressive black church leaders urged Californians to vote against Proposition 8 in the weeks leading up the election, although they acknowledged African-Americans were “conservative” on the issue of same-sex marriage and so were many of their pastors.
And since black Americans go to church in greater numbers than other races, they’re confronted far more often with the suggestion that homosexuality is sinful.
“The success of Proposition 8 is certainly about religion more than anything else but there’s no denying those attitudes are ingrained in the black community – homosexuality just isn’t accepted the way it is in other communities,” says Toni-Michelle Travis, a political science professor who specializes in race at George Mason University in Virginia.
It stems back hundreds of years, Travis says.
“When you look at the struggles throughout slavery, the only way they were going to survive, to get to the next step and preserve anything culturally was to have children,” she said.
“So the value of the family and heterosexuality has always been very important, and it’s been reinforced by black churches over generations. The civil rights movement, too, was driven by the black churches, so church and religion are a very cherished part of the community. You belong to a church, and you listen to your pastor.”
Many African-Americans also fail to see the hardships facing gays and lesbians as being on the same scale as their epic battles for equality, Travis said.
“African-Americans don’t see the fights for the rights of gays the same as their struggle,” Travis said. “Their attitude is: `They wouldn’t let me vote, they wouldn’t give me a job, and you can do those sorts of things.”’
Gay and lesbian rights leaders in California are filing suit against Proposition 8, arguing it’s illegal because it strips a fundamental constitutional right from a select group of people.
Before such propositions can go to the ballot, they argue, the state legislature must approve them and that didn’t happen in California.
The Aguirres are confident their battle will eventually be won, especially after a San Francisco march last Friday night that was attended by people of all races and from all walks of life.
“There were friends, lovers and families like ours,” said Aja Aguirre, who has a 10-year-old daughter, Celeste.
“It felt so good to be there and be part of this effort not to back down, not be silenced or defeated. Seeing the thousands of people gathered together there peacefully brought tears to my eyes and was exactly what I needed to shake off the depression I’d been in since it became clear on election night that Prop. 8 would pass.”
I blame every white person who did not support the ban. I blame were white gay person that voted for MCain Palin, I blame every gay white person that did not vote and I blame every white gay person on this site that has turned this into a race fight.
Ok. First off no one “owns” civil rights. No religious group, no black person owns it. The very hypo racy of black pastors spewing hate and not seeing the violence and the oppression we face every day as they treat us as second class citizens is horrific. The audacity to say that we chose to wake up one day and say oh yeah hum… let me see I will “choose” to go through all this hate and prejudice is ridiculous! Sexuality is fluid. You are born with tendencies. I have always been gay I was born with it just like the color of my eyes. Other human beings may vary with this very natural flow of human sexuality. HOWEVER IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT SEX! I FALL IN LOVE AND FEEL COMPLETE IN THE ARMS OF MY PARTNER. HAPPINESS AND THE LIFE LONG PURSUIT OF IT IS A CIVIL RIGHT. WE NEED TO REACH OUT and communicate this fact. Unfortunately religion gets in the way of rationality and they forget that religion has been used to keep women down and blacks down! Open your eyes, open your hearts, look past the hate that these divisive people are trying spread. I mean you got to have some minority to suppress right? STAND UP AND UNITE AGAINST GAY SEGREGATION.
I wonder how many gay and lesbian people marched for civil rights for blacks in the 60’s. Will the blacks now support a minority group while they fight for theirs. I wonder. Has this issue become a moral issue? Or is it still a civil rights issue. I have a dream too! Will you march to defend my civil rights, the way we marched for yours?
Josh said: “Gay marriage will not be legitmate or safe in california until it passes a referedum.” …Sure, Josh, kind of like interracial marriage, right?
that’s it. i’m tired of you white gay people. you don’t carry a fucking monopoly on homosexuality even though you think you do. i’m black and i’m gay, so i’m not a part of “the other minority” i’m a part of THIS goddamned minority and don’t you fucking bigots forget it. so when you think you’re denigrating people who will never read the prejudiced bullshit you have to say about them, i just want to remind you assipes, BLACK GAY PEOPLE READ THIS WEBSITE TOO.
dan savage and every single one of you self righteous gays go fuck yourselves backwards. when DAN SAVAGE becomes black and gay, THEN he can tell me how much of a problem racist gays present for me. black people represented 5% goddamned percent of voters in california, so no matter which way they voted for this proposition it would not have tipped the scales in any particular way. barely any demographic in this election voted overwhelmingly against proposition 8, okay? so the arguement that the black community is pathologically or exponentially more homophobic than other community is bullshit, and doesn’t hold water with me. if any white gay person thinks they’re going continue to get away with pointing fingers at the black community when ALL THIS TIME they’ve been too damn LAZY, COMPLACENT, AND RACIST to deal their WHITE PRIVILEGE and notice that they were ALIENATING black people lgbt and straight, has another thing coming. just try it.
wayne- go fuck yourself, you repugnant racist bigot.
“Wow, so much blame to go around, blame the churches, blame the black people, how about a gay rights establishment that has operated through the courts for years instead of trying to presuade the very people that vote on measures like this. No court decision will stand in the long term without public support. Instead of trying to get this amendment overturned again in the court, we should mount a campaign to overturn in with another amendment at the next election. Gay marriage will not be legitmate or safe in california until it passes a referedum.”
Civil Rights have never been won by a popular vote.
look m, I’m a white man, whom has only dated black men. I understand the frustration from reading this shit on here. I don’t believe the “black community” need be the only one blamed, in this election. I feel like the churches, whether they are white,black,hispanic,asian, hindu,catholic,christian,jehovah’s witness,budha,mormon,jewish & so on,& so on. These communities of religion, are however guilty of voting yes on prop 8. I don’t live in California, but I do live in Florida, and we are now, never to be considered equal to the straight communities beliefs on marriage. I’m frustrated too. I’ve always sided with my black bretheren, and do think that the black community has and will always have fingers pointed at them. It is extremely sad to see the finger pointers letting loose on here, their beliefs are not shared by all. I will wear my Obama button everyday for the rest of my life, because I believe he is a true man, one whom has had the same experiences that the black communities have had, and are now having from racist,white folk.
I can understand the hurt that this site causes to most people. God does listen to you, and I hope he will show you that this site carries alot of dumb,stupid,racist and hateful people. He/she sees what is wrong going on and will punish the hateful insulting people on here, that there should be no pointing out fingers at anyone but themselves.
I’m a gay white guy.
The first time I met my new black brother-in-law he screamed at me (as my partner and I fled my parent’s house) “Don’t you ever f***ng compare being gay to being black! Being gay is a CHOICE! I was BORN black!”
I’m not surprised by what happened in California.
And after almost a decade of strained relations with my brother-in-law – I don’t really see ANY way to bridge this gap.
He STILL doesn’t understand that being gay wasn’t a “choice”…
I keep trying to explain, though.
Wow and your not a nasty black racist oh right that only belongs to black people to sling you are what you bitch about and you wonder why your not included try not being so much of an angry black man
tpagy- go [screw] yourself backwards, you illerate racist asshole.
I really don’t get how you can blame this on the black people as a whole. We did not give 20 million on ads to say no on the vote. The church pointed this out now everyone says that it was the turn out of the black people in Cal that voted yes for prop 8 to pass. Can you truely tell me that our small percents is the reason that it was pass or was it the view of the church to its members it. I have a brother who is a church going person through an through but has said that his view is his not another , and only god can judge that person for what they have done on earth. And if there is one person without sin let that person throw stones. When asking what was he talking about, his words was that gods loves every man, woman, and child the same no one is better or less in his eyes. So each of us have a right to be happy in this world. I shocked me that this was coming from my brother because I though he would be against it, this made me smile and laugh at the same time. I believe that everyone has there view on religion but if someone does not believe in those view do not make them less of a citzen then the others, the United States is many of one. That what makes it so great its rights to all not only the view of the churches. Am I less of an American if I dont go to church, dont believe in the bible, and believe in an creator but not what you call GOD. Should I have the same rights as you or are we not all American regardless of gender,religion, race, age, and sexual pref.
I’m black.
From the standpoint of someone who’s trying to sit in the middle on the issue, please let me assure African-American readers of this site (and anyone else who’s offended) that the great majority of us who express concern about the statistically disproportionate “Yes” vote in the African-American community are not doing so out of racist motives.
Certainly there are a number of disgusting bigots out there who HAVE been using this as a springboard to express their hate under something that they hope will serve as a socially acceptable “cover”. But that’s hardly all of us. Mentioning a matter of factual / statistical interest does not, by itself, equate to hatred simply because the matter at hand happens to relate to an identifiable minority that suffers discrimination in the wider society. Discrimination is not the abstract property of an idea – rather, it’s a wrongful act committed by individuals whose actions are underlain by a hateful intent or motivation.
I think I speak for most people who’ve discussed the issue when I state that my interest in the matter is a purely practical one – not one of blame-placing (founded in racism or otherwise). In political matters – ESPECIALLY matters that are as close and contentious as the struggle for same-sex marriage – the voting patterns of EVERY identifiable constituency are of interest. This is especially true when there are cultural correlations linking numerous members of the group (e.g. the undeniably greater role of religion in African-American society, on average). I certainly don’t intend to place blame – just to get a chance at empirically sussing out why same-sex marriage is far less acceptable in some groups than in others, so that someday ALL GLBT people, of ANY color, will have a chance at marrying someone they truly love.
The hell do I care who you homos blame? Us blacks did a good thing and I for one am proud of it.
Obama in the white house and no gays marrying in Cali. 2 birds with one stone.
MNBear: “From the standpoint of someone who’s trying to sit in…someone they truly love.”
- Exceptionally ‘well put’
The article is correct. It is not that black people voted for this because they are black but because of religion. Religion is the real enemy. Everyone of these amendments throughout the country was put on the ballot by or supported by a religious organization. What people fail to realize, is that in many cases the ballot petitions were taken in to the fundie churches and they would have alter calls to sign the things. Instead of blaming our black brothers and sisters, we should take a lesson from them. They did not sit back and march peacefully in the streets when Dr King was shot. They did not make nice when the Rodney king verdict came down. They went to the streets and said do not mess with us. Look at our own gay history we threw bricks at the police. Let us focus our energy at the religious bigots who are responsible for demonizing us. I am not saying or advocating violence but the church that burns speaks louder then a sign in the park.