Hurston, an African-American woman from Eatonville, Fla., moved to New York City during the era of “The New Negro.” Her 1928 essay, “How it Feels To Be Colored Me,” based on her life in Eatonville, inspired contemporary and conceptual artists such as Glenn Ligon, whose work is rooted in his  experiences as an African-American and gay man living in the United States.

Hurston’s most famous novel is Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and her literary successors include Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker.

She was an African-American woman who came out as a lesbian in 1915 before graduating from Springfield High School in Illinois.

Ruth Ellis met her partner Ceceline “Babe” Franklin in the early 1920s and moved with her to Detroit, Mich. in 1937.

Their home became the gay spot for the black community of Detroit, because it was the central location for gay and lesbian parties as well as a refuge for those African-American gays and lesbians.

She became a LGBT rights activist and public speaker, advocating lesbian and gay rights throughout her life.

In 1999, the year of Ellis’ 100th birthday, the documentary  Living with Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 began its screenings nationwide.

Ellis lived to 101 years old, experiencing a century of the fight for LGBT rights. Her ordinary life continues to be an inspiration to many people.

Ailey kept his life as a dancer a secret from his mother for the first two years, as a member of the Lester Horton Company in California. However, Ailey continued to train in the art form, and in 1954 he moved  to New York to dance on Broadway.

Ailvin Ailey struggled as an African American and  as a gay man. He was ashamed of his sexuality and initially refused to write an autobiography because of what his mother would think. Ailey put his pain into his artwork instead.

The founding of his company in 1957, was only the beginning of the journey. For the third season of his company, in 1960, Ailey created the masterpiece titled Revelation, which is still a signature work for the company, drawing audiences worldwide.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater popularized modern dance and transformed African American concert dance.

His company gave opportunities to black dancers who were otherwise discriminated, but the company transcends the issue of race. Today, his company represents all ethnicities and embodies American society.

Ailey died of AIDS in 1989, but because of the social stigma attached to the disease, he made sure that his doctors did not reveal it to his family, as his cause of death.

County coroner Craig Harvey said Wednesday that the 54-year-old died of natural causes. Harris died July 23 while visiting Los Angeles to promote his latest book.

Harris lived in Atlanta and was considered a pioneer of gay black fiction, enjoying unprecedented success in the genre. He wrote 11 novels, and ten of them became New York Times best-sellers.

More than four million of his books are in print.

Here is what you need to know about my bias in this story. There is a picture of Henry Louis Gates on my wall. He is standing at a lectern; I’m behind him and just introduced him at a high-school assembly (for a number of years I corrupted young minds as an English teacher).

My introduction of the professor, who had just accepted a position at Harvard University, was the type of claptrap you get from folks who fawn a bit too much. I have a Gates section in my book collection and can’t think of a time when I didn’t defend him (for those not in the know, Gates is a controversial figure to a few African-American Studies scholars).

With my preconceptions out in the open here is the tale: Gates was arrested last week for thinking he could be “loud and tumultuous” in his own home. After returning from China, where he was filming a documentary for PBS, the scholar gets to his home door. It’s not working and he is leaning into it to get it open, with the assistance of his cab driver. A neighbor sees this, is worried a crime is being committed and calls the police. When an officer arrives, Gates is on the phone calling the leasing agency about the broken door. The constable demands the professor come outside. Gates declines. The policeman enters the home, but even after proving he was in the right place, Gates still gets the handcuffs.

According to the police report, Gates comes off as uncooperative. He yells at the officer and accuses him of racial bias. Some will say this whole incident is Gates’ fault. If he had only followed police orders, everything would have turned out fine. The taking orders from the police line works for a small-time political blogger (freelance at that); however, a Harvard scholar, with books and such behind him, has the right to get funky when his very existence is called into question after he gets home from a trip. Sure that standard should apply to everyone, but we live in a world that rarely matches our rhetorical skills.

The debate about this will more than likely turn predictable. Those convinced America is now in some post-racial hue, will see this as an unfortunate encounter that could have been defused. Others, and I include myself in this camp, will marvel that even a black man with a PhD has to account for his status. In his own home (walking the streets is a whole different matter). Freedom papers anyone?

UPDATE: The charges against Gates have been dropped. The professor and the Middlesex District Attorney’s office issued a joint statement calling last week’s mess “regrettable and unfortunate.”

UPDATE 2: Gates is interviewed by The Root (he is the site’s editor-in-chief) and contradicts much of the police report. Says it was impossible for him to have yelled at the officer due to “a severe bronchial infection” he contracted in China.

With this month’s vote, Washington became the first place in the U.S. with a majority of black residents to take up the issue. Congress still has the final say over the district’s laws, but gay rights activists now have reason to believe that strong opposition is gradually giving way to more acceptance, despite a forceful outcry by some black churches.

The issue is particularly complex in D.C., where nearly 60 percent of the residents are African-American. Of the five states that allow gay marriage – Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont – none has such a large makeup of blacks.

Activist Donna Payne knows just how complex the issue is for the black community.

A black preacher once told her she would be accepted into his church under one condition – that she didn’t tell anyone she was a lesbian. Payne said keeping quiet wasn’t possible.

“That’s the conundrum in the African-American community,” Payne said. “They don’t want to talk about it, but they know you’re there.”

The influence of black churches was evident as the D.C. Council debated whether to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. As more than 100 mostly black protesters gathered outside city hall, council member Marion Barry, a longtime supporter of gay rights, rejected the measure and sided with ministers who he said “stand on the moral compass of God.”

But Yvette Alexander, who also represents a majority-black ward, gave her support and accused some ministers of doubting her faith.

“They have questioned my Christianity. They have questioned my morality,” she said. Then, addressing the pastors, Alexander said: “Everyone is equal under God, and there are a lot in the gay community that are at your very churches, in your congregations.”

Although black churches tend to be socially progressive and have a history of fighting for equal rights, most are theologically conservative, believing that scripture condemns homosexuality, said Anthony B. Pinn, a professor of religious studies at Rice University.

They also view gay marriage as a threat to the traditional black family, which is struggling with high divorce and low marriage rates, he said.

“From their perspective, anything that runs contradictory to that understanding of the nuclear family poses a threat,” Pinn said.

It was amid this backdrop that Barry, who served four terms as mayor, declared “we may have a civil war” after the vote. He was the only council member out of 13 to oppose the measure.

Barry wasn’t the only one using such strong rhetoric.

“I am convinced that this is going to be the Armageddon of the marriage debate,” said Harry Jackson, a black bishop who has organized rallies opposing gay marriage and has been a national voice for conservative Christians on the issue.

Jackson, who lives in Washington and leads a church in Beltsville, Md., said he plans to lead a multiracial group of pastors from around the country to Capitol Hill this week to urge lawmakers to intervene in D.C.’s decision.

Congress has until July to review the measure. If it takes no action, the legislation becomes law automatically and could be a step toward allowing gay marriages to be performed in Washington – an effort the D.C. Council intends to take on later this year.

Despite Barry and Jackson’s claims, there’s evidence the city isn’t as split on gay marriage as some suggest. Of the 12 council members who voted in favor of the gay-marriage bill, six are black.

A group of Democrats in the primarily black ward that Barry represents voted 21 to 11 to support same-sex marriage legislation over the weekend. And Washington has a history of supporting gay rights; the city passed a law in 1992 recognizing domestic partnerships.

Local gay advocates have accused critics of framing the debate as one led by rich, white gay men forcing the issue on working class black residents.

“They’re trying to whip up hysteria and use race and class issues to divide the city,” said Michael Crawford, who is black and chairs the advocacy group D.C. for Marriage.

Meanwhile, a multiracial group of gay and straight D.C. pastors are drafting a letter in support of gay marriage and urging respectful dialogue. Other gay advocates are distributing pamphlets and holding discussions to educate people on why they think it’s important that gays have the same protections as straight, married couples.

It’s difficult to know how the issue would fare today in Washington if put to a popular vote – as opponents would like. A 2006 poll of likely D.C. voters found most would oppose an initiative defining marriage as between a man and woman. White residents were most strongly against such an initiative, but 49 percent of blacks were for it.

For Shaun Allende, 27, a D.C. resident who will be at the city’s annual Black Pride event this weekend, marriage has little do with the wedding ceremony.

“It’s about the rights and privileges that people who fall in love and make that commitment are garnered when they are married,” said Allende, who is black and Hispanic.

The research paper: Shared Differences: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students of Color in Our Nation’s Schools, was rele ased by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

The report documents the experiences of over 2,000 LGBT middle and high school students of color who were African American or Black, Latino, Asian or Pacific Islander, Native American, and multiracial.

The researchers used data collected in 2007 as part of GLSEN’s biennial survey of LGBT students along with results from in-depth individual and group interviews.

“While research on the experiences of LGBT students has increased in recent years, few studies have examined the specific victimization of students who identify as people of color and LGBT,” said GLSEN Executive Director Dr. Eliza Byard.

“Our schools are diverse environments, and it is important to understand how our students experiences differ based on personal characteristics such as race and ethnicity. This report provides alarming evidence that we must act now to ensure sure that America’s LGBT students of color are safe in school.”

The report also provides descriptions of the experiences of LGBT students of color in their own words.

“You could very well on any day hear someone yelling across the hall, ‘fag,’ etc,” said a 10th grade Latino male student in the report. “I’ve heard it before. … It’s hurtful because it’s just not something that you say. And it’s just generally hurtful. And I know that I’ll just be walking in a hallway, and someone will just say under their breath with a group of friends, “fag” … and hearing things like that in my school – it kind of brings me down almost. It kind of negates any hope that I have for our school to be a better place.”

The report found that across all groups, sexual orientation and gender expression were the most common reasons LGBT students of color reported feeling unsafe in school. More than four out of five students, within each racial/ethnic group, reported verbal harassment in school because of sexual orientation and about two-thirds because of gender expression. At least a third of each group reported physical violence in school because of sexual orientation.

More than half of African American/Black, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, and multiracial students also reported verbal harassment in school based on their race or ethnicity. Native American students – 43 percent – were less likely than other students to report experiencing racially motivated verbal harassment.

About a quarter of African American/Black and Asian/Pacific Islander students had missed class or days of school in the past month because they felt unsafe. Latino, Native American, and multiracial students were even more likely to be absent for for safety reasons – about a third or more skipped class at least once or missed at least one day of school in the past month for safety reasons.

Native American students experienced particularly high levels of victimization because of their religion, with more than half reporting the highest levels of verbal harassment, and a quarter experiencing physical violence.

The report also found that performance at school also suffered when students experienced high levels of victimization. Students’ overall GPA dropped when they reported high severities of harassment based on sexual orientation and/or race/ethnicity. Students experiencing high severities of harassment also reported missing school more often.

Most recently an associate minister at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, a largely black church that welcomes LGBT members, Washington was surprised to find that in the more conservative African American community of Milwaukee, providing a safe spiritual home for LGBT congregants was dangerously controversial.

This past summer, two years after she opened the doors of Grace United Church of Christ, Washington began to receive hate mail, anonymous letters arriving nearly every week telling her that she was doing the devil’s work and was going to hell. Her message of God’s fully inclusive love wasn’t going over so well with some people.

“Some people join because they like my preaching, but then they see who we totally are” – that is, welcoming even to members of the LGBT community – “and they do leave,” Washington noted.

Tensions between the African American and LGBT communities frequently don’t take such concrete forms as hate mail and empty spots in the pews. More often, they take the more subtle forms suspicion, disregard, and missed opportunities.

Next page: The Prop 8 effect

1. They attended religious services weekly

2. They were Republicans

3. They were conservatives

4. They were born before World War II

It is these factors, rather than race or gender, that made the difference – the researchers say that no more than 58 percent of African-Americans voted yes on Prop 8, putting them in line with all other ethnic groups.

We’ll have a news story on this with more details later (and a link to the report), but I thought this was important, and that we should get something up about it quickly.

There was a long conversation on the call about what the next steps might be. One interesting discovery – the vote wasn’t influenced by whether someone knew a gay person. One researcher made the point that opposition to gay marriage isn’t personal – it’s partsian. If you’re Republican, religious, conservative, you will be against it, no matter how many gay people you wave to at the grocery store.

Nevertheless, folks at the Task Force thinks that LGBT Christians should try outreach in their own churches. They say that substantial conversations may have an impact. And they say we need to make stronger, better, more frequent arguments to religious leaders about how it is a moral good to support all families, not just straight ones.

Your thoughts?