Jack & Jill Politics

I followed ‘No on 8′ through Andrew Sullivan’s blog. I clicked on every ad that he posted. I never saw ONE that was pointed towards the Black community. If ‘No on 8′ was serious about trying to address the Black community (that they already suspected was going to be FOR Proposition 8), they couldn’t come out with an ad with Black gay folks who wanted to get married? With Black gay folks who wanted to be married and had children? California’s a huge state, and they couldn’t find 2 Black homosexuals and 2 Black lesbians with children who could have made an ad?

A JJP reader was good enough to point me in the direction of this article by Jasmyne Cannick:

COINTELPRO: Operation Jordan Rustin Coalition

The gay community is using the Blacks as a scapegoat for the passing of Proposition 8—but they’re not alone—believe it or not—there are some misguided self-hating Blacks joining them in that call. This by the way is going to do nothing to soothe relations Blacks both gays and heterosexual who always seem to be caught in the middle. Are Blacks homophobic? Yes, that’s no secret. However, that’s a discussion for us to have with each other on our terms and in our community—not to be discussed in mixed company or to be confused with the racism in the white gay community, which is a separate issue all of its own. And even though I may be unhappy with the position of Blacks on gay issues—that’s our dirty laundry.

In the past, it’s been common practice for the gay community to hire Black faces temporarily when needed to convince Blacks to support their agenda of gay marriage. The only problem is that the surrogates hired oftentimes are as far removed from the Black community as the gay community is. By the way—neither is aware of this.

I am of the mindset that Blacks—gay or straight—do not to push the agenda of others. To the extent that our agenda includes gay marriage—it will be because we decided to include it. Not because of some COINTELPRO like operation out of West Hollywood developed to infiltrate the Black community.