Obama...Why I'm not giving up on you... yet!

Happy Friday everyone!!! I'll cut to the chase. Today I read a story in the Washington Blade (a gay newspaper weekly) about a controversy surrounding the Golden Boy of politics, Senator Barack Obama. In J. Lysen's story Obama is being evicerated by gay rights activist from various organizations like Truth Wins Out, the Human Rights Campaign, and Equality Illinois regarding a gospel concert that features superstar Donnie McClurkin. You read the story for yourself and come up with your conclusions; I'll post mine here. I'm all for inclusiveness and PC stuff but some of the criticism being meted out by the gay trinity is really unnecessary and definitely confusing. How many of you out there in the blogosphere are betting people? Do you feel lucky enough to accept a wager of mine, double or nothin'? I will bet you $1.00 that the detractors I mentioned above are A) NOT black and B) know next to nothing about the black church, gospel music, or gospel concerts. Instead of most of the white blogosphere realizing this, they have taken the opportunity to indict the BLACK CHURCH (as if their own white churches' isht don't stank). Hell, I bet until Donnie started talking about God healing him from his gayity, these individuals had never even heard about him.

As usual, when I get heated, I don't take time to calm down. I let my disdain for certain things get the best of me and I make it my mission to make everyone else's life a living hell. The Washington Blade's life is no exception. I WAS going to post a letter that I sent to the editor (I didn't save it), but before I do that I want to provide some of you with a very BRIEF history of gay activism in this country. Blacks and black latinos started the Stonewall Riots; Whites didn't. In my experiences with white gays, many white gay people (men in particular) feel that their status as an oppressed group absolves them from being racists. This could not be further from the truth. Historically, white gays excluded their gay brothers and sisters of color from the "rights" table as soon as they hi-jacked the gay rights movement. Black gays were excluded from white gay establishments altogether or forced to undergo extra screening processes to patronize these establishments. I don't blame them though; wanting to keep one's hands on all of the goodies society affords is an intrinsically white (WASP) characteristic. I understand.

What I don't understand is how Obama gets side-swiped by all of this criticism, while Hillary "Condescension" Clinton and the rest of the white boys get a free pass. So what if the Black Church was the heart and soul of the Civil Rights Era, you can't expect it [being a CHRISTIAN church] or its members to stamp a YES vote on gayness. The other thing is that Donnie's ex-gayness isn't unique to him or Gospel Music. White charismatic christians, evangelicals, and other faction of Jesus groupies believe homosexuality is sin. This is a CHRISTIAN concept AND a fundAmental belief in the majority of Christian faith systems. It ain't homophobic or INHERENTLY BLACK "CHURCHED".