Associated Press photo
Liberty and justice for all -- except for fags and dykes*: Donna Payne, above left, vice president of the National Black Justice Coalition, a gay civil rights group, and Keith Boykin, above right, the group's president, speak to reporters after they were denied access to the stage area at the Millions More Movement gathering yesterday in Washington, D.C., according to The Associated Press' caption for this photo. Boykin said that march organizer Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, had invited him to speak after months of arm-twisting, but that when he went to speak, he was told that he was not on the schedule for the event, according to the AP. Farrakhan is pictured below pontificating from behind bulletproof glass at the Millions More Movement gathering (also pictured below) yesterday. (I'm not sure why Farrakhan's bodyguards look like refugees from The Village People.)
 
Associated Press and Reuters photos
Black homophobes suck
I was happily reading news coverage of the Millions More Movement gathering in Washington, D.C., yesterday -- until I came across paragraphs that indicate that homophobia is rampant even within the black activist community.
From The Associated Press:
Railing against the delayed relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said [yesterday] that the federal government should be charged with "criminal neglect of the people of New Orleans."
"For five days, the government did not act. Lives were lost," Farrakhan said at the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March. "We charge America with criminal neglect."
A crowd of thousands cheered as dozens of prominent speakers -- academics, activists, artists and media pundits -- spoke, recited poetry and sang songs in the 12-hour program on the National Mall.
Pointing to the broad spectrum of participants, Farrakhan said the march included an "unprecedented" array of black leaders of organizations "coming together to speak to America and the world with one voice."
"This tells us that a new day is dawning in America," he said.
Ten years ago, Farrakhan urged black men to improve their families and communities -- women, whites and other minorities had not been invited. [Yesterday], all were welcome at the Millions More Movement, which organizers said would build on the principles of 1995 and push people to build a movement for change locally and nationally.
...Some speakers paid tribute to victims of the hurricanes in prayers and pledges of support, and many participants said the storm helped inspire them to come.
Katrina "brought the issues to the surface to some who were asleep," said Jason 2X, a Nation of Islam member who attended the march with several family members from Chicago.
...Farrakhan appears to be broadening his message beyond those of concern specifically to black Americans and the poor. He denounced President Bush, the war in Iraq and Muslims who kill "innocent life for political purposes." He also called for unity with Africa, reparations for slavery, inclusion of undocumented immigrants and a government apology to American Indians....
Sounds good so far. But notes another AP story:
...Despite anti-gay statements made by Farrakhan and other march organizers, the leader of a gay civil rights group was added to the program Wednesday. [Emphasis mine.]
During the 1995 event -- to which women, whites and other minorities were not invited -- black men were urged to take responsibility for improving their families and communities. Men and women of all ethnicities were invited to the new gathering, which intends to build on those principles and push people to act for change locally and nationally, said Linda Boyd, a march spokeswoman.
...Officials with the National Black Justice Coalition, a gay civil rights group, said Farrakhan invited their president, Keith Boykin, to speak -- a move that came after months of appeals for the inclusion of an openly gay person. [Emphasis mine.]
Boykin was planning to talk about hostility toward homosexuals in the black community, said Ray Daniels, communications director for the group. [Emphasis mine.] "It's a groundbreaking statement and very forward thinking," Daniels said of the invitation. "It's the sort of thinking that will help heal our community."
Yet another AP story, however, reports:
...Despite anti-gay statements by Farrakhan and other march organizers, Cleo Manago of Black Men's Exchange, which calls itself a group for black men of "diverse sexual/intimate expression," briefly addressed the crowd.
The president of the National Black Justice Coalition, a gay civil rights group that met with Farrakhan on Wednesday, said he was barred from the stage even though he had been invited to speak. "I'm disappointed," said Keith Boykin. "They reneged on their agreement." [Emphasis mine.]
Benjamin Chavis, a march organizer, said he did not know whether Boykin had been invited to speak, but he said gays attended and "are welcome here today." [Oh, really? Then why wasn't Boykin allowed to speak?]
Boykin [very ironically] was planning to talk about hostility toward homosexuals in the black community, Ray Daniels, communications director for the group, said Friday. "It's a groundbreaking statement and very forward thinking," Daniels said of the invitation. "It's the sort of thinking that will help heal our community."
Well, so much for that groundbreaking, very forward thinking, and so much for healing the community.
I have been good to Farrakhan here on my blog; back in August I posted a piece called "Farrakhan Has My Back" (but it appears now that he doesn't). And I agree with Farrakhan's assertion that racism undeniably was a factor in the Bush regime's pathetic response to Hurricane Katrina, the majority of whose victims were blacks of the lower classes.
So it's a fucking kick in the face to know that while I, a gay white man, have Farrakhan's and other blacks' backs, black homophobes don't have mine.
Black homophobes will attack injustice that affects them -- racism -- but fuck the rest of us minority groups. They don't have a problem with oppression in general; they have a problem only with being oppressed themselves.
That's pretty fucking selfish, and if I were a lesser person I'd say, "Fuck the blacks. They don't give a flying fuck about me, so why should I give a flying fuck about them?" But I'm not like the black homophobes -- I believe that an injustice done to one of us is an injustice done to all of us.
Let me give you a very concrete example of black homophobia:
In March 2004 I mailed a letter to Paula Diane Harris, president and CEO of the Andrew Young National Center for Social Change Inc.
I had read in a news story that Harris, a black woman, had taken offense that John Kerry had referred to himself as the potential "second" "'black' president." (Kerry's full quote was: "President Clinton was often known as the first 'black' president. I wouldn’t be upset if I could earn the right to be the second.")
"John Kerry is not a black man -- he is a privileged white man who has no idea what it is in this country to be a poor white in this country, let alone a black man," Harris said at the time in a press release that the news media quoted.
It was poor judgment on Kerry's part to refer to himself as "black," even though it is clear that he was speaking figuratively. And I don't disagree with Harris' assertion that Kerry "is a privileged white man who has no idea what it is in this country to be a poor white in this country, let alone a black man."
(This is a huge problem of the Democratic Party's, in fact: Way too many Democrats in Washington, D.C., are rich elites who have no real idea of what it's like for the ordinary American in these dark days under King George II. I suspect that these elite Dems have, to a large part, just let the Bush regime fuck the ordinary American up the ass without lubrication for the past five years because these elite Dems will never have to worry about where their next meal is going to come from; there has been nothing vitally at stake for them.)
But, I reminded Harris in my March 2004 letter to her (I wrote her a snail mail because I couldn't find an e-mail address specifically for her on her organization's Web site), we minority groups need to stick together. Yes, Kerry spoke out of his ass, but united we stand and divided we fall.
I told Harris in my letter to her that I wasn't pleased with Jesse Jackson's recent assertion that gay and lesbian rights are not civil rights, but that I wasn't going to turn against blacks because Jackson had spoken out of his ass (I paraphrase, of course).
So what did Harris write in her snail-mail response?
She wrote, "Disenfranchised groups will differ on issues and that is all right. Disagreement can be good as long as we are not disagreeable towards one another."
OK, I agree with that; we were off to a good start.
But then Harris immediately went on:
We had no choice in being born black, people with birth defects had no choice in the way they were born, Girls [sic] and boys had no choice in the wound [sic -- she meant "womb"] to choose whether they would be born female or male, the million dollar question is do homosexuals have the choice not to be gay or is it a birth defect?
That paragraph is wrong on so many levels, starting with the fact that it's a textbook example of a run-on sentence. (For a president and CEO, Harris' grasp of the English language is pretty weak.)
Harris' "argument" seems to be that discrimination is perfectly OK if that for which you are being discriminated against is something that you choose to be. Following her "logic," it would be perfectly fine to discriminate on the basis of religion, because no one is born believing anything.
Harris rubs salt into the wound by asserting that if being gay or lesbian is not a choice, then it is a "birth defect."
Wow. There have been plenty of white supremacists who have asserted, at least in effect, that being born black is a birth defect, as blacks are genetically inferior, they assert -- yet Harris is perfectly comfortable with labeling homosexuality as a "birth defect"?
In one sentence she says that we "disenfranchised groups" must not be "disagreeable towards one another" and in just the next fucking paragraph she refers to homosexuality as a possible "birth defect."
Harris' letter gets better:
If you know of any health studies on the homosexual issue or know where we can obtain some documentation, we would like to review it. AYNCSC will be writing a position paper on same sex marriages in the near future. It will be hosted on our web site.
Take care of yourself health wise. Here at AYNCSC we believe that everyone is valuable and deserves the right to be respected equally as a human being. [End of letter.]
So, apparently, Harris needs scientific documentation before she can treat people the way she would like to be treated, the way Jesus taught us to treat each other. Show her some studies, and maybe then she'll stop hating fags and dykes. That's like white supremacists demanding to see definitive scientific studies that blacks aren't inferior to whites before they'll give up their position that whites are superior to blacks.
You know what? I don't need no stinking studies.
When you see an effeminate little boy or a masculine little girl -- personality traits that are present long before puberty kicks in -- how in the fuck can you call that a choice? A child is going to choose to be and to act in ways that will cause him to be teased by his peers and perhaps even rejected by his or her own parents? Puuuhlease.
(Not that every gay man is effeminate and every lesbian is masculine, because there are plenty of gay men and lesbians who aren't easily identifiable. And in some cases, I suspect, being gay or lesbian is a choice, more or less. But, I surmise, for many, if not most, gay men and lesbians -- especially to the easily identifiable ones -- it certainly is not and never was and never will be a choice.
Of course, we can talk about whether or not homosexuality is a choice until we are blue in the face -- but it doesn't fucking matter whether or not it's a choice, because to mistreat someone on the basis of his or her sexual orientation is plain fucking wrong -- regardless of whether or not sexual orientation is a fucking choice.)
"Take care of yourself health wise" reveals Harris' apparent stereotypical belief that if you're a gay man, you must take a different stranger's load up your ass every night (or at least every other night). I mean, if you tell a gay man, "Take care of yourself health wise," what else could you really be talking about? (For the record, I am HIV-negative -- always have been, always will be -- and I only wish that my sex life were just a tiny fraction as fun and as active as homophobes like Harris think that it is.)
I don't believe, unless Harris has had some revelation since her March 2004 letter to me** (which is unlikely), that "[there] at AYNCSC [they] believe that everyone is valuable and deserves the right to be respected equally as a human being."
If you truly felt that way toward gay men and lesbians, you wouldn't refer to their sexuality as a possible "birth defect," and anyone who truly knows and cares about gay men and lesbians doesn't use terms like "homosexuals" and "the homosexual issue."
We don't call ourselves "homosexuals." We call ourselves gay men and lesbians. Those who use the coldly clinical, woefully outdated term "homosexual" instead of "gay" and/or "lesbian" stupidly reveal their homophobia as surely as those whites who still use such terms as "Negroes" and "coloreds" (and worse) stupidly reveal their racism.
And what the fuck is with the phrase "the homosexual issue"? That sounds an awful lot like the Nazi Party's use of such phrases as "the Jewish problem" and "the Jewish question."
I don't mean to pick on just Harris. There are plenty of black homophobes out there, and I mean to pick on every single one of them -- and on gay and lesbian racists as well, although there seems to be a lot more black homophobes than gay and lesbian racists.
I will have to research Farrakhan's apparent homophobia, of which I was unaware until I saw the AP's reference to "anti-gay statements made by Farrakhan and other march organizers."
If Farrakhan indeed is a homophobe, I'm guessing that his homophobia would come from his Muslim beliefs -- fundamentalist Islam is just as anti-gay and misogynist as is fundamentalist "Christianity," if not more so.
The Million Man March 10 years ago -- which excluded everyone but (presumably) straight black men -- seems an awful lot like the Promise Keepers, the "Christian" wingnut group that is primarily for (presumably) straight white men.
If Farrakhan's vision is that of one religion (Islam, in this case) or one sex (men -- and straight men only, in this case) or one race (blacks, in this case) calling all of the shots for the rest of us, then I say to Farrakhan what I'd say to Osama Bin Laden or to George W. Bush or to Pat Robertson or to a white supremacist leader or to any other fascist: Go fuck yourself. You are the enemy.
If he is a homophobe, then Farrakhan's claim that "a new day is dawning in America" is demonstrably, hypocritically false, and the Millions More Movement's claims of valuing social justice ironically ring hollow.
There will be no liberty and justice for all until there is liberty and justice for all.
*The rule: I'm gay, so I may say "fag" and "dyke." If you are straight, you may not.
**In case you were wondering, no, I never wrote Harris back. She struck me as too far gone to be able to make any progress with.
P.S. I found, on Keith Boykin's blog/Web site, the speech that he would have given yesterday at the Millions More Movement gathering had he been allowed to do so. Here it is:
Good afternoon. Today I am honored to stand here at the Millions More Movement March as a representative of the National Black Justice Coalition, the country’s only national civil rights organization for black lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people. The National Black Justice Coalition strongly supports the goals of the Millions More Movement for unity and inclusion of our entire community.
In February of this year, Minister Farrakhan and I participated in Tavis Smiley’s annual "State of the Black Union" event in Atlanta. During a press conference that day, Minister Farrakhan announced that women and gays would be encouraged to participate in today's march. "The makeup will be our people, whoever we are," he said. Then he added, "Male, female, gay, straight, light, dark, rich, poor, ignorant, wise. We are family. We will be coming together to discuss family business."
After the press conference, I spoke to the minister and I introduced myself. "Minister Farrakhan," I said, while shaking his hand, "My name is Keith Boykin, and I am a black gay man. And I want to thank you for your inclusive comments about gays in the Million Man March." Without missing a beat, Minister Farrakhan responded to me with a long, warm embrace. "Brother, I love you," he said as we hugged. "We are all part of the family. We are all part of the same community." That was an historic moment.
Ten years ago, I joined more than a million of my brothers on this very location for the Million Man March. At that time, there were no openly gay, lesbian or bisexual speakers at that march. This time, however, I am able to speak here today as an openly gay man because of the courageous leadership of one man – Minister Louis Farrakhan. I publicly and honestly thank him and salute him for the invitation to speak. The diversity of speakers assembled here today is a powerful signal that we in the black community will not allow ourselves to be divided by differences of opinion, religion, gender, class or sexual orientation ever again.
As Minister Farrakhan himself said in August, "we must not allow painful utterances of the past or present, based on sincere belief, or based on our ignorance, or based on our ideology or philosophy, to cripple a movement that deserves and needs all of us -- and, when I say all, I mean all of us."
Earlier this week, two of my colleagues and I sat with Minister Farrakhan, his wife, his daughter and his son, and with Rev. Willie Wilson, the executive director of this march. Minister Farrakhan said it was the first time he had ever sat down with a group of openly gay and lesbian African Americans. Let me be honest: It was an intense, passionate and candid meeting where both sides shared their pain and frustration with the other. At the end of the discussion, however, we made progress. We realized that there are no "both sides" of the table. There is only one side, and that is the side of justice.
So today I accept the olive branch offered by Minister Farrakhan and Rev. Wilson and offer an olive branch of my own. We acknowledge the hurt and pain that has been caused by both sides in our past conflicts, and we fully commit ourselves to heal the deep wounds that have hurt us. Thank you, Minster Farrakhan and Rev. Wilson, for the love.
We have disagreed in the past and we may disagree in the future, but we all agree that we must move forward together. We all agree that we will not allow ourselves to be manipulated by the media to create divisions among us. We all agree that we are stronger together than we are apart. And we all agree that the struggle for the liberation of our people is more important than our individual differences of opinion.
Fifty years ago, Ralph Ellison wrote, "I am an invisible man... I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.... When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination -- indeed, everything and anything except me." Ralph Ellison was talking about the invisibility of the African American, but the same could be said of black gays and lesbians.
When Dr. King spoke at the 1963 Civil Rights March, he called on one person, Bayard Rustin, a black gay man, to organize that march. When Duke Ellington performed "Take The 'A' Train," he called on one person, Billy Strayhorn, a black gay man, to serve as his composer. And when black actors and directors put on performances of "A Raisin in the Sun," they call on one person, Lorraine Hansberry, a black bisexual playwright, to serve as their muse.
Black culture as we know it today would not exist without the words of James Baldwin, the poetry of Audre Lorde or the choreography of Alvin Ailey. That is why I am here today -- to honor their legacy.
But I am also here to honor the living heroes and sheroes of today. My good friend Phill Wilson likes to say that our people cannot love us if they do not know us. So I want you to know who we are. I want you to know the activist Angela Davis, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, the Grammy-nominated recording artist Me'Shell Ndege'Ocello, editor at large and former executive editor for Essence magazine Linda Villarosa, and the former adviser to New York Mayor David Dinkins, Dr. Marjorie Hill.
And I want you to know the living male heroes. Men like New York City Council Member Phillip Reed, former Mayor of Cambridge Ken Reeves, Mayor of Palm Springs Ron Oden, bestselling author E. Lynn Harris and Harvard University Chaplain Rev. Peter Gomes.
And finally, I want you to know that we are your brothers and sons and fathers. We are your sisters and daughters and mothers. And we are your cousins and nieces and nephews as well. We cannot separate ourselves from the larger black family because we are an integral part of the black family. We raise our families, we send money to our nephews and, yes, we sing in the choir as well.
The issues that affect black gays and lesbians are issues that affect all black people. Last year I sat in the living room of a young mother who had lost her child to violence in Newark, New Jersey. Her 15-year-old daughter, Sakia Gunn, was murdered because the killer thought she was gay. When black homosexuals and bisexuals are murdered, black heterosexual family members still have to bury their kin. What happens to black gays and lesbians directly affects black straight people as well.
HIV and AIDS is the leading cause of death for young black people, gay or straight. Forty-five million Americans do not have health insurance, and too many of this group are black, gay or straight. Unemployment is still too high among black people, gay or straight. We are all connected.
When black people were forced to sit in the back of the bus, black gay people were forced to sit in the back of the bus. When black people could not vote, black lesbians could not vote. And when black people are beaten and abused by the police, black bisexuals are beaten and abused by the police.
We share the same goals and aspirations as the rest of the black community, but none of us can accomplish those goals without unity and courage. We all need courage in our lives. It took courage for you to come here today. It took courage for Minister Farrakhan to invite me to speak today. And it will take courage to heal the wounds that have divided us for far too long.
In the timeless words of Audre Lorde, "When I dare to be powerful -- to use my strength in the service of my vision -- then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." So I say to you today: Be strong, be proud, be courageous.
A pretty good speech. On his Web site/blog yesterday, Boykin explained why he was not able to give his speech:
After eight months of discussion, four productive conversations with Minister Farrakhan and a heated exchange with Rev. Willie Wilson, the Millions More Movement March took place today and I was not allowed to speak. Although I believe we have opened the door for historic and positive dialogue with Minister Farrakhan, Rev. Wilson does not appear to be ready for such dialogue.
This is what happened today: After I arrived at the VIP tent shortly after 8 in the morning, my colleague Donna Payne spoke directly to Rev. Willie Wilson backstage, and he informed her that no one from the National Black Justice Coalition would be speaking today. Donna told Rev. Wilson that he was violating our agreement, and Wilson replied that the agreement was void because the coalition had not responded by Friday. That was not true.
Rev. Wilson's excuse seemed a mere pretext to prevent us from speaking. Sadly, I am not surprised. He has been an obstacle to this process all along. Ever since his controversial July 3 sermon in which he blamed the rise of lesbianism for the problems in the black community, Rev. Wilson seems to have developed ill feelings toward the black gay community for responding to his attack. That was three months ago, and I had hoped to use my speech today to extend an olive branch to Rev. Wilson to move beyond our differences and heal our wounds, but his actions this morning made that impossible.
In his speech, Boykin describes Farrakhan as possessing the spirit of inclusiveness, but I don't have enough information to be able to definitively judge Farrakhan where his stance on gay and lesbian rights is concerned. Could Farrakhan and this Willie Wilson guy have been playing good cop-bad cop in which good cop Farrakhan made pro-inclusion statements but bad cop Wilson made sure that no actual inclusion occurred?
At any rate, I don't care what Farrakhan says nearly as much as I care about what he does, and the fact remains that Boykin was prevented from speaking at Farrakhan's event yesterday. And that action speaks much louder to me than do mere words.
11:34:10 AM 
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