the random oracle

On such a transformative day, Proposition 8 added a sad counterpoint to the resounding Obama victory.  On a day when people celebrated the smashing of racial barriers, the California electorate decided to erect a barrier based on sexuality.  Predicated on lies that same-sex marriage would lead to kindergarten kids learning about homosexuality and churches being sued for not performing same-sex marriages, California voters decided to strip fellow citizens of a fundamental human right.  With the same hand that voted for the hope Barack Obama embodies, many cast a ballot for that basest of human instincts: fear and hatred of people different from yourself.

One point that has been made already in news reports is the degree to which minorities voted for Proposition 8.  In particular, the LA Times cites that over 70% of blacks in California voted for Proposition 8, and already angry bloggers and commentators are throwing blame and “how-dare-yous” at black voters.  Of course there is a line from the civil rights movement for de-segregation and minority rights to the modern gay rights movement.  And of course they are not of the same magnitude, since the burden of slavery’s legacy is carried by blacks alone.  But clearly many black Californians did not see the connection between the two, and the question is why.

The knee-jerk (and highly self-defeating) reaction is that blacks cling too strongly to their religion and that they’ll vote for whatever their pastors say, and that to win them over is a hopeless task.  There is a kernel of truth to this; walk around Harlem a few blocks and you’ll be astounded by the number of churches dotting the neighborhood.

But that’s only a small part of the problem.  The greater part of the problem is with the gay rights movement itself.  When straights in minority communities (be it blacks, Latinos, Asians, or whatever else) think of gay rights and same-sex marriage, the image that pops into their mind is gay white men and women marrying each other.  How many of the pictures that you’ve seen of gay couples tying the knot are minorities?  The only one I can think of is George Takei and even there his husband is white.  The problem with convincing minority communities that gay rights matter is that they think it has nothing to do with them.  Gay men and women of color are invisible to them, and so gay rights becomes a white person’s problem.

This is symptomatic of gay culture in general; although things have improved in the last few years, in general gay culture is much more white-centric than mainstream culture.  At least in mainstream culture we have black and Latino media and sports icons (Asians still get the shaft here unfortunately), and thanks to Barack Obama even political icons.  In gay culture there are few if any minority icons, and the most famous ones are not even gay (think Tina Turner or Janet Jackson).

Thus it’s not surprising that the organizers of the No on 8 effort didn’t even bother to start campaigning in minority communities until the week of the election.  When they contacted ethnic newspapers, they discovered that the Yes on 8 campaign had been renting space for months already.  Then when No on 8 ran TV ads, instead of running ads showing gay couples (especially gay couples of color) they showed Ellen.  Clearly not the right tack for convincing minority demographics.

Until this attitude changes, until gay rights are viewed as everyone’s concern no matter their race, until the day when everyone cares about marriage equality, regardless of whether they’re black, white, Latino, Asian, or anything else, because it’s just as likely that their son or daughter, brother or sister will need it, until that moment there’s no way we’ll convince minority voters to vote against discrimination.  And until that day, there’s no way we’ll have the equality we as people all deserve.