Proposition 8 in California

I'll be writing a lot on this topic in coming days, but I want to deal with one facet of this issue right now. As exit polls indicate, some 70% of blacks voted against the equal rights of gay people. The vote of no other ethnic or racial group was so lopsided. This deplorable vote highlights a well-known but largely ignored fact: anti-gay bigotry is rife among blacks. This bigotry is not limited to the marriage issue; a similar number of blacks opposed civil unions in California. This bigotry blights the lives of black gays and lesbians. It is deep and ugly, and it roils and festers almost entirely because of the anti-gay hostility that permeates black churches and that is kept alive by black clergymen.

For far too long gays have kept quiet about this locus of anti-gay prejudice. The aura of victimhood has shielded blacks from just and proper scrutiny on this issue. Well, after Proposition 8 there should be no more free rides for bigots. Anti-gay bigotry should be exposed and stigmatised wherever it is found--and there's a huge load of it in black homes and churches. America has risen above its shameful past and elected a black man on his merits as a man. It is now time for black Americans to confront their anti-gay prejudices, rise above them, and accord gays and lesbians their human rights as men and women--including the right to marry.