The Roots of Black Homophobia?

The column I wrote last week, revealing my long-held suspicion that my son Alan died due to filicide (a consequence of his mother's homophobia) generated more responses than anything I've ever written. However, it only added additional fuel to the firestorm surrounding the domestic partnership registry law passed by Cleveland City Council. It seems as if everyone has an opinion in this issue, either pro or con.

To briefly recap, after Council passed the measure, a group of clergy and others, led by Rev. C. Jay Matthews, vowed to circulate petitions to put the issue in front of the voters. To the everlasting credit of Clevelanders, the required number of signatures could not be gathered. Hooray for us. But that doesn’t mean the issue is going to go away... it's only in remission until religious conservatives can figure out a way to try to win again in the end. Similar to their continued fighting of Roe V. Wade, school prayer, and their other core beliefs, they'll never quit. And I, for one, am not mad at them for fighting for what they believe in, I just happen to believe they are very misguided -- and they probably feel the same way about me. History, of course, will judge who is right or wrong.

As with most debates over heated issues, both sides can engage in hot and unfortunate rhetoric to make their case. My problem with those who literally interpret the Bible as justification for their stance against homosexuals is their selectivity. How can they pick and choose which part of the Bible to attempt to enforce? Their same Bible condones slavery and stoning, yet these folks ignore these passages, and my question is, why? Either you believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible, or you don’t … which greatly weakens the position of those opposed to rights for everyone.

With that said, it’s becoming quite obvious that the fight against gay rights is being financed largely by Mormons and increasingly being fought in the black community. This alliance is somewhat strange since the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints didn’t even allow blacks into the priesthood until 1978, and then, supposedly, only for financial reasons. But, say what you will about Mormons, they’re all about having the Benjamins and the babies … and you’ve got to love them for that.

However, if blacks are going to be used to block the rights of others (some folks who were never a part of the civil rights movement are now telling blacks we should not allow gays to “hijack” our movement) then at least we should think this through. While I don’t want to play armchair psychologist for my entire race, I think that black homophobia goes deeper than just the use of hot rhetoric by black preachers who selectively use the Bible to whip up opposition in their congregations to the granting of rights to others; I think that it also is rooted in power, oppression and the survival instinct.

For hundreds of years in this country, until the Emancipation Proclamation, the only thing a black man had was his manhood, he certainly didn’t have their freedom. Lynching almost always included the symbolic cutting off of the genitals. Therefore survival for blacks was based on being strong … and homosexuality is commonly — and mistakenly, I might add — viewed as somehow being weak. On the other hand, I’ve heard estimates from insiders that fully a third of all professional boxers are gay.

Of course there are effeminate homosexuals that reinforce the misguided notion of weakness, and I’ve been to other majority black countries — Jamaica for instance — that have a history of slavery and colonialism, and homophobia is almost as rampant there as it was in Nazi Germany.

So, while I might understand how black homophobia perhaps came about, times, however, have changed for blacks. It’s a different world now: One, we’re no longer in slavery (excepting those blacks who remain in a mental state of slavery, and there are more of them then I care to admit), and two, our homophobia has caused black women to have the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the country, we all know where they getting it from — black men who loudly claim we don’t play that shit in our race. It’s called being on the “down low” and it’s killing our race slowly. Fear and ignorance hurts us … in more ways than one.

With all of the social and economic problems facing the black underclass: Teen pregnancies (hey, can’t blame that on homosexuals), through the roof. high school dropout rates, high unemployment, and thousands of young blacks incarcerated and returning home from prison... and we’re worried about domestic partner registry? As old folks say, “We’re going out the world backwards.”

I’ll leave off with four questions for blacks: Have any of the black ministers who rail against homosexuality offered to give back the donations made to their churches by gay members of their congregations? Do they want to dismiss their church choir director for being gay? What position would Martin have taken on this issue? And, lastly, what position does soon-to-be-president Obama take on this issue?

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com

Frazier's book From Behind the Wall: on Crime, Punishment, Race, and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is now available again in hardback format from the author. Details at http://www.frombehindthewall.com.
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