Fallout over Proposition 8

As gay rights groups continue to analyse the causes of their failure to defeat Proposition 8, divisions have emerged between gay rights groups and black civil rights activists over the African American community’s overwhelming support for the measure.

Some exit polls estimated that almost 70 percent of all African American voters voted in favour of Proposition 8.

This has led to some prominent gay leaders attacking the conservatism present amongst African Americans when it comes to gay rights. Although the LGBTI community has the right to feel disappointed about the result, now is not the time for pointless recriminations. Instead, what is needed is a clear-headed analysis of the causes of the defeat as well as a plan for the future.

With such a clear majority of the African American community against or indifferent to the concept of gay marriage, there must be an acknowledgement that there has been a manifest failure on the part of gay and lesbian lobby groups to do meaningful outreach to black communities.

However, the position taken by some black activists on the issue of Proposition 8 borders on the ridiculous. Take for example, Jasyme Cannick’s opinion piece in The LA Times which argued that:
But the right to marry does nothing to address the problems faced by both black gays and black straights. Does someone who is homeless or suffering from HIV but has no healthcare, or newly out of prison and unemployed, really benefit from the right to marry someone of the same sex?

Of course gay marriage is not the panacea to all of the world’s ills -” no one ever claimed that to be the case. Whether one supports the notion of marriage or not, activists such as Jasyme Cannick have failed to appreciate that gay marriage has become the new front in the cultural wars in America (and largely replaced abortion as the red hot dividing topic).

An inability to unite on this issue has the potential to weaken a progressive agenda in America in the long-term.