Same-sex marriage is
surely a civil right
Many blacks oppose
such unions for religious reasons,
but bigotry is
bigotry, even if it's cloaked in faith.
Blacks should know
this better than most.
By Sheryl McCarthy,
USATODAY.com from the Web, August 21. 2006
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By Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP
Bishop
Harry Jackson, right, and Rev. William Owens, founder and president
of the Coalition of African American Pastors, join Rep. Katherine
Harris, left, and other Republicans to support the Marriage
Protection Amendment in June in Washington. |
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As the debate rages over whether gays
and lesbians should be allowed to marry, I'm disappointed whenever I hear other
African-Americans say, "No, they shouldn't."
We're more opposed to same-sex marriage than whites are, according to a June
survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which found that
65% of African-Americans are against it compared with 53% of whites.
I understand the reasons.
African-Americans are overwhelmingly Christians, and many of us believe that the
Bible condemns homosexuality. Beyond that, even suggesting that the
struggle of gays and lesbians for the right to marry is similar to our own civil
rights struggle is often perceived as an insult.
I've heard the most racially militant blacks argue that the gay struggle is
different from our own because we have no choice about being black while gays
can choose whom they want to sleep with. This reasoning persists despite
growing scientific evidence that people's sexual orientation is innate and that
they don't choose it any more than they choose their sex or race.
Some African-Americans also argue that gays and lesbians were never slaves or
victims of a system designed to keep them in their place, and that while
homosexuals have the option of keeping their sex lives private, few blacks can
hide their race.
A comparable struggle
Even some civil rights leaders, such as Jesse Jackson, have tried to put
distance between the black and gay struggles. And black ministers, among
them the Rev. Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter, have led protests
to fight efforts to legalize same-sex marriage.
The fight for gay rights is like our civil rights struggle, however, and it's
hypocritical for groups that have had to fight long and hard to win their own
constitutional rights to turn around and try to deny them to the next group.
We're seeing this in the descendants of immigrant groups that were despised and
vilified during their early days in this country, and that now want to deny
recent immigrants the means to become lawful citizens.
This hypocrisy was apparent to me as I was growing up in a black Baptist church.
I routinely heard ministers condemn gays from the pulpit, even though half the
male choir members, the choir director, the flower arranger and plenty of other
male church members were obviously gay. The church would have had
difficulty functioning without them.
Because it's difficult enough to be black in this country, I know that black
communities would prefer not to have to deal with the added stigma society
attaches to homosexuals, and the obvious link to HIV and AIDS. And with
stable heterosexual marriages rare enough in black communities, some
African-Americans think that encouraging same-sex marriage would only complicate
the situation.
Nonetheless, the main argument used against same-sex marriage is that the Bible
says it's wrong. We point to the Scriptures, to the story of Adam and Eve
(and the absence of Adam and Steve), to the retribution inflicted on the sinners
of Sodom and Gomorrah, and to depictions of male-on-male sex in Leviticus and
Romans as being so perverse that it warranted death.
I won't attempt to argue with the Scriptures, other than to say they reflect the
mores and biases of the times they were written. And just as there are
Scriptures ordering slaves to obey their masters, cautioning women to be silent
in church and submissive at home, and applauding the persecution of the Jews
because they killed Jesus, none of these positions is argued by enlightened
people today.
I won't dismiss the beliefs of blacks who believe that homosexuality is immoral,
but I'd caution them that morality has often been used as a cloak for
old-fashioned bigotry, fear and discomfort with people and behaviors that are
different.
But what about religion?
How can African-Americans reconcile religious beliefs with acceptance of
same-sex marriage?
I asked the Rev. James Forbes, pastor of The Riverside Church in New York.
Forbes is black, and his diverse congregation has gone on record as supporting
same-sex marriages — and all other families that are based on the principles of
love and justice. Forbes says acceptance might increase as
African-Americans become more aware of scientific evidence that suggests sexual
orientation is innate — and not a choice.
As for the Bible's apparent disapproval of homosexual behavior, Forbes says it's
a matter of how one reads the Bible.
"What is clear," he says, "is that the Bible says the highest principle is love.
Once it becomes clear that our sexual orientation is more or less a given, I
think black people will begin to recognize that including all in the family of
God is a more righteous principle than the abhorrence of gay love."
I see marriage as a civil right, and no group's religious beliefs should be
allowed to deny the rights of others. And because blacks have suffered
from bigotry and injustice that were cloaked by religion and morality, we should
avoid doing the same thing to others.
Sheryl McCarthy is a freelance writer and columnist for
Newsday on Long Island, N.Y. She's also a member of USA TODAY's board of
contributors.
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