Worldwide Gay Pride 2011

Gay Pride Parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil – Sunday June 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Michael Bayly over at The Wild Reed blog has excellent coverage of the worldwide pride celebrations that took place over the weekend. Check out his excellent article and beautiful photo essay here.

HAPPY PRIDE EVERYONE!

Gay Pride 2011: Gay Pride Flag Raising at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Oakland, CA

Photo taken by Leah Hall who works at the church. I found the photo on OaklandNorth. St. Paul's has a number of activities planned for gay pride month. One can see a listing of those activities at the church's website here. Also, as a side note, this church is located in the Oakland neighborhood I lived in for 8 years. I loved, loved, loved the neighborhood. It is in the Grand Lake district near Adams Point.

When Love Takes Over: Introducing Darian Aaron's New Book on Same Gender Loving Couples of Color

In the words of Darian Aaron, the author of this new book...

"I am thrilled to announce that the book that caused my long hiatus from the blog last year is now available for purchase. When Love Takes Over: A Celebration of SGL Couples of Color is based on the popular Coupled Up series from loldarian.com and exclusively profiles eighteen African-American gay couples who are in committed long-term relationships. The couples detail how they met, their journey towards self-acceptance, liberation and ultimately how they fell in love and maintain their relationships. All the while defying the myth that two black men are incapable of loving each other for a lifetime.

The arrival of this book is timely and necessary. The gay and mainstream media has largely ignored black same-gender loving men who have formed nurturing and long-term relationships, even worse; the love shared between these brave men have often been met with hostility from individuals within their own community. But finally, the diversity that exists within both the African-American and gay communities are laid out in the pages of “When Love Takes Over” for the entire world to see."

Run, not walk here to order your copy of Darian's book. Visit Darian's blog here. You can also order a copy of this book from Amazon.com right here on this blog with the Amazon tool on the right sidebar.

Gay Pride 2011: Why Don Lemon's Coming Out As Gay Matters So Much To Me

CNN Anchor Don Lemon

(NOTE: I originally ran this piece here on this blog just a short three weeks ago. However, it just speaks so strongly to so many things that are in the forefront of my consciousness right now I felt a deep need and desire to re-post it. I also want to ensure the probability that as many young, black, same gender loving men get an opportunity to read this piece and seek me out for support if they so desire.) 

 Why does CNN News anchor Don Lemon's coming out mean so much to me personally? In short, because he's a black man. Yes, that pretty much sums it up.

Each member of the alphabet soup we know of as the LGBTQQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans --sexual and/or transgender--Queer, Questioning, Intersex) community faces both collective and unique challenges. For example, in the area of unique challenges, trans people are still considered personae non gratae to far too many gay and lesbian men and women who would seriously like to see them completely disappear from that alphabet soup altogether. Bisexual men are often viewed as semi-closeted gay men who simply haven't completely come out and/or who are taking a "safer" route. Therefore, their stance as bisexual men rather than loud and proud gay men is completely delegitimized. We humans seem to have never ending ways of splintering ourselves into ever more isolating sub-categories, each vying for some illusory sense of cultural privilege and entitlement. We are masters at finding ways to ostracize ourselves from one another.

As a black, same gender loving man I have also experienced first hand the specific challenges that come with being a member of both of those minority groups simultaneously. By far, the biggest of those challenges has come from members of the black community who are drunk on the bitter wine of Christian fundamentalism, who view being gay as a "white thang." And specifically, where gayness together with maleness is concerned, this dubious combination is seen as an absolute betrayal of what these people view as some supernatural birthright to over-the-top cartoon-like super masculinity. Newsflash: That version of masculinity really does only exist in comic books. When this unrealistic view of black masculinity is combined with a religious zeal I see as being blinded by hatred, ignorance and intolerance, the result is a form of bigotry unparalleled to any I've experienced in this life. Collectively and monolithically this is what I refer to as "The Black Church." The black church in general has very little tolerance for homosexuality as a rule. When blackness is added to that pot, it often becomes a simmering stew of madness that is really difficult to comprehend some 50+ years after the onset of the civil rights movement in these United States of America. To top it off, there are black ministers and black men and women devout churchgoers in this country who sincerely love their white spouses yet cannot even begin to fathom the legitimacy of gay, black people being members of God's beautiful family.

If only it stopped there. The racism that exists in the largely white, gay community in the US is well documented by numerous sources. So I don't need to address that here.What is less well documented and less well known are the various types of objectification of gay, black men by mostly white gay men that also exists. As a well educated, black, gay professional who is articulate, well spoken, smart, self assured and spiritually grounded, I have been told on more occasions than I care to remember by white men who were romantically interested in me, that ultimately I simply wasn't "black enough" for them. Hmm, what's up with that I thought. So being the inquisitive son of my mother I've always been, I inquired about this. I quickly came to understand that what that often meant was that I was not "ghetto" enough for these men. A further distillation of that revealed that these men had created some colonialist story that directed them to believe that the only valuable black partner was one who spoke in perpetual Ebonics, had gold teeth and lived either a real or pretend thug life---not that there's anything wrong with any of that. Its just that these men believed that having a black boyfriend had to be synonymous with being with a black man who exemplified those traits.

Lord Have Mercy!

It gets worse. During a period of time when I was actively involved in online dating while living in The San Francisco Bay Area, I made a conscious decision to attempt to date as many African American men as possible. I enjoyed and continue to enjoy the company of black men, socially and otherwise. I had too often lived in locales where dating black men was severely limited. So I attempted to rectify this when I lived in an area with a substantial black, gay community. No dice. Approximately eighty percent of the black gay men I encountered immediately informed me that they did not date other black men. What? That's right. I tell no lie. Roughly the remaining twenty percent informed me that they were intimidated by my level of education and intelligence. But that's not how they framed it. Usually they simply said I was just, "too white."

Lord Have Mercy!

I don't know if Don Lemon has a partner. If he doesn't, some of this madness likely awaits him as he tries to navigate the whole gay dating scene. I wish him luck. Of course, plain old unadulterated homophobia, racism and heterosexism await him as well.

I have just scratched the surface here of the trials and tribulations that face most openly gay black men in America. So I have a lot of respect for any back man, not to mention a well known public figure of a black man who chooses to enter this wild fray. I know Don Lemon has done so with the clear intention of positively impacting all that madness and making it easier for others who will eventually follow suit. You have my blessings, love and prayers my brother Don. May the force be with you. You're gonna need it, baby!

Gay Pride 2011: George and Farid Want To Get Married (In New York!)

If you live in New York State and support Marriage equality, you can go here to have your voice be heard

Gay Pride 2011: One Martin Luther King, Jr. Contemporary Who "Gets It"--Clarence B. Jones

“[Harvey Milk's] real life experience in the Castro District of San Francisco, confirmed the wisdom of Frederick Douglass that “power concedes nothing without a demand."

“So, I say to my friends and colleagues in the civil rights movement, and community and church-based organizations and leaders, that the protection and advancement of our permanent interests requires that we, once and for all, immediately, effective yesterday, cease our direct or indirect participation in or support of a belief system which relegates our LGBT brothers and sisters to less than the total and complete benefits WE enjoy as citizens. These must include, of course, the elemental and fundamental right to marry the one you love, who may be of the same sex; and, remain entitled to all of the rights, privileges and immunities enjoyed by us so-called “straight” people.

“Let me make it plain: the protection and advancement of the permanent interests of both the “straight” and LGBT communities require that we actively seek to build a working coalition to acquire and exercise sufficient political power to mandate what we want; rather than just pleading and petitioning for what we believe to be just. We must take names and 24/7 hold to account those who seek to block or limit the full enjoyment of our divinely given rights. This is the lesson that the history of the struggle to protect and insure the sanctity of human rights and dignity teaches us.

“This is what the legacy of Harvey Milk, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King, Jr. requires of us.”

— Clarence B Jones, Scholar in Residence, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Research and Education Institute at Stanford University,
from his essay In Commemoration of Harvey Milk
 

Gay Pride 2011: Black, Gay Author, Activist and Media Analyst Herndon Davis On The Don Lemon "Blackout" In The Black Media

"If Black America could embrace, accept and defend a convicted dog fighter, a suspected murderer and suspected pedophiles in the name of Michael Vick, OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson and R. Kelly then why could it not further embrace, accept and defend an educated, articulate, highly visible and very successful cable news anchor in the name of Don Lemon? So far black community praise for Don Lemon's coming out has been lukewarm to tepid to say the least. Although lauded within black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) circles, his monumental step has barely registered a peep on black mainstream media radars."
                                                                       ~Herndon Davis

Gay Pride 2011: Civil Unions Begin in Chicago: Black, Lesbian Couple Are First In Line

Lakeesha Harris and Janean Watkins

Civil Unions Start for Illinois Gays
By Michelle Garcia

Couples lined up at courthouses across Illinois Wednesday as civil unions became available for gay and lesbian couples for the first time in the state.

Lakeesha Harris and Janean Watkins were the first in line at the Cook County Clerk's office. They were one of about 75 couples waiting at the downtown Chicago building, where 2,000 licenses are expected to be issued Wednesday, officials told the Chicago Sun-Times.

“We’ve been ostracized and relegated to the bottom rung of society,” Harris said in the article. “I feel like this is some sort of justice for us, for our family. I’m so grateful. I’m thankful.”

Read the rest of the article here.