BLACK WOMEN, GAY MARRIAGE, AND PROPOSITION 8

GAY MARRIAGE AND A MORAL MINORITY

By CHARLES M. BLOW

Published: November 29, 2008

Earl Wilson/The New York Times

Charles M. Blow

We now know that blacks probably didn’t tip the balance for Proposition 8. Myth busted. However, the fact remains that a strikingly high percentage of blacks said they voted to ban same-sex marriage in California. Why?

 

There was one very telling (and virtually ignored) statistic in CNN’s exit poll data that may shed some light: There were far more black women than black men, and a higher percentage of them said that they voted for the measure than the men. How wide was the gap? According to the exit poll, 70 percent of all blacks said that they voted for the proposition. But 75 percent of black women did. There weren’t enough black men in the survey to provide a reliable percentage for them. However, one can mathematically deduce that of the raw number of survey respondents, nearly twice as many black women said that they voted for it than black men.

Why? Here are my theories:

(1) Blacks are much more likely than whites to attend church, according to a Gallup report, and black women are much more likely to attend church than black men. Anyone who has ever been to a black church can attest to the disparity in the pews. And black women’s church attendance may be increasing.

According to a report issued this spring by Child Trends, a nonprofit research center, weekly church attendance among black 12th graders rose 26 percent from 1993 to 2006, while weekly church attendance for white 12th graders remained virtually flat. In 2006, those black teenagers were nearly 50 percent more likely to attend church once a week than their white counterparts. And it is probably safe to assume that many of them were going to church with their mothers since Child Trends reported that around the time that they were born, nearly 70 percent of all black children were born to single mothers.

(2) This high rate of church attendance by blacks informs a very conservative moral view. While blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic, an analysis of three years of national data from Gallup polls reveals that their views on moral issues are virtually indistinguishable from those of Republicans. Let’s just call them Afropublicrats.

(3) Marriage can be a sore subject for black women in general. According to 2007 Census Bureau data, black women are the least likely of all women to be married and the most likely to be divorced. Women who can’t find a man to marry might not be thrilled about the idea of men marrying each other.

Proponents of gay marriage would do well to focus on these women if they want to win black votes. A major reason is that black women vote at a higher rate than black men. In the CNN national exit poll, there were 40 percent more black women than black men, and in California there were 50 percent more. But gay marriage advocates need to hone their strategy to reach them.

First, comparing the struggles of legalizing interracial marriage with those to legalize gay marriage is a bad idea. Many black women do not seem to be big fans of interracial marriage either. They’re the least likely of all groups to intermarry, and many don’t look kindly on the black men who intermarry at nearly three times the rate that they do, according to a 2005 study of black intermarriage rates in the Wisconsin Law Review. Wrong reference. Don’t even go there.

Second, don’t debate the Bible. You can’t win. Religious faith is not defined by logic, it defies it. Instead, decouple the legal right from the religious rite, and emphasize the idea of acceptance without endorsement.

Then, make it part of a broader discussion about the perils of rigidly applying yesterday’s sexual morality to today’s sexual mores. Show black women that it backfires. The stigma doesn’t erase the behavior, it pushes it into the shadows where, devoid of information and acceptance, it become more risky.

For instance, most blacks find premarital sex unacceptable, according to the Gallup data. But, according to data from a study by the Guttmacher Institute, blacks are 26 percent more likely than any other race to have had premarital sex by age 18, and the pregnancy rate for black teens is twice that of white teens. They still have premarital sex, but they do so uninformed and unprotected.

That leads to a bigger problem. According to a 2004 report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black women have an abortion rate that is three times that of white women.

More specifically, blacks overwhelmingly say that homosexuality isn’t morally acceptable. So many black men hide their sexual orientations and engage in risky behavior. This has resulted in large part in black women’s becoming the fastest-growing group of people with H.I.V. In a 2003 study of H.I.V.-infected people, 34 percent of infected black men said they had sex with both men and women, while only 6 percent of infected black women thought their partners were bisexual. Tragic. (In contrast, only 13 percent of the white men in the study said they had sex with both men and women, while 14 percent of the white women said that they knew their partners were bisexual.)

So pitch it as a health issue. The more open blacks are to the idea of homosexuality, the more likely black men would be to discuss their sexual orientations and sexual histories. The more open they are, the less likely black women would be to put themselves at risk unwittingly. And, the more open blacks are to homosexuality over all, the more open they are likely to be to gay marriage. This way, everyone wins.

E-mail chblow@nytimes.com

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Wow.

Talk about a blow-job of an article.

You insult and demean Black women as if the fact that Black women have minds of their own is some form of deviancy or dreaded aberration. Where do I start…….

“(1) Blacks are much more likely than whites to attend church, according to a Gallup report, and black women are much more likely to attend church than black men. Anyone who has ever been to a black church can attest to the disparity in the pews. And black women’s church attendance may be increasing.”

So, because more Black women attend church that is what…an anomaly? Is it Black women’s faults that Black men think that they do not need to hear the word of God (provided it is not some woman-hating/gay-bashing sermon of the day?) Pray tell, what is stopping Black men from attending church?

“(2) This high rate of church attendance by blacks informs a very conservative moral view. While blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic, an analysis of three years of national data from Gallup polls reveals that their views on moral issues are virtually indistinguishable from those of Republicans. Let’s just call them Afropublicrats.”

And I call bullshit. You do not have to attend church to have a conservative view. On the other hand, any person who is all conservative, or all liberal, scares me. No normal human being is conservative all the time nor liberal all the time. (Notice that I said “normal”.) There are times when a person is conservative on some things, and liberal on others. People who cannot bend do more than snap like the proverbial tree branch. For you to cast all Black church members as conservative is condescending and vile.

Oh, as for them being “Afropublicrats”, some Blacks are neither Demobats nor ReThuglicans.

Some Black people are just plain independent-minded and non-monolithic that way.

Some gasp! are able to think and reason for themselves—–which is why many Blacks voted against this Prop. Where is the hated law that Black people MUST vote for every damn body’s prop, referendum, or recall that comes down the pipe, when everybody cannot wait to leech and parasite off of Black people, then kick Black people to the curbs?

How are homosexuals, especially White ones, any different from some of their racist, Black-race-hating kinfolk? Riddle me that, ‘kay.

Shocking isn’t it—–Black people who refused to bow down and kiss the rectums of those who demand that Blacks “vote my way, or the highway”.

“3) Marriage can be a sore subject for black women in general. According to 2007 Census Bureau data, black women are the least likely of all women to be married and the most likely to be divorced. Women who can’t find a man to marry might not be thrilled about the idea of men marrying each other.”

A damned lie.

Marriage is a sore spot for Black women, when the many Black women I talk to do desire marriage? No, women who are looking for a man (not an imitation one, and by imitation, I do not mean homosexuals; I mean the ones who look like men but refused to stand up and be men), want a man who will be a man who loves, honors and respects them. Black women are no different from any other woman; they seek a man who will  respect the womanhood and humanity of all women. Is that so wrong?

“Proponents of gay marriage would do well to focus on these women if they want to win black votes. A major reason is that black women vote at a higher rate than black men.”

So, that is the fault of Black women that Black men do not get up off their asses and go out and vote? Who is stopping these Black “men”?  Racist sheriffs? Vicious gun-toting White women? Asian gangbangers?  Navajo warlords? No one is stopping Black men from exercising their civic duty but Black men. Too many Black people died for Black men to piss their votes away, so if Black men do not vote, it is their own damned fault, and no one elses’.

“Many black women do not seem to be big fans of interracial marriage either.”

Ya’ know, who needs a White man to disparage and insult Black women when you can get a Black man to do it for the White man?

Many Black women are not against IRs. They get so tired of being left out of the dating/marriage market because of over 450 years of filthy, nasty lies against Black women that started with White men during slavery, through Reconstruction, and into Jane Crow segregation. The legacy of such denigrating sexist/racist stereotypes that are still dogging Black women even into the 21ST century. So, for you to lie that Black women are against IRs is hateful and misleading to many people who do not even take the time to speak to Black women on IRs.

In addition to the invisibility that Black women face in the dating/marriage market (that no Black man faces), who are you to have the balls to beat Black women down with the lie that all/many Black women are against IR marriage? There are many Black women who are interested in loving relationships between non-Black men——if the men had the backbone to see them as women, and not as less than human, the way so many non-Black men are content to view Black women.

It also does not help that some so-called Black men berate, beat down, and castigate Black women to anyone willing to listen to them. If more non-Black men would take the time to speak to Black women, instead of listening to so many lies that some self-hating Black men tell on Black women, as well as believe in White men’s centuries-old lies against Black women, that would be half the battle won for Black women in having their image not continuously being drug through the mud by Black-women haters, such as yourself.

Any race of men (and I will say SOME Black men) who hate and vilify their OWN women publicly, are not men in my eyes. Black men want respect from the rest of the world, they will never get it as long as they tear down the women of their own race to gain favor with Whites and non-Blacks.

Many Black women are against IR relationships/marriage. Really?  Tell a lie long enough, and loud enough, and eventually it will become the truth to every Tom, Dick, and Harlot out there.

“Second, don’t debate the Bible. You can’t win. Religious faith is not defined by logic, it defies it. Instead, decouple the legal right from the religious rite, and emphasize the idea of acceptance without endorsement..”

Oh, and the lies you are spouting about many Black women do not defy logic?

“So pitch it as a health issue. The more open blacks are to the idea of homosexuality, the more likely black men would be to discuss their sexual orientations and sexual histories. The more open they are, the less likely black women would be to put themselves at risk unwittingly.”

The ONLY intelligent thing you have stated so far.

I am not for homosexuals/lesbians having to hide their sexual orientation. Come out, and be allowed to be what you are, is how I feel on the subject. And I noticed you never mentioned lesbians; let me guess, in your world lesbians have no existence? I mean, how could that be, since I, a mere heterosexual Black woman has no validity in your eyes, how in Hades can a Black lesbian woman have any humanity in your eyes? Oh, silly me, only Black homosexual men rate worth and value, not Black lesbians. Sheesh.

As for pitching anything as a health issue—-another insult. Black people’s votes are not up for grabs, ‘kay?

So, gay is the new black, according to some misguided and disrespectful advocates? Why cannot gays stand on their own without usurping and highjacking the struggles of Black Americans? Why does every non-Black American group in America use the Civil Rights Movement and Black American’s sojourn in this country as something to be commodified and appropriated for their self-interests? Black American’s history that so many are so quick to use, but, as soon as any Black American speaks of their people’s history in this country, under slavery and segregation, those who would use our travails in this country to their own benefit, often are the first to tell us to Shut up! Get over it! Suck it up! be quiet, we do not want to hear of your people’s hells in this country!

Yet, they are often so glad to use Black people’s history to further their own gains, then turn around in many instances, and tell Black people to be silent on their own history!

You can NEVER compare Black people’s sufferings and Civil Rights issues with those of White homosexuals, unless you refuse to accept some very salient and terrifying facts:  not all the men in lynch mobs against Black people were heterosexual, and not only were Black women and girls raped by White master, slave overseer, White male visitor to the plantation, during Reconstruction, through segregation, and all the way into the 1970s. Lots of little Black boys and Black men were also raped by White homosexuals, or does anyone actually think that White homosexuals took a vow on restraining from raping and degrading Black males during slavery and segregation?

And not all the homosexual White men in America give a damn about Black people. Some do; many do not. Many only think of their own interests, and how they can use Black people the way so many non-Black people have used Black people through the decades, centuries and generations, for their own gain.

If many more white homosexuals cared for what happened to their fellow Black citizens, they would be in an uproar over racist disparities in the criminal (in)justice system; the continuing nasty hateful stereotypes against Black women, the continuing residential segregation of Black/White neighborhoods, the wide inequality of the wealth gap, the savage inequalities of sub-standard “education’, etc.

When more White homosexual/lesbians get up off their rectal orifices and champion the cause and humanity of their fellow Black citizens, then I will have more faith in them. When more White homosexuals/lesbians stand before Congress and demand an end to the racial profiling and unequal prison sentences meted out to Black women in comparison to those meted out to White women for the same crimes, when I see more White homosexuals and lesbians stream out into the streets protesting another Megan Williams, another Sean Bell, another Eleanor Bumpers, then, I will have more faith in White homosexuals/lesbians as fellow citizens who can care more for someone else, instead of always having a “What’s in it for me?” attitude.

Until then, a White man is still a White man in this country—-whether he be heterosexual or homosexual.

“And, the more open blacks are to homosexuality over all, the more open they are likely to be to gay marriage.”

And I call bullshit, again.

One does not necessarily follow the other. Needing Black people to vote against a prop like Prop 8 should not be some panacea to end the high rates of AIDS among Black women, nor should it be a bludgeoning blackjack/billyclub beat upon the heads of Black people. Black homosexuals should be able to come out of the closet, because their hiding harms them just as much as it harms Black women unknowingly involved with them. As for gay marriage. . . .

. . . .Black people’s vote are not some mess of pottage, ‘kay?

You may devalue and belittle Black women, but, hey, that’s you.

No one win-wins when Black people continue to be everyones scapegoat to leech and parasite off of, and whose tumultuous history in this country continues to be trivialized and made the butt of jokes.

You want Black women (and men) to vote for homosexuals rights, fine, but, I want to see more of them grow some balls and stand up with, and stand up for Black people. Or is that to much too ask?

Otherwise, why the hell should Black people always be the ones left holding the bag after everyone has sucked us dry and got what they wanted with no damn reciprocity towards Black people?

Riddle me that, ‘kay?

No one win-wins when Black people continue to be everyones scapegoat to leech and parasite off of, and whose tumultuous history in this country continues to be trivialized and made the butt of jokes.

You want Black women (and men) to vote for homosexuals rights, fine, but, I want to see more of them grow some balls and stand up with, and stand up for Black people. Or is that to much too ask?

Otherwise, why the hell should Black people always be the ones left holding the bag after everyone has sucked us dry and got what they wanted with no damn reciprocity towards Black people?

Riddle me that, ‘kay?