Gay 'Brothers and Sisters' Need NAACP

At the recent centennial celebration of the NAACP's founding and courageous achievements, President Barack Obama challenged the nation's oldest civil rights group to throw itself in the coming 100 years into eradicating the "prejudice, bigotry and discrimination" that still mar America.

Obama declared, "The pain of discrimination is still felt in America: By African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their God. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights. ...

"(D)iscrimination cannot stand. Not on account of color or gender; how you worship or who you love. Prejudice has no place in the United States of America," he added.

The president's inclusive message had special resonance for black Americans who are also lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. A great many remain closeted for fear of rejection by the African-American community.

Here was the nation's first black president including gay people's struggles under the umbrella of civil rights in speaking to the movers and shakers of the black community, which sadly is torn over the rightful place of gay Americans.

Jason Bartlett of Connecticut, one of the nation's two openly gay black state legislators, said the significance of Obama's message can't be overstated.

"LGBT issues still are seen as different, and that supporting them is supporting white LGBT people rather than black LGBT people," says Bartlett, who is also deputy director of the gay National Black Justice Coalition.

"That is why the president's wording was so important. The phrase 'brother and sister' has a special cultural meaning.

We need the NAACP out there saying, 'LGBT rights are civil rights,' and saying it because we, who are LGBT and black, are part of the black family," Bartlett adds.

The NAACP's help is badly needed. As the National Black Justice Coalition's "At the Crossroads" reported, black LGBTs can be disproportionately hurt by government policies harming gay families because, for example, black same-sex households are nearly twice as likely as white ones to having children. (Read report at NBJCoalition.org.)

Of course, some of the most passionate supporters of full equality for gay Americans include such civil rights titans as NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.

But the NAACP as an organization has yet to throw its full weight into the push for gay equality. Bartlett and other black LGBTs hope that the centennial convention marked a turning point.

Bartlett used the occasion to urge the NAACP board of governors to pass supportive resolutions. Black LGBT people "need you," he stressed.

The NAACP's LGBT Equality Task Force was unveiled at a session that spotlighted anti-gay hate crimes and discrimination in schools, employment and marriage. Alicia Skillman, executive director of Michigan's gay Triangle Foundation, addressed the tragic consequences when LGBT youth don't feel safe at school: Bullied or even beaten, many drop out. Some commit suicide.

"It was an important step to be able to focus on these issues at the NAACP convention," Skillman says. "We need the NAACP to be more vocal."

Sylvia Rhue, interim executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, agrees and believes "change is in the air" at the NAACP.

The 100-year-old giant, which grew great by demanding that America heed her better angels, could play an amazing role in the fight to free black gay men and lesbians from the pain of discrimination.

Deb Price of The Detroit News writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. To find out more about Deb Price and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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