On Proposition 8

A Racialicious Roundtable

Alternet recently reprinted an article by James Kim (written for The Nation), reporting:

If exit polls are to be believed, some 70 percent of African-Americans voted Yes on 8, as did 53 percent of Latinos and 49 percent of Asians; each of these demographics went heavily for Obama; blacks by a 94-to-6 margin. Los Angeles County, heavily minority, went 50-50 on Prop 8. These results have shocked gay activists, who knew from earlier polls, for example, that black voters favored Prop 8, but they were seeing much smaller margins, closer to 50 percent.

The easy, dangerous explanation for this gap, and one already tossed around by some white gay liberals in the bitter aftermath, is that people of color are not so secretly homophobic. But a more complicated reckoning — one that takes into account both the organizing successes of the Christian right and the failures of the gay movement — will have to take place if activists want a different result next time. First, there’s the matter of the Yes on 8 coalition’s staggering disinformation campaign. Ad after ad told voters that without Prop 8, their churches would be forced to perform same-sex unions and stripped of their tax-exempt status; that schools would teach their children to practice homosexuality, and, perhaps most effective, that a smiling Barack Obama had said, “I’m not in favor of gay marriage.” This last bit went out in a flier by the Yes on 8 campaign targeting black households.

[...]

For years, the California Christian right apparatus, long hampered by their nativism and racism, had been unable to make inroads into the state’s brown, yellow and black populations — a demographic goldmine in a state that is more than 50 percent minority and growing. Prop 8 may prove their gold rush. From the very beginning they bought up ad space in Chinese, black, Spanish and Korean media; they hosted massive rallies for ethnic Christians. The Sunday before election day, I went to Los Angeles City Hall for the most celebratory, most diverse rally I have ever attended; it was organized by Yes on 8 Chinese advocates.

So, it would appear that the passing of Prop 8 had a bit more to do with targeted outreach and good messaging than the inherent homophobia of nonwhite communities. Now, I am not saying that people of color can’t be bigoted or homophobic – we are. But what always chafes me about these issues is that people jump to a gut reaction like “blacks have a problem with homophobia” in their community without taking the time to figure out why something happened the way it did.

That aside though, Prop 8 brought up a lot of good conversations as to the nature of community building, homophobia in nonwhite communities, the idea of solidarity, and how we so often fail to notice the interlocking oppressions that manifest themselves when we try to mass organize.

I asked the contributors here to share their thoughts on the passing of Prop 8. Here is what they said.

Andrea Plaid:

This hurts me deeply.

It hurts me deeply that a majority of Black, Latin@, and Asian Californians refused to see how racial and sexual oppression–and liberation–are linked to each other. They voted to maintain their places in the kyriarchy instead of working for the freedom of another group who suffers–and have died and still die–to simply express their desire to create intimate, life-long relationships so they’ll have one person–just one person–bear witness to their lives. No, the PoCs who voted for this hateful policy are owed and do not owe a quid pro quo to queer communities, but they–we–do owe them the common courtesy to ensure an environment to be able to live peacebly with whomever they wish to live with. In a secular society–where, by definition do not have a state-endorse and -enforced religion and, in this particular societywe have so many to choose from and quite a few of us have traveled from religion to religion–should abide by the faith of civility. The same civility PoCs have lived, bled, and died for what we’ve demanded from whites is what our queer relatives, friends, co-workers, neighbors want from us. That’s all–nothing less and nothing more.

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