>Let me put this another way. My relatives in the Deep South
>(grandmother, grandfather, lots of aunts and uncles), in rural
>Arkansas to be precise, are deeply opposed to gay marriage. I would
>imagine that lots of black people are opposed for the same reason,
>i.e., THEY ARE BAPTISTS.
How do they feel about abortion, criminal justice, teen pregnancy.....?
This is from an article shag pointed to yesterday. This issue is more complicated than someone agreeing with your grandma about marriage:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-05-18/news/whose-dream/1
It's puzzling that the black church is so much more conservative on same-sex marriage than it is on other divisive issues such as abortion. The answer may lie in the invisibility of the black gay and lesbian community. While the black church embraces single mothers, drug addicts, and ex-cons, it does not embrace black homosexuals largely because they haven't organized to make their presence felt. Instead, black gays and lesbians have been shamed and silenced into a kind of "don't ask, don't tell" relationship with the church.
A few years ago I interviewed Reverend H. Beecher Hicks, pastor of a popular black church in Washington, D.C. Hicks strongly condemned homosexuality and told me that "those who seek to find a way to legitimize this particular lifestyle will meet with no success." But days later when I visited his church for Sunday service, I recognized a number of black gay men in the congregation. Some were members of the choir, others were ushers, and a few had even more prominent roles. I can't imagine how this church would survive without black gay men, and I can't imagine that the homophobia would continue from the pulpit if they spoke up against it.
But they don't speak up. Far too many black gays and lesbians maintain a truce with the church that allows them to serve quietly, and this conspiracy of silence enables the church to remain simultaneously the most homophobic institution in the black community and the most homo-tolerant. While black gays and lesbians have been sidelined, the white gay community has been caught off guard. As conservatives wisely used black ministers to speak against same-sex marriage, the gay community put out images of white couples and put white spokespeople forward, thereby creating the perception that this is an issue for white folks trying to cash in on the black struggle.