[...] At the meeting, which drew many white voters from the Jackson area to the historically black Tougaloo College, a fact local Democrats said was noteworthy, Kerry listened as a black woman angrily decried gay-rights supporters for claiming the mantle of the civil-rights struggle.
"I don't care what they say — there is no correlation between gay rights and civil rights in terms of what black Americans have gone through," said the woman, who described herself as a registered Democrat but an "independent voter."
One white man booed the woman from the bleachers of the college gym, but Kerry held up his hands to stop the booing, while a few blacks clapped.
Kerry answered slowly, first laying out his minutely calibrated stance on gay marriage. "I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman," he said, to polite applause.
"But — but — but: I believe it’s important in the United States of America that we recognize that we have a Constitution which has an equal protection clause," he said, to growing applause.
Then Kerry drew a connection between racism and anti-gay crime, noting the 1998 murder of a gay college student, Matthew Shepard in Wyoming, but twice mangling a reference to James Byrd Jr., a black man who was dragged to his death the same year in Jasper, Texas, by three men including John William King, all of whom were convicted of murder.
"Let me tell you something, when Matthew Shepard gets crucified on a fence in Wyoming only because he was gay," he said, "when King (sic) gets dragged behind of a truck down in Texas by chains and his body is mutilated only because he's gay (sic) — I think that’s a matter of rights in the United States of America."
Most in the audience cheered, but his questioner was not satisfied.
"My point is homosexuality is an idea," she said. "You have never heard a doctor say, 'Mr. and Mrs. John Doe, you have a bouncing baby homosexual.' It's an idea."
Kerry replied: "Well, I know the deep beliefs, I respect, I'm a Christian, I've read the Bible, and I know you can find the clauses that go both ways. I'm not here to argue that with you."
He continued: "The only point I want to make to you is, I've talked to enough people — some of whom fought for their country in war — and I've talked to many of them who didn’t discover their own sexuality until they were 35, 40 years old, and it wasn't because they made a choice, it was because they found out who they were. And I think you have to respect that that is the nature of it. And you can look at it, and argue it, but you know what, that's irrelevant to the argument. American citizens deserve the protection of the equal protection clause." [...]
| That's what drew our attention in "Kerry Is Grilled on Gay Marriage and Attacks Bush on Sept. 11 Commission," David M. Halbfinger's New York Times account of the likely Democratic presidential nominee's visit to Jackson, Miss.
We urge readers to also take in Dr. Lester Spence's Vision Circle post "Gays and blacks," Jeremy Olshan's Newsday article "Rev Al: Support gay marriage" (via Queer Day) and the discussion on Kenyon Farrow's essay "Is gay marriage anti-black?" at Donald Andrew Agarrat's anziblog
posted in articles on March 7, 2004 10:03 PM | t (0)
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As a young gay male, and African American Law student who is firmly committed to equality for all people under the 14th Amendment, it literally sickens my stomach to hear black folks deride gay rights as "inferior" and not on the level of standard civil rights. There is alot to be desired from my people who obviously have forgotten what the bitter sting of discrimination feels like because it is now against the law to do so soley because of one's race. Some of my people have become just as bad as the people who once oppressed them and treated them worse than dog crap. Some of these black folks need a severe reality check and realize that when you allow injustice to happen anywhere, it is a threat to justice everywhere. My role model Justice Thurgood Marshall is probably turning in his grave by the way black folks are acting. If he were alive today, he would not tolerate discrimination against gay people any more than blacks, and it sickens me at how blacks today by their own racism and discrimination are destroying his legacy and everything hew worked his 85 years for. All you black people who are anti-gay need to wake up and need a SEVERE reality check.
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