MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog

National Black Justice Coalition "Power of Us" Conference April 24-26

The Black LGBT community will take center stage next month in Baltimore as several hundred Black LGBT people, their Straight allies, family and friends will gather along with over 50 national experts spanning 35 workshops, panel discussions, Q&As and receptions at the National Black Justice Coalition’s "Power of Us" Conference in Baltimore, MD, April 24-25-26, 2008.  REGISTER NOW!

The Power of Us National Convention - an annual historic gathering beginning in 2008 - will convene the nation's preeminent thinkers to highlight Black LGBT and same-gender-loving couples, families, high-profile activists, religious and spiritual leaders, organizers, artists, designers and more.  The aim is to break down walls of homophobia and racism by educating the public  of the vibrant, affirming and supportive lives of Black LGBT people and same-gender-loving activists who are committed to developing and honing their skills, celebrate victories, build community, and be inspired by preeminent visionaries of our and other movements for social justice and equality. 

The National Black Justice Coalition is a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black same-gender-loving, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. The Coalition works for social justice, equality, and an end to racism and homophobia.

The National Black Justice Coalition envisions a world where all people are fully empowered to participate safely, openly, and honestly in family, faith and community, regardless of race, gender-identity or sexual orientation.

Thought for the Day, MLK Day, 2008

"All you require is You, and your ability to think things into being.  Everything that has been invented and created throughout the history of humankind began with one thought.  From that one thought a way was made, and it manifested from the invisible into the visible."

"Take the first step in faith.  You don't have to see the whole staircase.  Just take the first step."   ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Homosexuality against African culture, says op-ed

A gentle notice to all progressive souls who need to be reminded that not all anti-gay writing comes from white heterosexual Christian Western males. On allAfrica.com, Pamela Ankunda pens a piece "Homosexuality is Against Nature and African Culture," that pleads for Westerners to realize that "Africa has got its own societal values and morals."

Miss Cleo, lesbian

The story by Greg Hernandez in a recent issue of The Advocate tells of famed infomercial psychic Miss Cleo's coming out.

She says she’s actually not a psychic but more of a spiritual counselor or spiritual adviser.

“I’m more a shaman, an elder in a community who has visions and gives direction to people in their village. My clients and my students are my village. I take care of this community. If you sit down at my table, you have to take away a lesson and not just learn what is going to happen tomorrow. I also perform weddings—both gay and straight marriages—and house cleansings and blessings.”

Thank God you are straight (and male)

Via exgaywatch (and the Washington Blade) comes this vignette about Bishop Alfred A. Owens, Jr. having an altar call for his straight male Jesus-worshippers.  Ignoring the fact that Christian salvation is a gift of grace (as is one's heterosexuality, on their same theoogy), Owens screamed out in a sermon that "it takes a real man to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior!"  This, of course, excludes biological males who are gay or, presumably, effeminate: “I'm not talking about no faggot or no sissy”.  He then asked the men to come to the front of the church in order to thank God for their heterosexuality.

Our Voice

I’m in the middle of reading a great book right now. It’s called The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation.

As I was reading it over lunch today, I found that I had many thoughts stirring around in my head. Of course, there are the obvious parallels between the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s and the movement that we are in the midst of today as the GLBT community strives for equality in marriage.

Other thoughts came to mind also.

Black, Christian, and Gay

I came across this article in my daily blog reading via Negrophile. I wanted to post it here, because it's not often that one sees black gay couples covered and portrayed in this manner in the media. So, maybe a few more people will see it who wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

Michael Belcher and Walter Houston stand in the cold outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in downtown Detroit. Surrounded by strangers, they're in the midst of a gay marriage rally.

For months, Belcher, 33, and Houston, 43, have watched similar rallies on TV. They've seen the crowds of mostly white men and women holding picket signs, shouting for equal rights, lining up for marriage licenses.

That's fine for San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, they say.

But this is Detroit -- a city that's more than 80 percent African American, heavily soaked in a Christian tradition and chilly toward the gay community.

"We're gay and we're black and we're Christian," Houston says, back at the couple's first-floor flat in northwest Detroit. "God wants us to do this. This is something we prayed for." The couple couldn't let white activists fight alone.

"God bless them," Houston says. "I'm glad they're there. But they cannot represent our community."

In the gay marriage struggle, Belcher and Houston represent a segment rarely seen in the national debate, but one that is important, especially in Detroit.

Last year, the couple exchanged vows in a commitment ceremony in a small church in Ferndale. They're hopeful that their ceremony will be fortified by a marriage license. But Belcher and Houston have more to overcome than legal hurdles; they're also fighting culture. They are a minority within a minority.

The article also underscores the particular dilemma black gays, and specifically this couple, find themselves upon coming out.

The African-American community and Christian churches they grew up in don't accept them because they're gay, they say. And because of their race, they don't always feel comfortable in the gay community.

Coming out as gay or lesbian can be especially difficult for African Americans, says Beverly Greene, a psychologist at St. John's University in New York who specializes in counseling gays and lesbians of color.

"More is at stake," she says. "They don't have as many places to go in the gay and lesbian community." Black gays and lesbians often depend more heavily on their community than white people do, says Greene. And the mainstream African-American church has traditionally been a safe harbor, a key social institution, not just a place of worship.

It also provides a glimpse into the church the couple attends, one where they have managed to find acceptance; safe harbour, if you will.

It's worth reading, if only because it's a rare positive portrayal of black gay men in committed relationships. Check it out if you have time, and share it with someone else.

There's been a discussion going on at a burst of light following Oprah's show featuring black "men who have sex with men" on the "DL." Donald asked of Oprah,

Be bold and present our lives more fully. We are your brothers, fathers, uncles, cousins, teachers, bosses, assistants and your best friends. And some of us have taken the responsibility for raising the children that our communities tend to forget. Be bold and present the similarities of our lives. We love the women in our lives; we love you. Don't use us to regress back into a sensationalism that is beneath you - prove that you can see all of us, who we are wholly, our highs and our lows, our entire lives. True, it is up to us to tell our own stories, but we depend on you to tell the truth from your vantage point. Oprah, I beg you to do everything you are empowered to do to tell the whole truth.

And Ronn added,

Also, I think an old Roger Grimsby quote sums it all up when it comes to Oprah: "You can show as much bias with what you DON'T report." By focusing on such narrow parameters when it comes to BGM/SGL communities, Oprah does play into homophobic mindsets. I would love for a show focusing on positive role models from the same.

I think portrayals like the one of the couple in this article, which are rarely seen, might be what they have in mind. And if Belcher and Hudson were featured on Oprah, I'd tune in.

Commentary: Black church history comes out of the closet

A commentary in The Advocate from Atlanta-based author Herndon L. Davis explores the role of the UFC and Fellowship 2000 in Black and gay America. Here's a clip:

Too many of us took the abuse and shrugged it off when the gay-bashing sermons came our way. We quietly thought to ourselves, I deserve it, and then moved on. Sadly, many of us still have that particular slave mentality. Although we may not take physical abuse, the emotional, verbal, and spiritual abuse we do take is far worse, more painful, and significantly more devastating as it drives and eventually destroys our lives...

Unless we stand up and speak out to the black church and demand a relook, reconsideration, and a refreshed analysis of scripture, spirituality, and our lives as godly men and women who also happen to be gay and lesbian, we will forever be doomed to the abusive and bloodied hands of condemnation of the black church.

Professor E. Patrick Johnson says being around self-affirming gays was a source of strength

A feature in the Southern Voice describes gay events set to recognize Black History Month in February. Among the events is a book reading by E. Patrick Johnson, an associate professor of performance studies and African-American studies and author of Appropriating Blackness. The book includes topics related to homosexuality and spirituality:

Many black gay men in the South were also raised in religious homes, which created inner turmoil over reconciling their spirituality and their sexual orientation, says Johnson, a North Carolina native.

"I dealt with it by being around positive gay people who weren’t always necessarily black, but were self-affirming about themselves and about me. It gave me enough strength to accept who I am," he says. "More and more folks are finding ways to do that."