Obama and the LGBT Community: The First Report Card

Well at least the small and shallow god of Abraham isn't racist in allowing his bigoted and homophobic followers to judge, hate and exclude gays.

Blacks do a great job of this themselves.

Sorry for the rant, but it's as *infantile,* to think America is based on some religious notion that 'Our Creator' is a prude, and that what conservatives do to everyone is of far less importance than making sure everyone has only the 'proper' kind of sex or affections and overbreeds...

They were convinced being *left-handed* was an insult to that God not too long ago, too. Went to great lengths to 'convert' them from their 'sinister' 'sins.'

'God' isn't a prude. Trying to appease Them with obsessions about sexuality won't 'save' anyone. Just set the stage for more stupidity to scapegoat someone else for the effects thereof.

Let's have a deeper look here, Safiyah, shall we?

"They are just one more in the line of victims of political rhetoric that stretches into infinity and should take it on the chin like everyone else."

So, it was OK for black people to 'take it on the chin,' but in your words, LBGT people shouldn't expect it to ever stop? Funny, I seem to remember, not too long ago, some preachers saying, 'Segregation Forever!' in the name of that very God.

So, what's going on, here, are you saying human rights not to be subject to anyone dumb enough to try and hit you in the chin with a closed fist are something it's right to put people through, or are you merely saying that 'how it's always been' as regards to black people is bound to be revoked at whim by theocrats, so you may as well gaybash for a particular theological basis for rights, anyway?

You do realize, that if our nation doesn't consider human rights *unalienable,* ...they can be taken away from *you,* too, regardless of how much you cry, 'Lord, Lord?'

Does something there make what you say *right?* Or just what you want?

"I can understand that they want their behavior perceived as “right and moral” but that is not going to happen as the confrontation between what they do and the moral code is going to leave them more bruised and battered than they political fight that they have weathered."

I hadn't realized that being quite literally bruised and battered by people who claim to speak for 'God' disqualified one from equal protection under the law in the United States of America.

"As the past informs future outcomes the LGBT community has no hope of success on this front. Each time the Creator spoke on this issue He has remained constant."

Unless of course, it was a queer person listening.

As it was for certain others, not too long ago.

Actually, the 'book religions' are pretty unique in claiming the Divine had some particular hate-on for LBGT people.

In fact, rather than trying to make straight people 'abstain from breeding, and all that comes with it, ' many views of the Divine actually *didn't think the Gods screwed up making LBGT people for some happy virtuous bonfire,*

But figured we had something else to do than be concerned with the actual materialistic realities of trying to give your kids a material advantage, as long as they made more kids....

Imagine that. Clergy being about more than resisting nasty, nasty old 'sexuality.'

By the way, Safiyah, if you *really* think putting our equality and citizenship in the position of whether or not certain factions find your 'piety' *useful* ...rather than as an innate right of all American citizens...

History shows you got another thing coming, however many holy books you wave, once certain 'undesirables' are out of the way.

It's always going to be someone. Long past when someone with a name and maybe a skin tone like yours is 'useful.'

When they run out of LBGTs and 'non Judeo-Christians,' or non-Abrahamics' they just find someone *else* to call a 'threat to the world and salvation as you know it.' However trivial the distinction may seem.

They do it every time.

You seem to be proceeding under a lot of false presumptions, Safiyah:

"I'm not even going to go "there" about whether or not the current Administration has done what it promised to do regarding homosexuals. First of all, the “Administration” can't remove a sanction that they had nothing to do placing on a thing."

If you're referring to anything in American law, then you are incorrect.

" It was foolish and wrongheaded for the LGBT community to expect to be legitimated by this or any other "Administration""

Legitimized would be the word, and it's religious conservatives who seem to refuse the right, obligation, and nature of American government authority, both in where equal protection under our laws is *obligatory* and how little this is about what you think is, can, or needs be 'legitimated' by your religious presumptions.

You may go on despising LBGT people if you so choose to think is 'holy,' ...you just aren't allowed to use the government to do it.

I'm not even going to go "there" about whether or not the current Administration has done what it promised to do regarding homosexuals. First of all, the “Administration” can't remove a sanction that they had nothing to do placing on a thing. It was foolish and wrongheaded for the LGBT community to expect to be legitimated by this or any other "Administration". They are just one more in the line of victims of political rhetoric that stretches into infinity and should take it on the chin like everyone else.
I can understand that they want their behavior perceived as “right and moral” but that is not going to happen as the confrontation between what they do and the moral code is going to leave them more bruised and battered than they political fight that they have weathered. As the past informs future outcomes the LGBT community has no hope of success on this front. Each time the Creator spoke on this issue He has remained constant. The message is unchanging, the condemnation He has promised for engaging in any and all of the acts that qualify one for inclusion in the LGBT community unchanged. As we Muslims say, “the pen is lifted and the paper is dry” on this one.
The larger issue is why does any of what I’ve said matter to the LGBT community anyway? The LGBT community has and will be doing as it pleases regardless of the condemnation and rebuke they receive from this society. Society can choose to embrace their behavior but in the end will it really satisfy when it is the Creator’s blessing that they truly seek.

"Our discussion raises the possibility that African-America is moored to traditional pillars of Christian theology that are vehemently homophobic. On the other hand, Ms. Payne strongly articulates the position that the Black Church is changing and that better days may be ahead."

I think a great deal of this troubling dynamic may have to do with an idea among 'Black Churches' in particular, that equality for all is somehow based, not in unalienable human rights for all as guaranteed by the Constitution and a maturing America, but merely by claims to religious 'righteousness.'

Which so happened to be the play that caught the conscience of the 'King' in the case of *racial* equality for black people, but... I think there's perhaps some fear among the 'Black Churches' that somehow their equality is *diminished* if they do not use Christianity to promote discrimination against people... Black people included, that *they* aren't 'religiously supposed to approve of.'

Of course, this is useful to social conservative political and corporate interests, ...how better to get people to feel compelled to vote for policies which are against their own social and ?economic interests? Say: "God Wills It! You don't wanna be associated with *those* sinners, do you?"

Injustice with multicolored perpetrators is not justice, though. And I think at the heart, even the preachiest civil rights leaders, know that, if they heard Dr. King, or the Gandhi that inspired him.

Sometimes it's just hard to let certain rings of power *go,* though.

Ms. Payne's description of Obama "walkin' slow" on gay rights issues is an euphemism for "doing the two-step shuffle" while pandering to homophobic Black Huckabees.

Obama deceived gays in his campaign and, albeit he is still the better of two evils, will live to politically pay for his deceit.

Another attempt to take a mythology-based belief system and pretend its tenets are not quite what they are. Just step away from it, develop your own mythology and move on. Create your own list of what is right and wrong, what foods to avoid, what other people to hate and kill, what silly customs to adopt. America lets you do this, take the opportunity.

On gay rights, messed up big time. Readily predictable. Foreseen. Won't be forgotten.

Grades are F across the board.

Are you aware of the POsition of the AME on homosexualtiy? I mean the current position. You write as if homophobia among African Americans is a thing of the past. Ever heard of the down low? What do you mean by "slow"?

Also, following your logic about persecution, one could ask the same regarding antisemitism in the Black nonJewish community. One could also speak to prejudice against Black gentiles by lighter-complected Jews, etc.

Ain't none of us whole.