There are many black Americans who will never support same-sex marriage.
Most opposition is likely centered in African-American churches and with congregation members. This perception has been reinforced this week by a series of "robocalls" to registered voters in East St. Louis and other areas throughout the state of Illinois in opposition to a proposed bill that would recognize same-sex marriage.
The calls feature pastor James Meeks of Chicago, a former Illinois state senator who speaks on behalf of the Chicago-based African-American Clergy Coalition. In the call, he urges people to contact their state representative (in East St. Louis, that's Rep. Eddie Lee Jackson) and stand against gay marriage.
According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released in April, 51 percent of black respondents favored same-sex marriage. In 2010, a similar poll found that 37 percent of black Americans were in favor. The same poll concluded that 53 percent of all respondents supported same-sex marriage (including 73 percent of Democrats), and 42 percent were opposed.
While the majority of black Americans might support same-sex marriage, I’m here to tell you that the overwhelming majority of us do not find any similarity between the quest for gay rights and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. It might seem petty, but many black people are hesitant to voice support for gay marriage simply for this reason.
I’ve read and heard from very knowledgeable people whom I like and respect that the same-sex marriage debate is the same as public accommodation battles (using the same drinking fountains or bathrooms as whites) were for black Americans.
I support same-sex marriage, civil unions, or whatever will enable people of the same sex to have the same rights any married couple is guaranteed. However, to be discriminated against because of one’s skin color or to face violence as a result is something different than the quest for recognition of same-sex marriage.
Ellis Cose, author of The End of Anger: A New Generation's Take on Race and Rage, wrote in a 2011 column for USA Today that “...there are similarities between the movement for racial equality and the movement for gay rights. But in many respects, they are more different than they are alike.”
He continued, “With gays, we are not looking at roped-off communities or at the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage. We are certainly looking at the workings of prejudice, which, in all its guises, ought to be condemned. But because that prejudice is not linked to a system of economic oppression that will leave gay communities permanently incapacitated, the lack of social acceptance faced by gays—and even the violence visited upon those identified as gay—will not necessarily haunt their descendants generations after attitudes begin to change.”
Same-sex marriage proponents have countered with “robocalls” of their own, featuring former NAACP President Julian Bond. He begins his message by saying, "I know something about fighting for what’s fair and just.”
This certainly will lead to more comparisons between the Civil Rights Movement and gay rights. The percentage of black Americans supporting same-sex marriage could some day become an overwhelming majority. I hope it is soon.
But connecting the two situations will only slow progress.
Commentary by Alvin Reid
