Campaign Against Black Homophobia Launches On Long Island Rail Road

[FreeState]

Not to sure how I feel about a campaign aimed at just one segment of homophobia - Im glad its being addressed but Id rather it be part of a larger campaign that targets homophobia.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/02/campaign-against-black-homophobia.html

Sponsored by a Long Island-based LGBT group, an ad campaign against homophobia in the African-American community has been launched on the Long Island Rail Road. Via Newsday (subscription required):

In between ads for TV shows and clothes on the Long Island Rail Road is a different kind of message. These ads feature pictures of young African-American men with their families, at church and on the basketball court. At the top of each poster are the words, "I am gay." The Bay Shore-based Long Island GLBT Services Network sponsored the ads with a $37,000 grant from the state health department. David Kilmnick, chief executive of the group, said he hopes the ads will start a conversation within black communities about homosexuality and homophobia. "This is the first time there's this visible of a campaign and so widespread across the entire Island," he said. "It's in your face in a positive way. . . . It's talking about 'We're gay and this is our home and this is our community.' " Dale Anthony Edmonston, an African-American AIDS activist from Hempstead, said homophobia in the black community has had disastrous results for black Long Islanders who are gay. "In the African-American community, it's taboo to talk about gays and lesbians," he said. "Many members of the African-American community have family members who are gay and lesbian. And it's not discussed and they can't say nothing in their family and so they go outside of the box to find the happiness and support that they think that they need, which is allowing a lot of people to put themselves at risk."

Rev. Reginald Tuggle of Long Island's Memorial Presbyterian Church calls the ad "silly" and "reprehensible."

"There's no movement to single out homosexuals" in the black community, Tuggle said, adding that if homosexuality is discussed, it's usually in a teasing way. Gays are not a topic of discussion in many black churches, he said - especially since other issues, such as unemployment and criminal justice, are more relevant. "People who are gay come in all races," Tuggle said. "And homophobia exists in every community. To say that only black people don't like black people who are gay, that's silly. That's reprehensible."

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. people target the homophobia in their communities

its the only way to get rid of it

i target homophobia in south asians. it works better that way.

i am glad black gay activists are extending the conversations in their community. Decreasing homophobia in the black community will really do wonders for black lgbt folk.

[county worker]

2. If I am not mistaken, prop 8 would have failed of the all the African Americans that voted Dem would...

have voted against it.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. yes, but thats an unrealistic hope to have of any community

there are going to be bigots/religious bigots especially in any given community

[county worker]

4. We felt that since Barack was winning that prop 8 would fail.

So many people voted Dem and against equal rights for gays. It was kind of a shock to know that.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. yes, but black people were not the only dems who voted against equal marriage

is all my argument there was :)


lots of people voted for obama and against equality, at the same time. the irony was pretty rich. :(

[mitchtv]

9. hell, the caged chickens

won rights too.

[mitchtv]

8. I believe that holds true of all those who

rejected the anti choice parental notification initiative rejected H8 too. they didn't. So there were pro choice people who voted aginst us too, I am more bitter about that.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

10. yes, that to me is much worse as well

because clearly these people were not relious bigots and did believe in expanding rights

[joeybee12]

6. The good reverend Tuggle's response shows that the ads are needed...

...if there's homophobia in every community and race (which there is), why does he find it so wrong to talk about it in his own?

[jeremyfive]

7. I was deeply ashamed of the black response to Prop 8.

It made me question my longtime involvement in the civil rights movement. If I don't resist when they come for my brother, who will be there to resist when they come for me?