There’s been a seismic cultural shift towards the acceptance of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and LGBT rights; but few could have predicted a time when African Americans — stereotyped as overwhelmingly homophobic — would become the face of that shift.
Football player Michael Sam is not only the first “out” gay man to be a likely NFL draft pick, he is the first out gay black man. Same for Jason Collins, the NBA basketball player who came out last year. Collins sat next to First Lady Michelle Obama at the recent State of the Union address. The mostly positive support both men received includes many African Americans. NBA star Carmelo Anthony cheered Collins’ decision saying, “I’m just glad he came out. A secret like that can eat you alive.”
It’s fair to say that Sam and Collins’ African-American support would have been minimal just a few years ago. Back then, black gays may have been embraced privately by family and friends, but they also could have been shunned publicly by black communities. Cultural schizophrenia allowed celebrated artists like writers James Baldwin and Audre Lourde a certain measure of support, while gay bashing was fodder for comedians (even closeted ones), something continued today with some hip-hop artists.
There was more tension as the gay rights movement became more vocal, and open hostility erupted when gays compared their struggle to African Americans’ battle for civil rights. And blacks opposed to homosexuality on religious grounds continue to resent the push to accept the societal secular view. It’s why the mostly white conservative National Organization for Marriage appealed to black Christian opposition to win a 61 percent victory for a constitutional ban against same-sex marriage and civil unions in North Carolina.
But, the nation’s first black Attorney General addressed the issue from a federal perspective. All same-sex couples married elsewhere will have all legal rights and privileges in every state, including North Carolina. When African-American Eric Holder put this policy change in place he affirmed the fight for gay rights as one of “the defining civil rights challenges of our time.”
And just as significantly, U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen last month became another example of African Americans at the forefront of the shifting cultural attitudes by declaring Virginia’s ban against same-sex marriage unconstitutional.
Ordinary African-American views on homosexuality, LGBT rights, and same-sex marriage range from full-on embrace to outright rejection. But the evidence of a shift is being documented. The Pew Research Center reports that just 10 years ago only 27 percent of African Americans supported same sex marriage; now 40 percent do. It’s an evolution worth noting.
Callie Crossley is the host of Under the Radar.
