Friday, April 3, 2009

New Rainbow Cincinnati Post: Smitherman is right

New post over at my Rainbow Cincinnati blog on my take on the whole Smitherman/Finney thing. Eh... it's kind of anticlimatic at this point, isn't it? :-)

Make sure you check out the rest of the excellent content on that site by clicking on the link below!

5 comments:

Wolfie said...

Love you Barry.

But I din;t agree with alot of that post.

I'm sorry.

"Unfortunately, it seemed to be a signal that, despite a history of personal support and recent statements by the national NAACP strongly supporting same-sex relationship recognition, the local chapter was changing its position on the LGBT community"

The Local Chapter of the NAACP has not supported the Gay Community and did not stand behind the repeal back then. Only Smitherman did and he did that as a you wash my back I wash yours with his Council run.

And the "it is the ongoing underrepresentation of and seeming lack of concern about people of color within the LGBT community."

This is a correct statement but...

Theres a general ongoing underrepresentation of and seeming lack of concern about the whole LFBT community within the LGBT community.

"The fact that Smitherman understands it -- that a straight, African-American male was willing to say what so many of us within the community would be afraid to admit in public -- is admirable."

Sorry I don;t agreee with that either. It was nothing but deflection and spin and not admirable at all. Especially since the NAACP and he himself does not teach tolerance to the LGBT community and homophobia runs rampant ina much higher degree in the African American Community.

I don;t knoe Barry. Love ya much. But Where I do afree with bits of that post. And he was correct on one point which is a point that can be made right back at him. It wasn't enough to give him a "Right"

Sorry.

Anonymous said...

so, what's the solution: an LGBT Brown vs. Board of Education where Gay Blacks are bussed in to Gay events?

The problem in Cincinnati isn't that the LGBT community excludes Blacks; it's that the Black community excludes LGBTs, so disportionately they remain closeted and dis-integrated into mainstream LGBT life.

Anonymous said...

disproportionately- see, I CAN spel.

Anonymous said...

I do not see this racism in the gay community -- sorry, just don't. I think most gays are very, very progressive on issues of race (of course there are exceptions, always will be) -- much more so than black are even tolerant as to GLBT.

Why is it that in Smitherman's world view, gays are supposed to go beyond passive support and be active on issues of race -- when blacks on the whole are not even passively supportive of us?

If there is underrepresentation of racial minorities in local gay organizations, I defy you to show a single instance where they were deliberately excluded. There really is no solution but for them to involve themselves -- and I do believe the community would be and is quite welcoming.

Smitherman's entire approach is so offensive, it is difficult to know where to start. Even his over-annunciation of "let me get this right, G-L-B-T" and the words the acronym represents is a form of ridicule. He appears to be a homophobe who made a political calculation that did not pay off for him personally, is now embarassed and scape-goating gays, while trying to purge the taint with the help of Finney. That he uses the NAACP for this personal agenda -- I can't believe they are allowing this.

And Barry, using some sort of bigotry directed at college educated. "straight acting" white males as a solution? Really? Have we come to that, trying to denigrate and make second class members of our community based upon race, economic status and gender expression? That is not progressive -- it is reactionary.

Let's judge based upon character, folks. And we can start with that Smitherman fella, who has none.

Anonymous said...

Spoken like a true abuse junkie, Barry. Smitherman's playing you like a cheap violin. Lavender Liberal had the righteous, courageous reaction, which is to reject this cheap manipulation and subjugation. Why'd you choose Bilerica's slave mentality response?