The linked article from The Nation, is a must-read in my opinion, and so please go check it out.  What I want to draw attention to is the need for the LGBTQ community to very quickly and thoroughly, begin to have meaningful dialogues about race and racism within the movement. (Emphasis is mine)

And now, with Obama’s bold proclamation, the old fears that black people will simply be too homophobic to back a candidate that is in favor of same-sex marriage are resurfacing. That’s ridiculous. Yes, according to a composite of ABC/Washington Post polling data, 55 percent of black people oppose same-sex marriage, but even with that being the case, in California in 2008 the black voted supported Prop 8 and Obama. It’s true that in 2008 Obama was not a supporter of same-sex marriage, and that at the time voters did not have to reconcile voting for a pro&endash;marriage equality candidate if they didn’t support it themselves. But as Keith Boykin points out over at BET, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and former New York Governor David Paterson (both black men) have both been vocal proponents of marriage equality and enjoyed support from the black community. It’s an unfounded idea that black voters reject black politicians that support same-sex marriage.

In 2008, the year Obama was elected, California’s Proposition 8, a ballot initiative to take away same-sex marriage rights in the state, passed and again black people found themselves being blamed for rights being denied to the LGBT community, untrue as that was. Yes, a majority of black voters supported Prop 8, but only 10 percent of the overall vote in favor of the initiative came from black voters.

I’m of the belief that now that Obama has cleared the way for a Democratic Party plank for Same-sex marriage, is the LGBTQ communities responsibility to do everything in our power to get him re-elected.  Part of that is willing to see real change n the way we work for that election and the partnerships we form toward that end. And part of it is about being willing to release any old baggage that one or both sides use to keep a division alive. Is it real or a construction that there is a wall between the African American community and the LGBTQ community? Whatever it is how do we dismantle it?

via No, Backing Marriage Equality Wont Cost Obama Support of Black Voters | The Nation.