Black Queers Can't "Leave it to Beaver"

By Rev. Irene Monroe

July 2005

The news was out, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of African descent came from all over the country to attend the second "Souls a' Fire 2" conference held at the Chicago Theological Seminary the weekend of June 23-25. The theme was "Re-Imagining Black Religious Identity: Race, Class, Gender & Sexuality." Sponsored by the African American Roundtable of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif., the conference aimed to empower its participants to mobilize their black communities of faith in support of social justice for LGBTQ people of African descent.

The panel titles - "Wrapped Up, Tied Up, Tangled Up: The Politics of Aesthetic Maleness and Masculinity in Black Religious Culture," "Un-Holy Ghosts: Decolonizing the Churches of Our Youth," "Reclaiming Stonewall," and "Don't Leave it to Beaver" - were as captivating as the participants, including openly gay artists, activists, community leaders, ministers, and religious scholars.

"I think it's very different to do a conference on race, sexuality, gender and black religion," Johari Jabir, conference organizer and doctoral student at University of California at Santa Barbara, told The Windy City Times, a Chicago LGBTQ newspaper. "I think it's really different to do it with black gay and lesbian people who are religious scholars, ministers, and are out. What's really unique [about the conference] is that black gay and lesbian people have organized it."

And the discussions were enlightening, lively, and entertaining, often with the feel of a tent revival, or as one participant said, "being at church," but without the pretensions of having to hide, explain or be ashamed of one's sexual orientation.

Having to conceal one's sexual orientation in the black church and religious community has kept LGBTQ people of African descent at best marginalized in the larger black community, and at worst evicted from it. After too many years of the black church unabashedly not addressing the AIDS epidemic, which now affects heterosexual black women disproportionately higher than any population, the black church's collusion of the homophobic and irresponsible behavior of "down low" brothers who contribute to so many black women being infected with HIV, and the black church's recent sellout tactic of the venerable legacy of the civil rights movement in its partnership with the Christian Right's virulent attack of same-sex marriage, a cadre of openly gay activists of African descent came together to speak out on a host of social issues plaguing the black community.

The panel "Wrapped Up, Tied Up, Tangled Up: The Politics of Aesthetic Maleness and Masculinity in Black Religious Culture" discussed the historical development of black religious masculinity and charisma that contributes to the exclusive male leadership in the black church that is virulently heterosexist in its staged presentation and performance of black masculinity that is predicated on the artistic expression of gay men - that is, the choir and choir master. "Un-Holy Ghosts: Decolonizing the Churches of Our Youth" discussed ways the heterosexist music, liturgies, and theological rhetoric of the black church need to be challenged and changed. "Reclaiming Stonewall" discussed ways that sexual minorities of color can empower themselves by setting the agenda for their own queer communities rather than being told by the dominant white queer community. And "Don't Leave it to Beaver" looked at the troubling construction of gender and gender roles in both the black church and in black families that contributes to the heterosexist attitudes concerning the same-sex marriage debate.

"One of the homophobic aspects, particularly around religion, involves this new violent black conservative Christianity - and that's not our legacy. The conversion of west African slaves to Christianity was not about a literal reading of the bible, because they weren't literate. This interpretation of the bible isn't how we came to Christianity, but there's this homophobia connected to this new reading - and it's actually not just about the bible. Now you have ministers coming out against gay marriage," Jabir told The Windy City Times.

And while it is clear that black straight ministers are publicly out front railing against same-sex marriage, this is also a topic that even the religious LGBTQ community of African descent is reluctant to talk about. As lively as the debates and queries were at the conference, the room came to complete silence when H. Alexander Robinson, executive director and CEO of the National Black Justice Coalition, asked a question about marriage equality and the black LGBTQ community.

Robinson asked: "It seems to be an implicit if not explicit message that the current debate regarding civil recognition of covenant relationships between same-sex couples is either an attempt to replicate a failed institution, namely marriage, or an effort to recreate for gay and lesbians couples the idealized version of the nuclear family. In either case, the implication is that this is not an issue for the black LGBTQ communities. What is the line of social research and intellectual inquiry that is being pursued to ensure that we are providing appropriate protections and guidance to black families? What are we doing to assist these families to not make some of the same mistakes as their heterosexual counterparts? What new religious, spiritual, legal and social norms are we advocating to ensure the spiritual, emotional and physical health of our families?"

Robinson further pointed out that an analysis of the 2000 U.S. Census published by the National Black Justice Coalition and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force revealed that of the almost 85,000 same-sex couples in the U.S., 14 percent are black, and black LGBTQ families are much more likely to include children.

As more LGBTQ people of African descent come together for conferences like "Souls a' Fire 2," issues that are even troubling within this community can begin to be ironed out so that we can mobilize our entire communities of faith in support of our social justice issues.