Is Gay The Way?
Gerren Gaynor | 20090216

It's no secret that the gay population on Morehouse's campus does not go unnoticed. Take a walk down Brown Street on a clear spring day, and one will quickly learn that Morehouse College is an institution unlike no other for reasons far more than the "Morehouse Mystique."

Although Dr. Franklin has urged men of Morehouse on various occasions to treat each other with the utmost respect (especially homosexual students), I notice the prevailing discomfort between our heterosexual students and their homosexual counterparts. You know how it goes: a cluster of openly gay students walk by, and a group of heterosexual students suddenly stop what they're doing to either avoid making any contact whatsoever, or look on with a sense of disgust. Or when class discussions happen to run on the topic of homosexuality, and that one openly homosexual student steps up to the plate to defend himself and his lifestyle. The silence in the classroom is one of much uneasiness for no one wants to counter-respond in fear of coming off too strong. Awkward?

I don't want to get into the religious, scientific, or philosophical explanations and connotations of homosexuality; however, I ...   more »

I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.

Mildred Loving | Prepared for Delivery on June 12, 2007

The 40th Anniversary of the Loving vs. Virginia Announcement

When my late husband, Richard, and I got married in Washington, DC in 1958, it wasn’t to make a political statement or start a fight. We were in love, and we wanted to be married.

We didn’t get married in Washington because we wanted to marry there. We did it there because the government wouldn’t allow us to marry back home in Virginia where we grew up, where we met, where we fell in love, and where we wanted to be together and build our family. You see, I am a woman of color and Richard was white, and at that time people believed it was okay to keep us from marrying because of their ideas of who should marry whom.

When Richard ...   more »

To me, a Black Gay man who has endured both racism and heterosexism, and who sees no difference in the kind of discrimination they generate, this debate has always sounded silly. — Stuffed Animal

Parts One & Two | Stuffed Animal | Dec 31, 2008

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s April 1963 Letter From A Birmingham Jail is one of the defining documents of the American anti-segregation movement. Just about anybody who was alive in the early 1960s has heard of it. Dr. King wrote the Letter during a period of incarceration in Birmingham, Alabama. This was one of numerous occasions when civil disobedience on behalf of racial equality landed him behind bars. If the work MLK put into his Birmingham Jail essay is any indication, he certainly used his time in lock-up constructively. It was written in response to a public statement by eight White Alabama clergymen who opposed the confrontational tactics he used. They’d denounced him for leading street demonstrations, and argued that other, less disruptive means should be used to combat institutionalized racism.

It should come as no surprise that Dr. King’s oratory was no less powerful on paper than it was in the pulpit. After publication in the 12 June ...   more »

… the real problem has nothing to do with ministers and everything to do with Obama's inability or unwillingness to be a moral leader. Richard Cohen

By Richard Cohen | December 23, 2008 | Washington Post

Not that he was planning to attend, but Barack Obama should know that my sister's inauguration night party -- the one for which she was preparing Obama Punch -- has been canceled. The notice went out over the weekend, by e-mail and word of mouth, that Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation had simply ruined the party. Warren is anti-gay, and my sister, not to put too fine a point on it, is not. She's gay.

She is -- or was -- a committed Obama supporter. On the weekend before the presidential election, my sister and my mother drove from the Boston area, where they both live, to Obama's New Hampshire headquarters in Manchester. There my mother made 76 phone calls for Obama, which is not bad for someone who is 96, and gives you an idea of the level of commitment to Obama in certain precincts of my family.

I should say right off that my mother feels less ...   more »

By Cindi Knox on December 21, 2008 7:18 AM

On a Christian denominational discussion board, a person who is gay said the Christian church is the stated enemy of the gay community and a person who is clergy in that denomination said “Or do you mean the gay community is the stated enemy of many Christian churches, the UCC & MCC excluded, at least.”

Which got me thinking:

"What might it look like if someone wanted to treat Christians the way gay people are treated?"

For one, tax benefits afforded to other not-for-profit institutions would be denied to churches, probably on the basis of separation of church and state. There are some who advocate for this, but they are not GLBT groups.

Christianity would be portrayed as a form of mental illness to be cured. There are some who advocate for this, but they are not GLBT groups.

When children gave their lives to Christ, their parents could have them shipped off to programs where they would be taught how not to be Christian, showing tough love for these wayward youth. There may be some who advocate for this, but they are not GLBT groups.

There would be programs to ...   more »