NAACP Holds First-Ever LGBT Town Hall

At the same national convention where church leaders restated their opposition to same-sex marriage, 50 people gathered for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's first-ever forum on LGBT issues.

Recently-out CNN anchor Don Lemon questioned civil rights icon Julian Bond, comedian Wanda Sykes and other panelists at the NAACP's 102nd national convention in Los Angeles on Monday, July 25.

"I feel like we as a community are far behind the curb on this issue," said panelist and film director Patrik-Ian Polk to the sparsely filled audience, which slowly filled throughout the afternoon. "It's so deep and the church is so deeply rooted in this problem, that we have been living under this sort of 'don't ask, don't tell' for as long as I can remember."

Spelman College professor Beverly Guy-Sheftall and writer Kenyon Farrow also sat on the panel. Much of their discussion centered on homophobia in the black community and church.

"Black lesbians, black gay men, black bisexual people and black transgendered people suffer a level of discrimination and harassment far beyond the level of our straight black women and men," said Bond, wearing a rainbow colored tie. He is chairman emeritus of the NAACP's new LGBT Task Force. "If you disagree, or if your Bible tells you that gay people ought not to be married in your church, don't tell them they can't be married at city hall."

He said while analogies likening the gay rights movement to the civil rights struggle aren't completely parallel, the black community should be honored.

"For some people, comparisons between the African-American civil rights movement and the movement for gay and lesbian rights seem to diminish the long black historical struggle," said Bond. "People of color, however, ought to be flattered, that our movement has provided so much inspiration for others, has been so widely imitated, and that our tactics, methods, heroes and heroism, even our songs, have been appropriated or served as models for others."

The panelists shared stories of growing up hearing taboo and stigmatized attitudes toward homosexuality, especially in the church. Lemon said he tried to "pray the gay away" as a child.

"We were taught that being gay was wrong, it was a sin, an abomination, so when I had feelings as a child that I was attracted to other girls, it scared me to death," said Sykes, who came out in 2008 and married after the passage of California's Proposition 8. "I think you can get to people through fear."

She broke occasional moments of tension with humor.

When trans activist Ashley Love pointed out that none of the panelists were transgender, for example, Sykes interjected, "Well, you never know..." with her familiar "just sayin" voice inflection.

Love was one of many activists critical of the NAACP for a lack of trans representation on the panel.

"They call it LGBT, but it's usually just gay and lesbian," she told Lemon after he grouped transphobia within homophobia. "Most hate crime murders happen against trans women of color and yet we're always excluded and devalued."

"We still have issues in the larger community for acceptance, more so than among each other, and rather than fighting over which letter we don't say, we should just all be inclusive and love each other," Lemon responded.

Bond personally assured Love that trans people will be represented on the panel at next year's conference.

"Women aren't included in the movement either, even when they're straight," pointed out Guy-Sheftall. She noted that Rosa Parks is less known for her work investigating rape cases in the 1940s.

"Like a black CSI," joked Sykes.

Attendees received copies of Brother Outsider, the PBS documentary about Martin Luther King Jr.'s right-hand man, Bayard Rustin, whose major role organizing the civil rights movement was downplayed because he was gay.

Many audience members interjected their thoughts and experiences throughout the discussion.

Actress Jennia Fredrique, who appeared in Polk's hit series Noah's Ark, said she personally realized the extent of LGBT stigma when she couldn't bring herself to tell her mother she was playing a lesbian role.

"The reason why isolation is critical for us is because as black folks, we never want ourselves to be separated from our community," said Jeffrey King, executive director of In the Meantime Men's Group, Inc. "We haven't done a very good job of creating safe spaces and promoting safe spaces to our community. Let these younger people coming along know that there is a place for them."

Others raised questions of racism within the LGBT community, criticizing anti-Prop 8 organizers with excluding the black community.

Sykes, who sits on Equality California's Board of Directors, said organizers wrongly assumed that they could count on black Californians for a "no" vote.

Many audience members asked what they could take back to their NAACP chapters and how they can help change homophobic attitudes.

Farrow said one way is to start conversations about LGBT issues and how they intersect with economic justice, homelessness, health care and other issues on which many activists are already working.

"There's a way to do it that doesn't further marginalize people because some people are uncomfortable with the conversation, because actually, that's where transformation happens," he said.

Although he was elsewhere at the conference during the forum, NAACP President Ben Jealous said the unprecedented forum highlighted the struggles of a segment of the black community.

"Black members of the LGBT community share a common history and continued struggle to address issues of bigotry, yet their identities, talents and leadership are often times diminished because of homophobia and fear of physical violence," he said. "It is important that we address these issues head on."