NYT pieces on Prop 8: The black vote and yes to probing the Mormon cult

The New York Times has two op-ed pieces on Proposition 8 this weekend; it’s interesting how California’s Prop 8 (the hateful, anti-American and anti-Californian ballot proposition that wrote homo-hatred into the state’s constitution with 52 percent of the vote) has become a national issue.

Times columnist Charles Blow (no guffaws), who is black, argues that blacks didn’t push the passage of Prop 8 over the edge, and he’s probably right; although about 70 percent of California’s blacks voted yes on hate — er, on 8 — blacks comprise only about 7 percent of the state’s population, which doesn’t make them a huge political force in the state.

It’s pretty much a no duh, but Blow attributes blacks’ homo-hatred to their church attendance. He writes:

[The] high rate of church attendance by blacks informs a very conservative moral view. While blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic, an analysis of three years of national data from Gallup polls reveals that their views on moral issues are virtually indistinguishable from those of Republicans. Let’s just call them Afropublicrats.

Yup. Black “Christian” churches are strikingly similar to white “Christian” churches. Fundamentalism is fundamentally fucked, whether it’s black or white.

Blow writes that more black women than black men vote, so “gay marriage advocates need to hone their strategy to reach them [black women].”

There’s that fucking gays-must-supplicate-blacks “argument” again, it seems. And, strictly practically politically speaking, it makes little sense for Blow first to argue that blacks didn’t put Prop 8 over the top and then to argue that gay men and lesbians need to start kissing black ass.

Still, it’s a social issue that we need to continue to talk about, that so many blacks are just as ignorant, fearful, hateful and bigoted as are so many whites. And just as I won’t be kissing any bigoted white ass any century soon, I won’t be kissing any bigoted black ass any century soon, fuck you very much.

Blow does make one suggestion that might have some effectiveness: remind black women that making homosexuality so fucking taboo only encourages black men to lie about their homosexuality, which can backfire on black women. Blow writes:

…Show black women that it backfires. The stigma doesn’t erase the behavior, it pushes it into the shadows where, devoid of information and acceptance, it become more risky….

So many black men hide their sexual orientations and engage in risky behavior. This has resulted in large part in black women’s becoming the fastest-growing group of people with HIV. In a 2003 study of HIV-infected people, 34 percent of infected black men said they had sex with both men and women, while only 6 percent of infected black women thought their partners were bisexual. Tragic. (In contrast, only 13 percent of the white men in the study said they had sex with both men and women, while 14 percent of the white women said that they knew their partners were bisexual.)

So pitch it as a health issue. The more open blacks are to the idea of homosexuality, the more likely black men would be to discuss their sexual orientations and sexual histories. The more open they are, the less likely black women would be to put themselves at risk unwittingly.

And, the more open blacks are to homosexuality over all, the more open they are likely to be to gay marriage. This way, everyone wins.

I don’t think it would be all that simple and easy, like the ending of a Disney movie in which everyone lives happily ever after, but demonstrating to black women that voting for homophobia actually harms them when their male partners, in an atmosphere of homophobia, lie to them about their sexual orientation and sexual history, might be somewhat effective. This isn’t ass kissing — it’s demonstrating to people who aren’t very insightful that they actually vote against their own best interests when they vote for homophobia.

Unfortunately, although it can be like pulling teeth to get people to do the right thing, when they see that something actually is in their own best interests, they might be turned from the dark side…

The other New York Times piece is this great editorial:

California’s fair-elections commission is investigating a complaint against the Mormon Church’s role in campaigning for Proposition 8, which made marriage illegal between people of the same sex. Based on the facts that have come out so far, the state is right to look into whether the church broke state laws by failing to report campaign-related expenditures.

Proposition 8, which California voters passed on Nov. 4, overturned a ruling by the California Supreme Court and wrote discrimination against one particular group of people into the State Constitution. After it passed, tens of thousands of people rallied in cities across the country in support of same-sex marriage. The California Supreme Court said recently that it would review whether Proposition 8 was constitutional.

Mormons were a major force behind the ballot measure. Individual church members contributed millions of dollars and acted as campaign foot soldiers. The church itself also played an unusually large role. Michael R. Otterson, the managing director of public affairs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the full name of the Mormons’ church — said that while the church speaks out on other issues, like abortion, “we don’t get involved to the degree we did on this.”

Fred Karger, the founder of a group called Californians Against Hate, who filed the complaint, contends that the Mormon Church provided significant contributions to the pro-Proposition 8 campaign that it did not report, as state law requires. The Fair Political Practices Commission of California is investigating, among other things, commercials, out-of-state phone banks and a Web site sponsored by the church.

If the commission finds that the church violated state reporting laws, it could impose penalties of up to $5,000 per violation, and sue for additional amounts. The Mormon Church, which says it is sending information to the commission, says it did nothing wrong.

Churches, which risk their tax-exempt status if they endorse candidates, have more leeway in referendum campaigns. Still, when they enter the political fray, they have the same obligation to follow the rules that nonreligious groups do.

Yup. If the Mormon cult could do it over again, I doubt that the “Christo”fascist motherfuckers would have pushed Prop 8 like they did.

The Mormon motherfuckers counted on us fags and dykes to just roll over and play dead.

Instead, in the aftermath of Prop 8, far from the ushering in of the “Christo”fascist era that the Mormon motherfuckers and their ilk so desire, what has happened is that the disinfecting spotlight of truth has been directed squarely at the Mormon cockroaches. And they won’t survive the light.