According to a report in the Washington Post, both Mayor Anthony Williams and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond have called for Wilson and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to include gay men and lesbians in the planning of the Millions More Movement
http://www.washblade.com/2005/8-12/news/localnews/pastor.cfm
Is it really all that serious? Really? The million man march in 1996 (which I attended as a closet queen) excluded Black gay, bisexual and transgender men. The National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum actually asked to be included on the dais and was denied inclusion by the organizing committee lead by Farrakhan appointee Rev. Benjamin Chavez. Chavez has since converted to Islam and is known by the members of the Nation of Islam as Brother Minister Benjamin Muhammad.
Louis Farrakhan himself has a long history of crimes against Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender people. Chief among what I consider to be these crimes is the rhetoric that children growing up gay and lesbian in the Nation of Islam have to hear about themselves and the fear that these children experience everyday.
Now Black Gays want to be included in the organizing of this event and NAACP and other Negroid Bastions of Power have spoken to urge Louie and company to include the fags and dykes in their plans. Washington Blade and, of course, Southern Voice, which both seem to be run by individuals who love to point out the failure of mainsteam Blacks to get in line with all that mainstream gays do, runs articles exposing this sin. And everyone is up in a tissy about Black Gays being included in the planning of the Millions More march.
Is it really that serious? Are we, proud, Black, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people really that hungry for that ever elusive Black heterosexual nod (approval) that we would stand with this group after they have demonstrated that we are not wanted? When everyone involved in this group has a history of homophobia and perpetuating violence against us with their severe and hateful rhetoric, do we want in? After 20 to 30 years of Louis Farrakhan's evil rhetoric regarding Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans people is patting Keith Boykin on the head and tossing him a biscuit really enough for us to feel like we can march in October and be truly marching for US. Is throwing a doggy biscuit to one of the safest -Here I refer to Keith Boykin as safe regarding his class, gender presentation, masculinity, and politics- Black Gay men on the planet really what we Black LGBT folks needin order to rubber-stamp Farrakan's march?
I'm not convinced.