Celebrating Obama While Mourning Proposition 8
November 13, 2008
Celebrating Obama While Mourning Proposition 8…
I still find myself pinching myself to see if this is in fact real. I haven’t felt this way since I was an international observer for the elections in 94 (exactly 30 years after my mother, Gwendolyn Robinson/Zoharah Simmons, at the age of 19, went to Missisissppi in 1964 where for 18-months she was the project director of the Laurel Project) when Nelson Mandela became president. I turned 25 during that his/herstoric time in South Africa. While I will never ever forget what I experienced (consistently overwhelmed with emotions)/witnessed there…I must share that this feels just as if not all the more special and I know it is because I am an African-American woman.
I am also very reminded that as a Black feminist lesbian I must work very hard, in concert with so many others, to dismantle patriarchy and heterosexism in both my own non-monolithic community as well as in the world. I’m a bit alarmed about the (community) conversations about Black manhood… Black masculinity (in the absence of Black womanhood) as it relates to President-Elect (love it!) Obama.
Michael Simmons Challenges Homophobia in the African-American Community
March 12, 2008
Michael Simmons, an international human rights activist who,with his partner Linda Carranza, co-founded the Raday Salon in Budapest Hungary, recently wrote comments about his thoughts on the responsibility of African-Americans who are heterosexual to speak out against homophobia. Following are his comments:
