Karen Bass is the first Black woman to ever head a state legislative chamber in the United States and celebrated her first one-year anniversary of her Speakership of the California Assembly in mid-May. Recently, Speaker Bass gave an interview to Wendy Wilson of Essence.com where she answered several questions about her thoughts about LGBT civil rights and race: ESSENCE.com: Do you see the same-sex issue similarly to the civil rights issues African-Americans have faced in the past?
BASS: No, in fact I think that it would be helpful if the LGBT community didn't compare our struggle to theirs because it's harder to win African-American support when you do that. I do believe it's a struggle for equality but I don't believe that every struggle for equality is identical to the African-American struggle. (emphasis added)
ESSENCE.com: There are rumors that conservative blacks in California are responsible for passing the measure in the first place. As someone who is black and works in the state government, what would you say to those who believe we're the reason why this measure exists?
BASS: I resent that tremendously. I believe there was an element of racism there. I was shocked at how quickly White, gay activists blamed us. Within 24-hours after the measure passed, it was decided that black voters are the reason for Prop 8.
Some White, gay activists said, we voted for your guy, how can you disrespect us and vote the other way? Last I checked Barack Obama was voted in as the President of the United States, not the president of just black people.
ESSENCE.com: What did this mean for people who are both black and gay?
BASS: Among black LGBT activist who went out to protest the "Yes" vote some of them had to leave because they were having racial epithets yelled at them. I was angry by the fact that some gay activists have such an immediate, visceral reaction without even questioning whether or not it was true.
Some gay activists called me up and asked me to intervene with the African-American community and explain why black people voted the way they did. I tried to tell them that they needed to go to the black LGBT community. One of the mistakes they made is not getting these black activists involved from the very beginning.
ESSENCE.com: So it's wrong to think that we caused this to happen?
BASS: When the vote was analyzed later, it was discovered that African-Americans were not the reason why Prop 8 passed. The analysis also showed a big divide in the way we voted based on generation. You had younger African-American voters who were against Prop 8 while the older African-American voters voted it in. Of course, we know the church plays a huge role within our community as well.
ESSENCE.com: What do you think will happen next regarding this issue in California?
BASS: You have to understand, California is in the middle of a financial meltdown right now. This is not the number one issue on people's minds but those who are actively in support of marriage equality will go back to the ballot and go through the legislative process again. But ultimately this is a national issue and states are going in different directions
Another point Bass made that I agree with is calling out people who EQUATE the struggle for LGBT equality with the struggle for civil rights based on race and gender. As I have said multiple times (and been quoted in numerous papers) the struggles are related but they are not equivalent.
I like Dan Savage's characterization as the LGBT rights movement as "a civil rights movement" but the struggle for African-American equality was "The Civil Rights Movement."
The direct quote, from Savage's appearance on D.L. Hughley's CNN talk show on Saturday November 15, is:
I think African-Americans will always have claim to the civil rights movement, capital "T," capital "C," capital "R," capital "M." Ours is not the civil rights movement. But ours is a civil rights movement, lower case C-R-M. It is a struggle. You get fired because you're gay, you get fired because you're black, you're still out of a job. If your house gets burned down because you're gay, burned down because you're black, you're still out of a house and maybe dead. Hate is hate. I'm not equating the experience with the history at all. But we are making a civil rights demand.
Well said!
