The late Ralph Ellison was talking about the invisibility of African-Americans in his novel 53 years ago, but Keith Boykin says those words still apply to blacks who are gay.
Boykin, president of the National Black Justice Coalition, a black gay and lesbian civil rights group, was not seen onstage at the Oct. 15 Millions More Movement march after being promised a chance to address the throng by the organizer, Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam.
The march in Washington, D.C., which called for black unity, didn't include any openly gay speakers.
Boykin said Millions More Movement's executive director, the Rev. Willie Wilson rescinded a verbal agreement reached with Farrakhan three days before the event to include a gay speaker. The last-minute cancellation has caus
ed an uproar in the gay and lesbian community around the nation.
Clarence Brooks of Boca Raton, who was thrilled by the possibility of a gay speaker at the march, was disappointed it didn't happen.
"It was a tremendous [about-]face by the minister to even have a dialogue" between the Nation of Islam and gays, said Brooks, a dance professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
"But what Rev. Wilson did smacks of bigotry," he said. "There are gay African-Americans who support the minister, so it was ludicrous to deny Boykin, and that it happened in Washington, D.C., makes it even more ludicrous."
Brooks said he hoped the uproar would continue and force an open dialogue regarding homophobia and the black com
muni
ty.
There long has been tension between black gays and lesbians and black church officials who interpret the Bible literally and preach that homosexuality is a sin.
"The church is our saving grace in the black community," said Naomi Parker, a sociologist who heads the
Broward County HIV Council. "And gays have always been around the church, but we just didn't talk about it.
"It's like my mother knows I am [a lesbian], but when she talks about it, she won't say the word because it means something bad."
Gays and lesbians still are bitten by stereotypes of "feminine men" and "butch women," Parker said.
