The Bridge: An Open Letter To The Gay Mafia—GLAAD

By Darryl James

Dear GLAAD:

As a heterosexual man, I’ve been a supporter of gay rights for a long time.

Frankly, I believe that the rights of all are as important as the rights of any.

I also believe that the sexual activities between two consenting adults is solely the business of those two consenting adults.

But lately, your organization’s positions and politics stink to high hell and I no longer support anything you hateful idiots stand for.

Your organization’s recent attack of Black journalist Roland Martin was unwarranted, without veracity, hamfisted and empty. He said nothing negative about gays, nothing negative about the gay lifestyle and didn’t even use the words “gay” or “homosexual.”

You lied.

But you knew it would get you publicity.

And that what stinks so badly.

You see, I watched you assheads use the Black community to garner media attention by claiming that your cause was the same as the former slave’s quest for freedom.

If you do not understand why that is so disrespectful as to be deserving of a severe beating, then you won’t understand anything else.

But for the record, being discriminated against because of your sexuality is NOT THE SAME as being violently torn from your homeland, forced into servitude, beaten and being given a centuries-long legacy of abuse and mistreatment.

But I also watched your crew use the Black community for media attention by demanding that we support your cause for legalizing gay marriage.

In case you do not understand this issue, I will explain its complexity shortly.

And I have watched, time after time, your misquoting of African American celebrities, from Isaiah Washington to Tracy Morgan, so that you could cry foul and beat the drum of injustice in the public forum.

If and when your rights were in intrinsic jeopardy, I, like many heterosexual Blacks would have stood with you.

But I will not stand with you while you lie and defame any of my people to further your cause.

Also for the record, not supporting your organization’s cause is not the same as hating gays.

Although I’m beginning to hate the gangster in you.

You see, not only does the Black community not owe you anything, but we do not fear you. And most importantly, many of us are starting to see that the most extreme of you are mercenary about whatever your mission of the day is, which does not represent the majority of gays, particularly Black gays.

Coming after Roland Martin because he made jokes about a man in underwear and about the sport of soccer is not only a reach, it’s ignorant and deplorable.

By doing so, you are highlighting one of the problems the gay movement faces not only within the Black community, but within the entire human race.

Insensitivity is not the same as hatred.

I’m not saying that Martin’s jokes were insensitive to the gay community, because they were not, but I am saying that your pursuit of him is based on the empty quest to garner complete mindless acceptance of your organization’s mission and messages.

Sorry to tell you, but that will never happen.

Allow me to use a parable:

A white gay man employed by one of my former business partners was maligned and taunted by co-workers because of his sexuality. One of the employees found a letter he had written to his parents to “come out,” and read the letter to other employees for kicks and giggles. I retrieved the letter, promised a couple of beatdowns and returned it to the white gay man.

You will see in a moment why I highlight his whiteness and gayness simultaneously.

The white gay man was grateful and we were cordial in the office after that. He even claimed that we had a natural alliance as oppressed groups.

But flash forward to the OJ Simpson verdict when I was explaining that Blacks weren’t rejoicing in a guilty man going free, but in the corrupt system allowing a Black man to go free with flimsy evidence in the same manner as whites do frequently.

The white gay man’s response? “Blacks will use any excuse to have one of their criminals go free and that’s why their community is overrun with crime and criminals.”

Get my point? He was cool when I was defending him, but insensitive when it came to my issues. His racism “came out.”

I used this example because the Gay Mafia is infamous for claiming to be about the freedom of the gay community, urging the Black community to support that goal, while ignoring the blatant racism within the gay community, including racist propaganda that stems from that community and directly from GLAAD.

Here is a crucial divergence between the two communities: Being Black is not a lifestyle. Our goal was never acceptance of the way we live and how we live, but acceptance of us as human beings.

Unfortunately, it appears that the Gay Mafia wants more than the acceptance of gays as human beings, but the complete and mindless acceptance of the gay lifestyle and any confusing prevarication GLAAD issues.

The essential problem with a pursuit of acceptance of a lifestyle is that the effort seeks to force a collision of values and a collision of belief sets. No law can enforce such a collision and no good result can come from such a collision.

To be clear, I believe in the acceptance of homosexuals as human beings.

I believe the pursuit of acceptance of the gay lifestyle to be rife with difficulties that can not be resolved, particularly with the Gay Mafia’s hamfisted methods, including half-truths and outright lies.

To the point of gay marriage and its complexity, I first had absolutely no problem with the pursuit and questioned the opposition to the cause. But I began to listen to the religious opposition and frankly, there is merit in their position. And their position(s) is not necessarily based on hatred of gays in every instance.

For some, the efforts to legalize gay marriage would alter the definition of marriage within the confines of their religion. For others, the notion is simply repulsive. While I find no repulsion, I find it difficult to see forcing a religion to alter the definition of any of its basic tenets.

For clarification and comparison, Black historians and scholars never sought to force the legalization of Jesus’ lifestyle as a Black man, which he was.

That has nothing to do with hatred, even though you want to force people to think so.

For the record, I am and have been supportive of legalized unions between gay people that provide all the benefits of marriage without actually using the term “marriage.” This is a bridge that many heterosexuals can support because it provides the legal benefits that gays seek, without forcing a religion to alter the meaning of one of it’s basic tenets, which is already under siege for myriad other reasons.

But you gangsters care not one whit about what anyone thinks or believes. You care only about your politrix and anyone who does not accept everything you issue is painted as a hater.

I don’t hate gays.

I do hate your organization.

In closing, I already know that you will pretend that I hate gays and you will pretend that I am the enemy, but frankly, I believe that GLAAD is ultimately an enemy of truth and justice, an enemy of the Black community and an enemy of gays, particularly Black gays.

The more you pursue your hateful public mission, the more you will gain opposition to everything that GLAAD claims to stand for.

That can’t make anyone glad.

Darryl James is an award-winning author of the powerful new anthology “Notes From The Edge.”  James’ stage play, “Love In A Day,” opened in Los Angeles in 2011and returns to the stage in March of 2012. View previous installments of this column at http://www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at djames@theblackgendergap.com.