Detroit News: Obama/McClurkin incident will drive black gays "deeper into the closet"

[Bluebear]

Monday, November 5, 2007
Deb Price

Sad, disappointed and more than a little hurt. That's how many Americans who are both black and gay sound when they talk about Barack Obama...

Rod McCullom, a popular black gay writer and longtime Obama fan, said the fiasco makes him wonder how hard Obama would push for gay equality as president. "He folded like a deck of cards. If he is going to fold on the campaign trail, why would we not think he'd fold in the Oval Office?" The "Rod 2.0" blogger laments that Obama could have used the controversy as a "teaching moment" to encourage acceptance of black gays in the black community.

Such a teaching moment could have especially helped the many black gays who share their musical gifts in conservative black churches while staying closeted for fear of being rejected. "Mostly what I have heard from black gays and lesbians is disappointment. We had high hopes. White gays and lesbians on the Obama bandwagon jumped off. This was a deal killer," McCullom says.

Black lesbian Pam Spaulding reports that the controversy generated lots of chat at her popular "Pam's House Blend" blog. Spaulding thinks the Obama camp simply did the math and went for socially conservative black voters in South Carolina, where half of the Democrats voters are black. The Obama team feels "it's no biggie for them to toss us under the bus," Spaulding says. "That is what is painful," she adds, noting the incident will drive black gays "deeper into the closet."

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071105/OPINION03/711050303