NAACP on LGBT Civil Rights - Wanda Sykes, Don Lemon, Julian Bond

NAACP hosted an LGBT town hall meeting at their 2011 NAACP National Convention in Los Angeles. Wanda Sykes, CNN's Don Lemon, former NAACP president Julian Bond led a discussion on LGBT civil rights, "praying the gay away" and homophobia & hypocrisy in the black church.

The debate gets heated when the current NAACP president is asked how can the LGBT community take the NAACP seriously when its current board members are out saying that gay rights are not civil rights, referring to current NAACP board member Rev. Keith Ratliff recent statement "Gay community stop hijacking the civil rights movement."

Current NAACP CEO Benjamin Jealous responded saying the gay community should take the NAACP seriously because the NAACP were there with the Human Rights Campaign helping to pass the Matthew Shepard / James Byrd Hate Crimes Bill. The NAACP were champions of fighting Prop 8 in California as well as fighting alongside the LGBT community in Maine, Massachusetts, in Washington D.C. and in Maryland, and in other places.

Jealous also pointed to the LGBT community to coming to the black community late in the game with an expectation and not treating the community with the same respect as others. Saying the LGBT community needs to show up early, organize and build relationships in the community.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• NAACP
• gay rights
• LGBT
• wanda sykes
• julian bond
• don lemon
• CNN don lemon
• praying the gay away
• news
• discussion
• interviews
• eddie long
• gay
• lesbian
• bayard rustin
• keith ratliff
• human rights campaign
• sylvia rue
• benjamin jealous
• donna payne
• alan-michael graves

[chocomel911]

FABULOUS! Thank you for putting this package together! Sorry I could not be there. I love your work!!!!!!

[nomoredownlowtv]

@chocomel911 No Problem. Thanks for your support. We really appreciate what you do also!

[steerpike66]

Civil rights are UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS and they belong to EVERYONE who participates in society; hence CIVIL.

And sexual orientation is hardwired before birth. It is as natural as being left-handed, or the colour of your skin: it's just more difficult to pretend you're not black.

[itsGOTtobegroovy]

Ashley Love articulates the exclusion of transgender people at this LGB"T" Town Hall meeting: youtube.com/watch?v=xAPWptsT8a­4 The violence against, challenges faced by, and experiences of transgender people of color are largely ignored by the LBG community, in general, and the black LBG community, in particular.

[Hueyn42]

its official...naacp is definitley for the destruction for the black community, how can they support the lgbt community within the black community...outright shameful

[harveysuperboy]

This is Bullshit. Black gay a being used by white gays. We attack each other.

[msscott73]

The question was "how could the African-American gay community take the NAACP seriously if...? He responded, "The gay community should..." great outline but the light completed brother responded defenselessly. I would like to know what was done about it.

[neenerpuss]

Coming late to asking the black community for support??? WTF! Gay people were the FIRST people to join the Civil rights movement to support black people, we came late to asking the black community for your support because we believed that you already had our backs. We didnt realize we had to invite our allies. We supported you through injustice and just assumed (our faults) that would be returned because we had been there. Once we realized that was a false assumption worked to correct that.

[neenerpuss]

The mystery gay homophobe? That would be TONY PERKINS!!!

[TimesSqBway123]

Proposition 8 was/is not California's Marriage Equality bill. Prop 8 is the bill to define marriage as solely between a man and a woman. MANY references in this broadcast mistakenly refer to Prop 8 as being one for equality.

[rg0057]

I'm glad this discussion happened, because I thought things were at a better place than this, with these two intersecting groups. I do think black people were unfairly blamed for Prop 8's passage, which was due to religious voters, not any particular race. And I've noticed NAACP has had, at least what I can recall, a long history of supporting LGBT equality. I don't think any LGBT organization would permit a public racist in a leadership position though. Is there one?