Guess who bears the "blame" on Prop 8?

From NGLTF "Creating Change", Denver
Thursday - Part 1


It's a new day and this morning's session was great. Positive ideas, positive energy. Just what the doctor ordered, and all of this born of the passage of Prop 8.

Let me first say to my friends that are People of Color that I learned many lessons about what went on before prop 8 and how to move forward. There is lots of blame to go around. Many of the presenters took full responsibility for things that went wrong and demographic groups that were not reached, but the bottom line is: It's a new day and the possibilities, the awareness of and dedication to equality has never been stronger.

If any demographic group bears the most responsibility for the suspension of marriage in California, it one to which I belong. Those identifying themselves as Christians were the strongest supporters of the proposition. A post Prop 8 Election Voter Poll conducted by David Binder revealed what I already knew. And yet my knee-jerk reaction was to be upset by the African-American community's lack of support. In my faith tradition we call that not taking care of the beam in your eye before seeing to the mote in your neighbor's eye.

This was an important moment for me on my personal journey and reduced me to tears.
The hypocrisy of the Christian community is so great. I cannot undo it by knowing that my personal experience of Christianity has been different.

Neither can I let it drive me away from what I know is right. I cannot take on the burden of a whole community, for as many of my Black colleagues said, "We didn't vote for it. Why is he blaming us?" I am sorry that I could not see that then.

I can only move forward with what I have learned toward what I know is right.