Dan Savage Eats His Shorts

Dan Savage has invoked the ire of an increasingly vocal group of African American gays, which began with an article he'd written and was posted on The Stranger the day after the election:


"African American voters in California voted overwhelmingly for Prop 8, writing anti-gay discrimination into California’s constitution and banning same-sex marriage in that state. Seventy percent of African American voters approved Prop 8, according to exit polls, compared to 53% of Latino voters, 49% of white voters, 49% of Asian voters.

I’m not sure what to do with this. I’m thrilled that we’ve just elected our first African-American president. I wept last night. I wept reading the papers this morning. But I can’t help but feeling hurt that the love and support aren’t mutual.

I do know this, though: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there—and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum—are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color.

This will get my name scratched of the invite list of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which is famous for its anti-racist-training seminars, but whatever.

Finally, I’m searching for some exit poll data from California. I’ll eat my shorts if gay and lesbian voters went for McCain at anything approaching the rate that black voters went for Prop 8."

First off, as I've previously written, the statistics on the AA vote on the measure has been wildly overstated. And secondly, gays and lesbians voted 27% for McCain vs the Bilerico Project's projected stat of the black vote against Prop 8. In a appearance on The Colbert Report, Dan back-pedalled, blaming the failure of the measure on the overlap of black and "old" voters. I'm sure that he meant the "elderly", though. He also answered Colbert's initial query about the matter by stating, "a few black have kept me down in the past". Funny? Or The Mandingo Syndrome in full effect? Here's the clip:



While he did go on to acknowledge the existence of AA gays and the effects of the proposition's failure on that segment of the gay community, many members of AA gay community are taking offense against the sexual and seemingly exploitative remark, which seemed to set the tone and negate anything he'd said afterwards, short of an official apology. Also, as stated before, there is and always has been an unspoken disconnection between the two communities, which is unbeknownst to the MSM. There is also a feeling in the community that black men are to be sexed, but not heard to some degree. And while the MSM has been quick to pick up on the rift,




there has been little effort by the MSM to offer a platform to the AA gay community to give their take. Interestingly though, ertswhile Star Search alum Sam Harris did offer his own ineteresting opinion.




The discussion, of course is going full force on several black gay blogs like
Ernest Hardy and racialicious, for instance. And if Jena 6 has taught us anything, it's that the internet is just the place to start a revolution.

Let's just hope that this one serves to bring everyone together. And hows about a more comprehensive outreach plan to boot?