December 10th, 2008 was a National Day Without Gays. The day was created by civil rights advocates in response to Proposition 8 that was passed in California in November banning same sex marriage. I happened to be in California on vacation when this proposition was passed and was surprised at how passionate people were about this issue. My mother is a registered voter in California so I was able to ask her how she voted for this proposition and I found that she was among the 70% of African American voters that voted for Prop 8. I was very surprised that she voted this way because she has always been a very liberal person and has a countless number of gay friends.

When I asked her what made her decide to vote for that proposition she told me that she heard a lot of different pastors talking about why people should vote for the proposition and that she had not heard any compelling arguments against it. As I started to research the proposition, I found that Baptist clergy put ridiculously large amounts of money into advertisements for people to vote for Prop 8. This proposition made me wonder why so many pastors were against homosexuality and more importantly how so many African American people could fight so hard to get equal rights for all but limit their definition of all to heterosexual people. Proposition 8 made me realize how the majority of African American people feel about homosexuality.

On a National Day Without Gays I found myself listening to a local talk radio station that is targeted to the African American community in my city and I was pleased to find them engaging in a discussion on the day without gays. I was the only 1 out of 11 callers that called in to advocate for equal rights for all people and social acceptance of homosexuality. All 10 other callers used passages from the bible to support their argument with the most popular being Leviticus 18:22 that says “ Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination (Leviticus 18:22, King James Version). 

The next most popular argument being “God created Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve”. Many Baptist preachers teach the words of Leviticus 18:22 as a way to tell their congregations that homosexuality is wrong and this passage was one of the most commonly quoted passages in the debates over Proposition 8. I find it very telling that preachers use this passage as a sound byte and do not usually go deeper into Leviticus 19:33-35 that clearly tells man “ if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stanger that dwlleth with you shall be unto you as one born amoung you, and thou shalt love him as theyself; for ye were stangers in the land of Egypt: I am Lord your God. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure”.

Just a thought with many thoughts to come!!!