Bay Windows - April 27, 2006
Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com

"I do recognize that here in Boston we do have Union United Methodist Church in the South End, [which] is an open and affirming black congregation to us lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer people. However, I would be remiss if I did not recognize that there is No Hope Baptist Church of God in Christ on every block in our communities, and there is also Apostolic Tabernacle Missionary Covenant Church of Hell in every black town in this country," said Monroe, a religion columnist whose work has long explored issues of sexuality, faith, race, and HIV/AIDS. Her comments prompted laughter and applause from the crowd. Clearly many in the audience were on the same page as Monroe.

That was equally clear when she took President George W. Bush to task for his administration's response to AIDS and its promotion of abstinence-only sex education programs and managed to get in a dig about the president's private parts.

"In promoting an ideology of abstinence-only the Bush administration has taken money from proven disease prevention initiatives and denounced the effectiveness of condoms because he argues, and perhaps he doesn't use one, or it doesn't work for him, and I'm not going to talk about that because maybe it's a pig in a blanket and it just can't fit. It ain't my business. I don't go that way," said Monroe, whose comments earned her some of the loudest applause and laughter of the morning. "But anyway, in denouncing the effectiveness of condoms because as he argues they are not 100 percent proof effective, the Bush administration diminished the efforts of activists promoting safe sex."

Monroe was selected as keynote speaker the week before the event after the previously selected keynote, writer and activist Jasmyne Cannick, voluntarily withdrew from the event allegedly over controversy around a column she had written about immigration. Monroe's speech, with its humorous and at times off-color remarks, made no effort to steer away from controversy, but they were part of her larger message, that while individuals should take responsibility for protecting themselves from HIV/AIDS, the larger society has a critical role as well.

"As a society living with AIDS, if we view AIDS as the sole responsibility of the individual then we ignore our shared responsibility for the care and wellbeing of all of its members. Unfortunately when we shirk our responsibility we perpetuate the blame-the-victim mentality, a destructive way of dealing with the epidemic," she said.

Among the attendees at the Bayard Rustin Community Breakfast were many of those who have already taken that sense of responsibility to heart. Sponsored by the AIDS Action Committee, the breakfast honors the work of LGBT people in the black community working to combat the epidemic. The breakfast is named after the famous civil rights leader, an openly gay man, who was the primary planner of the 1963 March on Washington. As part of its mission the Bayard Rustin Breakfast Committee, which organizes the event, presented awards to activists within the black LGBT community working on the front line of HIV/AIDS activism. Lee James, men who have sex with men (MSM) program manager for the Multicultural AIDS Coalition (MAC) and MAC Board President Paul Glass were awarded the Bayard Rustin Award for Courage, while Arnold Sapenter and Joseph Reed were presented with the Belynda Dunn Award of Recognition, named after the late local activist who worked to convince black churches to get involved in the fight against AIDS.

Sapenter and Reed, who will soon celebrate their 36th anniversary as a couple, as well as two years of legal marriage, have long provided financial support to organizations like AIDS Action, Fenway Community Health, and MAC, and both have served on boards of organizations serving the LGBT community. They have also held fundraisers in their Boston home to raise money for HIV/AIDS causes. Sapenter told the crowd that they see their greatest accomplishment as providing positive role models as a couple.

"We believe that providing a very positive example for others in Boston of a loving committed gay couple of color who is publicly acknowledged as that in the work, religious and social settings that we are both involved in is extremely important," said Sapenter. "Given the many negative images of men of color and gay men presented in the media we have endeavored to make a positive difference by our example."

The breakfast also featured a surprise award for Larry Kessler, the founder of AIDS Action who retired from the agency this month. Breakfast Committee member Kimba McCant presented Kessler with an angel pin and praised him as an "angelic troublemaker." For many of the activists at the event the breakfast offered a way to reconnect with other members of the community doing similar work. Before the start of the program attendees wandered from table to table, reconnecting with old friends.

"I see this event as a renewal, a call to action, and it's also sort of like a family reunion," said Ben Perkins, director of AIDS Action's MALE Center. "You get to see people that you don't see most of the time until the breakfast, and it's like a little ritual, a yearly holiday that we have. And it's about a call to action to remind people that it's not over and there's a lot of work to be done."

The breakfast also drew a small but highly visible collection of politicos. Gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick attended, and while he did not speak from the stage, Breakfast Committee co-chair Jasmine Waddell pointed him out to the crowd and referred to him as "our future governor, Deval Patrick," prompting applause from the crowd.

Cambridge was well represented as Mayor Ken Reeves and City Council member Denise Simmons, both openly gay, pulled Monroe, a Cambridge resident herself, back on stage after her speech and presented her with the key to the city of Cambridge. Reeves told the crowd, "Cambridge is a city of great divas and you have heard from one of our greatest divas today."

State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (D-Boston) took to the stage and urged attendees to turn out at the State House May 10 to oppose a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Referencing Monroe's comments on the black church, she described a meeting she had on marriage and other issues with members of president's council of the Black Ministerial Alliance, which supports the amendment.

"[Opponents of same-sex marriage] have now three years of more energy and more organizing around the hate and hostility and have recruited our pastors as now not just participants but leaders in this effort, and it is just ugly and awful," said Wilkerson.

Beyond speeches the event also featured some stellar performances from the day's entertainment acts. Foundation Movement, a Boston hip-hop group that counts among its members Ernesto Arroyo a.k.a. Eroc, son of Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo, performed a trio of songs about halfway through the breakfast, and while some attendees, presumably the non-hip-hop fans, left the room to chat in the hallways, most of the attendees got into the spirit of the show, with some getting up and dancing at their seats. It was the rare hip-hop show to not only promote LGBT rights but to name-check young LGBT murder victims Sakia Gunn and Matthew Shepard.

The other performer, singer Tre Alee, opened and closed the breakfast with gospel and protest songs, but she brought the house down before the end of the breakfast with a rendition of "I'm Every Woman" that would have given Chaka Khan a run for her money.

While the breakfast ran for nearly four hours, the energy level at the event was high for most of the morning, spurred by the speeches and performances. Waddell urged attendees to take that energy and direct it toward the fight against AIDS.

"You're here having a breakfast," she said. "We hope it gives you the energy and the strength to go out, to act and to make change. This is a beginning, and I hope that we can all do it together."

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