Washington Blade - May 23, 2008
H. Alexander Robinson

In 1990, the creation of Black Pride D.C. was a direct response to an urgent need to raise funds for black LGBT organizations, specifically to those that served individuals affected by HIV/AIDS. In addition, there was a need for us to become more visible, vocal and proud of who we were as a people.

Back in 1990, our black gay communities were being disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS. Our illnesses were being swept under the rug by our families and our causes of death were still being masked as cancer or diabetes.

Further, we were still hiding in small and large churches alike singing at the top of our lungs but from the closet. Fortunately, in 1990 in Washington, D.C., many of us were out and proud politically with organizations like the D.C. Coalition, but nationally the numbers of black and "out" politicians were still small.

And there were no openly LGBT and black images on television for us to emulate. We only had two national black LGBT magazines that served our very diverse communities. From a social justice perspective, the National Gay Lesbian Leadership Forum nationally addressed our needs as a complicated yet richly dynamic black LGBT community.

In 2008, we are proud of the fact that for many years Us Helping Us has existed to provide prevention and care services primarily to black gay communities as well as to black non-gay communities. And we support them in their ongoing efforts to reduce the rising growth of HIV/AIDS among blacks in the D.C. area.

TODAY WE HAVE numerous black, gay-affirming and black LGBT-focused faith institutions and denominations across the country but we still have scores of people who voluntarily remain in hostile traditional black church environments. We support them in their coming out, healing and reconciliation process.

Since 1990 we can count up to 16 previously and currently elected black and openly LGBT public officials. But we also know of several dozen who still perceive it to be too unsafe to come out to their families, peers and constituency.

Since 1990, we can proudly state that we have had two black gay TV series ("Noah's Arc" and "The DL Chronicles"); two black gay movies, which have debuted or will shortly in theaters nationally ("Dirty Laundry," "Noah's Arc"); and a handful of black gay characters in other TV series ("Six Feet Under," "The Greek," "The L Word" and others). But when one looks at the total offerings on Logo and on mainstream TV networks, images of the black and openly gay individuals are few and far between.

AND ALTHOUGH WE proudly have had as many as five nationally, regularly published black LGBT magazines, today we have none.

There is still a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Our community still has two quarterly magazines (Bleu and UneQue) that are continuing to grow.

Finally, although our predecessor organization no longer exists, we at the National Black Justice Coalition are proud that we have made tremendous strides in pushing back the negative trends within our communities.

Our collective faith-based initiatives have been highly successful in engaging several hundred faith institutions in creating social justice ministries across the country, which have aided us in overturning black church homophobia one step at a time.

Our political entity, NBJC Action has assisted, trained and coached both new and seasoned black gay officials in coming out, running for office and becoming a viable presence within their communities.

Our media division has been successful in interjecting black LGBT true-life stories and images into mainstream, gay and black media.

And from a leadership perspective the depth and breadth of our mission of ending racism and homophobia continues to expand in our initiatives and partnerships with the NAACP, The National Urban League, Congressional Black Caucus, along with dozens of other organizations.

So this Memorial Day weekend I feel confident that our past and current work will continue to inspire others to forge ahead in creating a world that works for everyone, all the time.

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H. Alexander Robinson is executive director and CEO of the National Black Justice Coalition and NBJC Action Fund. He can be reached via nbjcoalition.org.

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