Groups like TVC and Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition are trying to tap a deep but overlooked well in politics the cultural conservatism of many black Americans. They contend that mainstream civil-rights groups like the NAACP (which supported the gay march) are out of touch with their constituency. “The freedom train to Selma has been hijacked,” says TVC founder the Rev. Lou Sheldon. TVC officials claim that 50,000 copies of the video have been sold through churches and Christian bookstores. Black conservatives say many in their community “were outraged that gays would try to push their movement on the back of ours,” says Armstrong Williams, a Washington radio host. “Gays never had a history of slavery and discrimination because they were gay.” But gay blacks say comparisons are pointless. “People have to accept the legitimacy of the lesbian- and gayrights movement on its face,” says Donald Suggs of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
And how sincere is the Christian right’s play for black support? Two major figures featured in the video–Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott and former attorney general Edwin Meese–have pursued policies unfriendly to blacks. Lott opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1990 and, as a congressman in 1981, tried to reverse the ban on tax exemptions for segregated schools. Meese led the Reagan administration’s war on affirmative action. With spokesmen like that, “Gay Rights, Special Rights” looks more like a cynical appeal to black homophobia than a principled defense of black civil rights.
