Black GLBT Forum in Boston Draws Mostly Whites

Boston has a reputation of being a racially divided city, but this story from Bay Windows has to be discouraging for those trying to get the African-American community more involved in GLBT equality issues.

At the start of a town hall meeting at Boston’s Club Café to discuss the relationship between the marriage movement and the black community, state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson wasted no time in pointing out the elephant in the room: While the town hall meeting featured a panel of black speakers and a black moderator, the 25-person crowd in the audience was overwhelmingly white. Wilkerson said the fact that so few people of color turned out for the event shows how much work the marriage equality movement must do going forward to reach out to communities of color. She referred to remarks made earlier in the evening by MassEquality board president David Wilson, who is black, that there had long been a perception by many in the community that the marriage movement was a white movement.



"I just want you to know that I think that it is not unusual that the audience makeup is what it is precisely because of what David has said. And so no one should take this as a sign of discouragement as much as affirmation of the work that we have to do," said Wilkerson.



She added that while marriage equality is an important topic, it is not the most pressing issue facing the black community in Boston."



But I do think that there are still many people of color, particularly in the LGBT community, who are still living their life and all of the issues that we have to deal with every day, and so an invitation to talk about this may not sound like something at the top of the list. It doesn’t mean that it’s not important. It just means there are a whole lot of other things that are on that plate," said Wilkerson.



I certainly don't blame Sen. Wilkerson for trying to put a positive spin on this, but this has to be disappointing. The Senator is right, they appears to be a LOT of work ahead to get the African-American community seriously engaged in working toward LGBT equality.