Many, alas, are among the foremost vehicles for anti-gay bigotry in this country, and yet p.c. white gay activists won't take them on. Their silence during the HIV and AIDS epidemic among African-Americans helped usher many black men and women into avoidable sickness and early death. Here's an account of the damage one church did to one young gay black man, and how he has found a way to keep his faith and fight back soulfully. Money quote:
So here I stand. Speaking up, speaking out, and letting my glorious light shine like it should. I recently sat in the New York City hospital room of my dear friend Kevin Aviance after he was savagely beaten on an East Village street for being gay, and I thought to myself, Where are our leaders? Where are the people with influence who will stand up for me and my gay brethren? I am disappointed with our government. I am disappointed with our nation. But I am the most disappointed with my African-American 'Christian' brothers and sisters who stand proudly on their pulpits and use the Bible to regurgitate the very same hate rhetoric that was inflicted on the black community not so long ago.
This battle has only just started.