Is Jasmyne Cannick Wrong, Frustrated, Both or Neither?

Thanks to Rod 2.0, I was alerted to African American lesbian activist Jasmyne Cannick's controversial op-ed entitled "Gays First, Then Illegals" basically complaining about the recent prominence of immigration issues relative to LGBT issues in the national political dialogue.
Andrés Duque of Blabbeando respectfully disagrees with Ms. Cannick.

In a larger sense, I am not sure that Jasmyne herself is the issue here. I have certainly admired some of the things she has done in the past and she is certainly entitled to her opinions on the issue of immigration. But I also fear that her views on immigration might not be a single person's take but perhaps a point of view that other non-immigrant minority LGBT community members might also feel. I've always felt that there are huge divides between the organizing done by different LGBT minority communities in this country (be it Latino, black, Asian or other) and that efforts to bridge communities might begin to address some of these disconnects - today on immigration, tomorrow on other issues - and perhaps that is the road that should be taken as we look ahead but it's painful to see though just how much work remains.

I agree with Andrés that Jasmyne's retrogressive views on immigration are shared by other non-immigrant members of the LGBT community. What is surprising to me is that such an intelligent activist like Jasmyne does not see what both Andrés and I see: in order to effectively organize LGBT communities of color there needs to be more emphasis on issues which may at first seem more important to one segment of the coalition than others. This is not unusual. There are many issues which impact different segments of the community disproportionately. Equal marriage rights are not endorsed by all members of the LGBT community, and will not necessarily benefits all members of the community equally. Equal parental and adoption rights are more likely to benefit lesbians; increased attention paid to the HIV/AIDS crisis will more likely benefit gay men (especially men of color).

So why did Jasmyne feel the need to say this:

It’s a slap in the face to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people take up the debate on whether or not to give people who are in this country illegally any rights when we haven’t even given the people who are here legally all of their rights.

I can only speculate that for someone who works so tirelessly to advance LGBT rights life must occasionally get frustrating, especially in the current political climate. This does not excuse her offensive use of "illegal" to describe undocumented immigrants. Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Lawrence v. Texas in many states sodomy laws made "criminals" of the majority of the LGBT community. Would Jasmyne have condoned the description of our community as "engaging in criminal behavior"? In the lastest (March 2006 (pdf)) Field Poll, there are still 32 percent of respondents who feel that homosexual relations are "always wrong." I hope that Jasmyne will re-think and re-consider her position in light of this feedback and others.

I was excited to read on Blabbeando that tomorrow April 10, Immigration Equality, Queer Immigrants Rights Project and The Audre Lorde Project and other groups will be part of a Day of Acton Rally for Immigration Rights in New York City. It would be great to see other LGBT minority groups participating in similiar rallies around the country.