MadProfessah Quoted (Thrice) in NY TIMES!

In an interesting piece in The New York Times about the electoral impact increased turnout in California in the African American community for the Obama-Biden ticket could have on the passage or failure of Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage amendment this November, yours truly is quoted repeatedly:

Could Senator Barack Obama’s popularity among black voters hurt gay couples in California who want to marry?

[...]

To blunt that possibility, gay leaders and Proposition 8 opponents have been sponsoring casual events at restaurants in traditionally black neighborhoods in Los Angeles, meeting with black clergy members and recruiting gay black couples to serve as spokespeople on panels and at house parties and church events.

“This is black people talking to black people,” said Ron Buckmire, the board president of the Barbara Jordan/Bayard Rustin Coalition, a gay rights group in Los Angeles. “We’re saying, ‘Gay people are black and black people are gay. And if you are voting conservative on an antigay ballot measure, you are hurting the black community.’ ”

First off, the reporter Jesse Mckinley did quote me correctly here. Cringingly, I did not use the adverb "conservative[ly]" in the above quote, but it still gets the message across. However, the reporter did get some things wrong. Elsewhere in the article he mentions the Let California Ring
commercials that have been running throughout California which end with the tag line "What If You Couldn't Marry The Person You Love?" and labels them as "opponents" of Proposition 8. The Let California Ring campaign is a public education campaign about marriage equality and has no position on the ballot measure.

But, wait, there's more!

The black community has long had a conflicted relationship with gay men and lesbians, Mr. Buckmire said, equal parts homophobia and denial.

“For too long, black people seemed to think there were no gay people around, especially black ministers,” Mr. Buckmire said. “They’d say the most insanely anti-gay things, and then the choir would come up and the choir is 50 percent gay.”

Still, the tendency of black voters to oppose gay marriage extends beyond religion. Patrick J. Egan, an assistant professor of politics at New York University who has studied black voting patterns on same-sex marriage, said black voters consistently polled much lower than white voters on approval for same-sex marriage, about 16 percentage points, even when religion was not a factor.

Here I am paraphrased reasonably correctly, although I don't know if I would say the relationship between the black community and gay people is "equal parts homophobia and denial" although those are definitely significant aspects of the relationship. However, I would also include indifference and religiously-inspired disdain.

The line about the Black ministers is a great one, but it is doubtful that I actually said it. The quoted version makes it seem like I know from personal experience what black ministers say and have intimate knowledge of LGBT choirs. As an agnostic/atheist I am offended by the suggestion that I would be in a Black church!

Anyway, being quoted (three times!) in the "paper of record" is pretty exciting. I guess my 15 minutes of fame start now. Tick, tick, tick.