Schenectady: Black Church Bigots Oppose Anti-Homophobia Billboard

 

A billboard and bus advertising campaign that intends to fight homophobia in the Black community and raise awareness around Black gay youth has debuted in the Schenectady-Albany corridor. It is not being received very well. 

A pastor, a daycare operator and a City Council member are demanding the billboard's removal,  reports the Daily Gazette.

The Rev. Alfred Thompkins of Calvary Tabernacle said the "I am gay" billboard message only encourages troubled youth to embrace homosexuality. “A thirteen-year-old looks at these billboards and says, 'That must be it, I must be gay,' " he said. "That goes directly against God’s purpose. As a resident of Schenectady, a pastor who works with young people, with families, frankly I’m really bothered by the message these send." .. Thompkins compared gay people to thieves and liars, saying he did not want anyone to join the ranks of sinners.

And:

Daycare provider Pamela Spicer told the City Council that the billboards were so vague they were worthless. "These messages are a failure. I think the Department of Health needs their money back," she said. "The intent is to instruct them not to spread HIV if they have it … That does not come across in the message." Instead, she said, the billboards allow "inappropriate sexual expression."

She argued that the messages should be limited to adult business zones — mainly industrial areas at the outskirts of the city. She told the council that her clients read the billboards as she drives them to events in the city. She offers daycare to a 2-year-old, 4-year-old and 8-year-old."When I’m driving them to the Schenectady Public Library and they say, ‘What does gay mean?’ how do I answer that question? How do I expose them to such content?"

From the mouths of babes. If two-year-olds are able to read billboards, that's probably the bigger news story, no?

City Councilman Joseph Allen, who believes the billboards could "encourage teenagers to become gay,"  suggested an ordinance that would require council approval of billboards. A city attorney pointed out that would be illegal.

The "I Am Gay" campaign was funded as an HIV/AIDS prevention strategy by the New York State Department of Health and In Our Own Voices, a local Black LGBT advocacy group. More adverts are planned for billboards, CDTA buses & shelters in Albany, Schenectady and Rensselaer. The "We Are Part of You" series originally developed for Black communities in New York City, and spread to Long Island and Boston.

New data from the Centers for Disease Control shows about 1 in 3 Black gay/bisexual men are HIV positive, much more in some cities. Black men who have sex with men—especially younger ones—have seen the largest increase in HIV infections across the country. Stigma and church-based homophobia are considered among the prime factors in the massive spread of HIVAIDS throughout the Black community.

 Thanks JOE JERVIS!

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Comments

[Former COGIC]

As always, it's the black church folk who are determined to keep their heads in the sand. In this case, they refuse to acknowledge gay people exist.And miss thing thinks the billboards are xrated and should be posted near adult bookstores and strip joints. smdh.

[DeAndre]

i don't even know where to begin. just wrong on so many levels.

[elektrick.red]

Miss Gopher Tompkins needs to have a seat!! Seeing images like the billboard help bolster self-awareness and security among confused LGBT teens, not indoctrinate them.

[Nathan James]

Stigma and church-based homophobia are considered among the prime factors in the massive spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the Black community.

That one sentence, Rod, says more than I think even you, with your encyclopedic knowledge of the issues, realize. It is a twenty-word dirge on the state of society's attitudes towards gays and lesbians of color. Still, the religious hatred continues.

[Dallas Cowboy]

'Seeing images like the billboard help bolster self-awareness and security among confused LGBT teens, not indoctrinate them. '

Excellent point, Eletrik Red. But isn't that the problem? The black church crowd wants gays to repent or remain closted. The last thing they want are self aware, confident black LGBT who will call them on their BS.

[Reynolds]

The black church and black gays have their own version of DADT. Even if you are flaming, tambourine church queen, they 'won't ask are you gay. You are welcome at services as long you put something in the plate (and they will look to see what you put in!), listen to their hypocrisy and gaybashing, say amen to pas'r and don't 'tell' folks publicly you are gay!

[TheRevKev]

I am sickened and saddened by the public ignorance and private arrogance of the Black Church on matters of God and purpose.

God's purpose for the earth is as vast and uncontainable as the species of flowers, birds and plants that God peppered on the land. We are all here on purpose, with purpose, and some men marry and some don't; some women bear children and some don't; some men love women and some love men and it's all in God's plan.

I'm tired of post-Slavery negroes still using slavery logic in speaking against something that they don't understand or desire to understand. You don't like homosexuality because you don't understand it, Black Church, we get that, but don't get so arrogant and ignorant that you forget people being hosed down and having dogs unleashed on them because someone didn't like or understand them. If you don't "like" gays, stay away, but in the name of love, don't hinder me. No one is recruiting in this mess but the church that is vehement about saying DO IT THIS WAY OR GO TO HELL! That sounds like an offer you can't refuse. I don't refuse it: I REBUKE IT!

"BEFORE YOU WERE FORMED IN YOUR MOTHER'S WOMB, I KNEW YOU!" So if God already knows me, I don't have to prove that to you. My breathing makes God's point!

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1292868878]

I just want to shout out GMAD for the wonderful work they've been doing particularly in the NYC Metro Area as far as billboards which fight the stigma associated with homosexuality that leads to the rise in HIV/AIDS among black men who have sex with men. The fact that people think these wonderful and empowering ads should be placed in the 'dirty section' of town continues the sickness and poison that is killing us and burns my spirit

[Mel Smith]

Homophobia to the core.

[Derrick from Philly]

It's just as the young Rod 2.0 commentator, Kevin Perez, often points out: it is ridiculous and disgraceful that people who have suffered extreme bigotry should turn around and inflict the same treatment on others--often their own sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, etc.

But I have a theory too. I think that some Black folks simply do not like the 21st Century. They want to retain those experiences from the past that warm their hearts...stuff like raggedy school buildings with beat-up textbooks handed down from white schools, having store cashiers wait on fairer-skinned customers even though you were standing in line first (with the security guard's eyes glued on you), having the police stop you at night and do a lower body search with your drawahs down around your ankles IN PLAIN VIEW OF ANYBODY WATCHING (the trade knew us sissies were watching...goody! goody!), getting the "spirit" in church and jumping up and down like a lunatic while beating on rusty tambourines, waving those wonderful little cardboard hand fans with funeral parlor advertisments printed on them, sweating out Ultra Sheen, and... oh, yes, the farm bus coming to town to take us to New Jersey--just in time for pickin' season. Oh, Lawdy!

All those special quirks that went along with being Black in America...all just memories. So, now, in the 21st Century what do those unhappy Blacks who miss those glorious times want to do: give the same kind of treament to Gay Americans--especially the Black ones(the only ones they can really give it too).

[Janice]

I sincerely apologize for my people's ignorance. Really sad on so many levels.

[Distant Lover]

The above comments say it all.
I really hope the uproar on our side is just as loud and boisterous as it is on the other side so that billboard stays put!

I'm really sick of homophobia.
It's not ignorance anymore.
Willful ignorance is EVIL and STUPID and I will not be forced into the closet by these individuals. There is nothing wrong with the billboard. The fault lies with the EVIL individuals who hypocritical preach about God's love but condemns an entire segment of God's children to shame and obscurity. They need to rot in hell with the rest of the Nazis.

and one more note: elektrick.red, I fell out of my chair laughing at "Miss Gopher Tompkins", he does look like one of them gophers in the Bugs Bunny cartoons! Indubitably!!!

[Stephen Maglott]

The religious bigots greatest fear is that the billboards will work. Increasing awareness of an “invisible” community will make it harder to punish the same-gender loving community for their otherness. Statements such as comparing gay people to thieves and liars and some of the other vitriolic statements show how depraved and desperate they are.

[Kevin Perez]

Foaming at the mouth about God and blabbering about the "Good Book" doesn't make you a good person. You can still be the biggest scumbag. Taking everything face value on what the Bibles speaks levels about the stupidity, not ignorance, of a lot of folks. Slavery is justified in the Bible, woman aren't viewed in a positive note either, yet these groups and others have no qualms with telling US how perverted and evil we are!

I honestly find it hilarious that people want to deny, to this day, that they choose whatever is convenient to them. They chose the more controversial subjects because THEY KNOW they'll get an audience, will meet approval and THEY KNOW many will just there and take their abuse. I'm sorry but these actions can no longer be simply limited to a couple of bad apples.

We're supposedly living in more progressive times and yet most young boys of color or ANYONE who's part of the LGBT, can't even come out with the possibility of hostile encounters and even possible murder. Yet, no one, neither mainstream LGBT folks or communities of color, seem to care. AT ALL. We still have folks trying to creep in their bigotry buy restoring to the same rhetoric that they don't "hate" us, they simply "disapprove" of our life styles.

My "life style" consist of waking up in the morning, showering, washing my teeth, eating breakfast, taking the bus to go by a near community college and learning. On occasion, I may watch pornography but even so, what exactly posses these jackasses to approve/disapprove what goes on in closed doors?

[Mel Smith]

Stephen, I agree.