Este comentario ofrece un análisis en relación con el papel que desempeñó la población negra o afrodescendiente, durante el proceso de votación que llevó a la aprobación de la Proposición 8, la cual implicó la prohibición de los matrimonios homosexuales en el Estado de California, Estados Unidos. Como se sabe, una mayoría sustancial (el 70%) de las personas negras que votaron, lo hicieron a favor de la Proposición o Propuesta 8 y, en consecuencia, en contra del matrimonio homosexual, por lo tanto en contra de los derechos de las personas GLBT.
El autor se remite a los datos disponibles, derivados de distintos estudios, y a partir de ello extrae conclusiones interesantes, como asimismo puntualiza varias recomendaciones dirigidas a los movimientos GLBT de California.
Ofrecemos un resumen de esas conclusiones y recomendaciones:
- En general, la evidencia muestra que más mujeres negras que hombres negros fueron a votar y, además, que el porcentaje de votos en contra del matrimonio homosexual fue más alto entre las primeras que entre los segundos. De hecho, un 75% de las mujeres negras votaron a favor de la Proposición 8.
- En general, la población negra acude a los oficios religiosos en las iglesias en mayor proporción que la blanca, con un detalle adicional: al interior de la población afrodescendiente es mayor la proporción de mujeres que asisten regularmente a esos oficios que la de hombres.
- Ello indica que, en general, la población negra –pero especialmente las mujeres negras- están bajo la influencia de la religión en mayor grado que la población blanca. Y, como es de suponer, esto es correcto también –y de forma probablemente más significativa- en relación con el tema de los derechos de las personas homosexuales ya que, como sabemos, este es un asunto que suscita una oposición especialmente feroz por parte de las distintas iglesias cristianas.
- Asimilar la reivindicación del matrimonio homosexual como un derecho equiparable al del matrimonio inter-racial (que en otros tiempos estuvo prohibido en Estados Unidos), podrían ser una mala estrategia aplicada por las organizaciones GLBT, ya que las mujeres negras tienden a rechazar la posibilidad de matrimonios inter-raciales. En general, además, el tema del matrimonio podría suscitar resistencia en las mujeres negras, ya que las estadísticas demuestran que, en mayor grado de lo que ocurre con las mujeres en otros grupos raciales, las mujeres afrodescendientes son las que menos posibilidades tienen de casarse y las que con mayor probabilidad se divorcian.
- De forma similar, hacer oscilar la discusión hacia la consideración de lo religioso y, en especial, hacia las distintas interpretaciones de la Biblia, podría también ser una mala estrategia ya que supone entrar en un terreno donde predomina el dogmatismo y no hay espacio para la reflexión. Es preferible buscar deslindar lo legal de lo religioso y promover que simplemente haya aceptación, sin ninguna implicación más profunda.
- Además, dice el autor, conviene tratar de persuadir a las mujeres negras, acerca de la conveniencia que tendría para ellas la visibilización de la homosexualidad entre los hombres negros. El hecho de que la población negra maneje niveles de tolerancia menores que la blanca respecto de este asunto, hace que haya un mayor encubrimiento de la homosexualidad, por lo tanto una mayor frecuencia de comportamientos de bisexualidad oculta, cosa que, además, implica mayores riesgos de enfermedades de transmisión sexual para la mujeres. Múltiples evidencias respaldan este punto de vista. Una mayor tolerancia hacia la homosexualidad, favorecerá que esta se haga visible y reduciría los riesgos asociados a comportamientos encubiertos. Conviene, entonces, lograr que las mujeres afrodescendientes comprendan que una mayor tolerancia hacia la homosexualidad va en beneficio de ellas mismas.
Gay Marriage and a Moral Minority
By CHARLES M. BLOW
We now know that blacks probably didn’t tip the balance for Proposition 8. Myth busted. However, the fact remains that a strikingly high percentage of blacks said they voted to ban same-sex marriage in California. Why?
There was one very telling (and virtually ignored) statistic in CNN’s exit poll data that may shed some light: There were far more black women than black men, and a higher percentage of them said that they voted for the measure than the men. How wide was the gap? According to the exit poll, 70 percent of all blacks said that they voted for the proposition. But 75 percent of black women did. There weren’t enough black men in the survey to provide a reliable percentage for them. However, one can mathematically deduce that of the raw number of survey respondents, nearly twice as many black women said that they voted for it than black men.
Why? Here are my theories:
(1) Blacks are much more likely than whites to attend church, according to a Gallup report, and black women are much more likely to attend church than black men. Anyone who has ever been to a black church can attest to the disparity in the pews. And black women’s church attendance may be increasing.
According to a report issued this spring by Child Trends, a nonprofit research center, weekly church attendance among black 12th graders rose 26 percent from 1993 to 2006, while weekly church attendance for white 12th graders remained virtually flat. In 2006, those black teenagers were nearly 50 percent more likely to attend church once a week than their white counterparts. And it is probably safe to assume that many of them were going to church with their mothers since Child Trends reported that around the time that they were born, nearly 70 percent of all black children were born to single mothers.
(2) This high rate of church attendance by blacks informs a very conservative moral view. While blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic, an analysis of three years of national data from Gallup polls reveals that their views on moral issues are virtually indistinguishable from those of Republicans. Let’s just call them Afropublicrats.
(3) Marriage can be a sore subject for black women in general. According to 2007 Census Bureau data, black women are the least likely of all women to be married and the most likely to be divorced. Women who can’t find a man to marry might not be thrilled about the idea of men marrying each other.
Proponents of gay marriage would do well to focus on these women if they want to win black votes. A major reason is that black women vote at a higher rate than black men. In the CNN national exit poll, there were 40 percent more black women than black men, and in California there were 50 percent more. But gay marriage advocates need to hone their strategy to reach them.
First, comparing the struggles of legalizing interracial marriage with those to legalize gay marriage is a bad idea. Many black women do not seem to be big fans of interracial marriage either. They’re the least likely of all groups to intermarry, and many don’t look kindly on the black men who intermarry at nearly three times the rate that they do, according to a 2005 study of black intermarriage rates in the Wisconsin Law Review.
Wrong reference. Don’t even go there.
Second, don’t debate the Bible. You can’t win. Religious faith is not defined by logic, it defies it. Instead, decouple the legal right from the religious rite, and emphasize the idea of acceptance without endorsement.
Then, make it part of a broader discussion about the perils of rigidly applying yesterday’s sexual morality to today’s sexual mores. Show black women that it backfires. The stigma doesn’t erase the behavior, it pushes it into the shadows where, devoid of information and acceptance, it become more risky.
For instance, most blacks find premarital sex unacceptable, according to the Gallup data. But, according to data from a study by the Guttmacher Institute, blacks are 26 percent more likely than any other race to have had premarital sex by age 18, and the pregnancy rate for black teens is twice that of white teens. They still have premarital sex, but they do so uninformed and unprotected.
That leads to a bigger problem. According to a 2004 report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black women have an abortion rate that is three times that of white women.
More specifically, blacks overwhelmingly say that homosexuality isn’t morally acceptable. So many black men hide their sexual orientations and engage in risky behavior. This has resulted in large part in black women’s becoming the fastest-growing group of people with H.I.V. In a 2003 study of H.I.V.-infected people, 34 percent of infected black men said they had sex with both men and women, while only 6 percent of infected black women thought their partners were bisexual. Tragic. (In contrast, only 13 percent of the white men in the study said they had sex with both men and women, while 14 percent of the white women said that they knew their partners were bisexual.)
So pitch it as a health issue. The more open blacks are to the idea of homosexuality, the more likely black men would be to discuss their sexual orientations and sexual histories. The more open they are, the less likely black women would be to put themselves at risk unwittingly. And, the more open blacks are to homosexuality over all, the more open they are likely to be to gay marriage. This way, everyone wins.
E-mail chblow@nytimes.com
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29 de noviembre de 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/opinion/29blow.html?th&emc=th
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