Pew pride

Gay choir directors are about as new to the black church as pink hats and pearl sequins on Easter Sunday.\nThey're probably just as visible, just as noticeable -- but much less-discussed when the pews are present.\nIn the church, there are some issues everybody sees and nobody wants to acknowledge. \nHomosexuality is one of those topics often left un-talked about … that is, until the ish hits the fan. \nLet's use Ivory, the totally-fictional-but-based-on-somebody-you-probably-know musical director/minister of music, as an example.\nLast spring, Brother Ivory marched "out the closet" down the main aisle and straight into the post-devotional, testimonial segment of the church service -- still sweating from that last Donnie McClurkin song he directed. \nBrotha-man professed to the church he was gay, and everybody wanted to act all "brand new." Like he wasn't critiquing hairstyles from the choir loft since before he was old enough to join the adult choral ensemble. \nJust forget about the gospel extravaganza he coordinated last fall and the new members he's recruited -- "that boy's an abomination!"\n"It was bad enough he was 'effeminate' -- now he's up and 'decided' to be gay."\nAnd, after months of praying, the boy ain't changed. Somebody even saw him on MSNBC marching in one of those rallies, talking 'bout civil rights and same-sex marriage.\nIvory went and got political, and now sweet old ladies are talking about him worse than Sister Bessie's crackhead nephew who robbed 7-Eleven last week. \nAin't it a shame?\nWith the upcoming election, same-sex marriage is a hot topic. And since I've been seeing black/gay rights activist Kevin Boykin all over the 'Net, I thought I'd toss in my usual two cents.\nGay activists, like Boykin, are comparing gays' struggle for government-recognized marriage to the civil rights movement of Martin Luther King Jr.'s days, and quite frankly, many black clergy are not happy. \n"When the homosexual compares himself to the black community, he doesn't know what suffering is," said the Rev. Clarence James, an African-American studies professor at Temple University, in an article from the Star Tribune.\n(As if a person can't be black and gay. Or gay folks don't suffer discrimination.)\nMany clergy in the news say -- unlike being black -- being homosexual is a lifestyle choice.\nThe bottom line is: many religious leaders oppose same-sex marriage because they believe marriage is a sacred institution shared by a man and a woman. \nMaybe. \nBut -- I'll have to agree with the Rev. Al Sharpton's argument. He says churches should be able to take any stance they'd like regarding same-sex marriage. But the government shouldn't have the option.\nYears ago, it was "morals" that kept interracial couples from marrying. And before that, enslaved black men and women were jumping brooms because the law wouldn't allow them to marry each other, either.\nHow can I -- a minority -- watch the same government withhold another human's civil rights?\nAnd about this whole "marriage as a sacred institution" thing … folks have been marrying for financial stability, insurance benefits and even citizenship. So it doesn't bother me that Brother Ivory wants to be the one who gets his partner's prize tuba, should the man he loves pass away.\nI'll spend my time supporting the government's efforts to better education and end the ungodly amount of drugs, poverty and violence that are destroying the black community. \nAnd with all that mess going on, I could care less who Brother Ivory's kicking it with. I just want to know -- "is my choir robe in the mail"