Words From A Gay Ugandan

For the past few months I have been writing about the horrendous proposal to criminalize LGBTs in Uganda.
President Obama and Hilary Clinton both spoke against the bill at the National Prayer Breakfast, but a gay Ugandan offered his opinion at a competing event, the American Prayer Hour. View the clip below.

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Since the 1990s, gay Republicans have remained loyal to their party in spite of a platform that opposes marriage equality, adoption rights, open military service, employment protections, and most other items of interest for the LGBT community.
When asked why they continued to support people who don’t support them, the rationale was that they were changing [...]

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Positive Black Gay Representation In The Media

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As part of the many outreach efforts for the victims of the Haitian earthquake, many of the music industry’s most popular performers recorded a charity single on February 1.
Over 100 artists united across genre lines – country (Keith Urban), rap (Lil Wayne, Kanye West), pop (Celine Dion, Tony Bennett), jazz (Harry Connick, [...]

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As I celebrate another year of sobriety I’ve come across a story that confirms the worst suspicions of the rehabilitatation industry.
The Clear Haven Centre, a facility located outside Montreal, abruptly closed and dropped its patients off at the airport.
Patients were given 30 minutes to make other arrangements, as internet access was disconnected. At [...]

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One article that did not generate as much attention as it deserved is a commentary from Douglas Foster, a professor at Northwestern University. Earlier this month, Foster penned an essay that provides insight into the challenges many black gays have integrating their sexuality with their racial identification.
Titled “Black, Gay and Indisputably African,” the [...]

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Carl Bean is a treasure and inspiration. As the founder of Unity Fellowship Church, he has created a platform for black LGBTs to fulfill their spiritual needs in an affirming environment. Originally centered in Bean’s home in 1982, Unity Fellowship churches now exist in fifteen cities.
Prior to his ministry, Bean recorded one of [...]

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Gays have a media image as happy-go-lucky and carefree, but the reality is that it can be hard to be openly gay.
Reconciling your desires with religious upbringings, negative reaction from friends and family, and socially sanctioned devaluation of our lives can produce an amount of internalized homophobia that requires a huge amount of energy [...]

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Back in 1991, Michael Franti wrote a song called “Television, Drug Of The Nation.”
And thanks to new research, television, like most drugs, can now be conclusively linked with health problems.
An article in a journal published by the American Heart Association reports that each hour spent watching television shortens your life. [...]

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The subject of the newest American Masters series is Sam Cooke, a singer whose legacy should be studied by anyone with an interest in African-American history and culture.
His career paralleled the development of black music as a critical and commercial force. Starting out with the Soul Stirrers, Cooke was a gospel superstar when [...]

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