As many of you reading this probably feel saddened, sickened and outraged when we turn on the news to yet another tragic and senseless slaughter of black lives, we can only hope not to become numbed and completely apathetic. While it is absolutely maddening from Trayvon Martin to Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Samuel Dubois, and the daily litany of abuses, I try to keep reminding myself to "stay awake” and to stay engaged in whatever ways I can.
Read MoreSome persons wonder why we who are black are hurt and angered by what they call "isolated incidents" of bias and bigotry. Ouranswer; it is because they are NOT "isolated incidents". There is a connecting link between calling us the n_____ word, and treating us as less than human.
Read MoreMy hope is that we who are gay rights advocates, gay and straight, will link arms with a host of others in confronting the economic and educational disparities between the black community and other communities. May historians be able to write that on the day that Baltimore erupted and on the next day when the Supreme Court moved toward affirming marriage equality for same sex couples, a coalition emerged that began to do what had not been done before, acknowledging and addressing the damage done to black slaves and the sons and daughters of black slaves by a nation that claimed to be rooted in democracy and justice.
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