RENWL

Video Repost:Cleo Manago Dismantles Homophobia In Powerful Face To Face Debate

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbKxv_9_H0g[/youtube]

When we originally ran this back in September our readership wasn’t nearly as big as it is now (thank you).  And that’s why we’re running it again today. We want more people to see this, particularly if you are of African American descent.  It’s important that you know there really are folks out there who are articulate and powerful enough to take on homophobic beliefs and attitudes and transcend them.

Cleo Manago, founder of Black Men’s Xchange and AmASSI Health & Cultural Centers, is one of those people.

In this debate that was held this summer at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network Conference 2009 in Atlanta, Manago takes this discussion to a much higher realm than pro vs con, or right vs wrong.  It’s a powerful and candid exchange with heterosexual black men where most of them—after the video taped segment according to Manago, walk away from the highly charged and emotional discussion enlightened and even embracing. You might call this video homophobia recovery in action.

We also encourage you to read the following take on the exchange by Queerty who also posted this video.

(Queerty) Jesus Can No Longer Be an Excuse for Black Religious Homophobia

Religion. Masculinity. Civil rights. How many other ways can we ignite debate about being gay in the black community? (That’s a different debate from being black in the gay community.) Cleo Manago, the founder of Black Men’s Xchange and AmASSI Health & Cultural Centers, submits this taping from the Al Sharpton’s National Action Network 2009 Summer Conference in Atlanta last month. It’s a fantastic, if inconclusive, conversation and we encourage you to watch the whole clip. (In fact, we ask you to not even leave a comment on this post until you do so.)

Much of the public dialogue about “the black community” — an umbrella term as nefarious and over-encompassing as “the gay community” — comes from religious leaders, and that means conservative voices dominate the debate. That’s too bad, in the same way The Gay Agenda is most often put forth by middle-aged white men: because these people don’t represent all of us.

Their views, however, are given national pedestals. That’s mostly thanks to aggressive public relations campaigns, and the media’s need to have just a couple immediate go-to talking heads. And while (often homophobic) black religious leaders certainly have their supporters, they maintain an unhealthy dominance on public perception of black views.

Which is why we’re happy to see Mr. Manago — who does not compare the black civil rights struggle to that of gays, but supports their rights — leading such an engrossing conversation, challenging prejudice against black men in same-gender-loving relationships. Particularly when it comes to tired anti-gay arguments.

Says Manago, who does not consider himself a gay rights advocate: “If you care about black people, and black life, and black human beings, and black humanity, [if] it’s important to you, we’ve got to change our ways and do whatever it takes to be healthy, powerful, decent, productive human beings.”