The Washington Blade steps into the black LGBT community to get their take on the Obama victory:
Black lesbian activist Sheila Alexander-Reid, founder of D.C. based Women in the Life, is struggling to put her thoughts into words on the morning of Nov. 5.
“I am so incredibly exhausted,” she says.
Reid is speechless for other reasons, too. She cannot believe that the U.S. has elected a black man to its highest office.
Carlene Cheatam, a lesbian activist and one of the original organizers of D.C. Black Pride, said that on election night, she was “totally filled.”
Though she had never really thought about whether she’d see a black president in her lifetime, she said she “knew he would win.”
“The impact that he has on people here and around the world, I think, is amazing, and I’m grateful to be here today,” she says.
Alexander Robinson, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a black gay group, said he had faith the American people would eventually support a black president, but didn’t believe it would happen this soon.
Earline Budd, longtime transgender rights activist and former executive director of Transgender Health Empowerment Inc., said that as an HIV-positive transgender woman, Obama’s presidency means health services that are important and vital to her life will not be eliminated and will be given more consideration.
Budd worked to get transgender people in D.C. registered to vote in time for the election. A lot of her clients, she said, were voting for the first time.
And she admits that she never thought she’d see this day.
These longtime gay and black activists professed their belief that the administration of president-elect Barack Obama will be the best in history on gay rights.
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