Why the African American community should embrace gay rights.

The Bay Area's Contra Costa Times just published an opinion piece by Pastor and syndicated columnist, Byron Williams. Williams makes some pretty good points, check it out:

WHENEVER THERE is a discussion about gay rights and the African-American community, someone can be depended upon to offer the juvenile critique that the cause of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community is not the same as the historical Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and '60s.

It's not uncommon to hear African-American pastors suggest "my skin cannot be compared with their sin" as a way to poetically justify their homophobia.

This argument assumes a collective understanding of what the Civil Rights Movement is and what the LGBT movement is not.

If one views the civil rights movement and the current LGBT struggle through the linear paradigm of race and sex, I would agree there is little that connects the two.

If, however, one understands the civil rights movement as something that helped America get closer to the democratic values to which it committed itself in 1776, along with the preamble of the Constitution that reads: "We the people of the United States in order form a more perfect union," then I would suggest the LGBT struggle is very much an extension in the ongoing civil rights struggle.

Find the rest of the article after the jump...

Anonymous E-mail Accuses Diversity Program of Promoting ‘Gay Agenda’

Julie Bolcer at the Advocate is reporting that a mass email has been sent to thousands of parents of a California high school complaining that the school's diversity program is advancing the "gay agenda". It seems like the email didn't illict the response the author had hoped for:

An anonymous e-mail potentially sent to thousands of parents accused the Castro Valley High School in California of promoting a "gay agenda" in its diversity program last week.

The high school near San Francisco is the alma mater of lesbian MSNBC host, Rachel Maddow.

The two-day “Days of Diversity” program, now in its ninth year at the school, teaches students about the history of their community and country, including inter-religious relations and civil rights, according to Principal Pete Alvarez.

Whoever sent the e-mail thinks otherwise, however.

“I find out that the influence of the gay agenda at CVHS is much worse than I had been led to believe,” said the message. “I already knew that most of my child’s teachers were gay.”

Officials are unclear how the sender received the e-mail addresses of parents, many of whom expressed their disgust with the anti-gay sentiments.

Find the original article after the jump...