Dr. Firpo Carr's article in the self proclaimed "America's number one Black Newspaper would seem to argue against this point.

Today Carr openly outed and insulted the International Who's Who Mental Health Professional of the Year in the comment section of this paper as a woman of transsexual history and they referred to her as male, sir, he etc.

Just as the mainline Christian churches must own the reputation of Christianity as bigoted, homophobic and hateful due to not renouncing the loud and dangerous religious right, the African American community needs to, right now, disavow the openly bigoted hate speech of the Carr's.

Black political organizations have been allies. Political organizations are not representative of their communities. The leaders usually exhibit more education on a wide range of issues. Can you explain why BET, Jet, and Ebony magazine-- bastions of African American culture-- have not yet engaged in honest discussions on the issue in the black community? Why representations of black LGBTs are nonexistent in these mediums?

As a side note:

I believe Bishop Pearson was recently featured in an episode of This American Life. A fascinating episode that examined the life and perils of a modern American "heretic."

Bishop Pearson has begun teaching what he calls "The Gospel of Inclusion" where basically, he teaches a Christianity devoid of Hell. Good on you Bishop Pearson, I wholly stand by your teachings of inclusion, and the overpowering love of Christ for all his children.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1273

Bps. Pearson and Selders are unusual in the black pastorate in that they actively speak for inclusion of LGBTs in church life as well as secular life. (So does Rev. Gomes of Harvard, but that's not a job dependent on donations from the congregation.) There's real risk of unemployment when a pastor makes unpopular statements, and I have no idea how many pastors out there think that same gender loving, in a committed couple, is either neutral or a venial sin, and avoid the topic entirely. Of course, a huge number of pastors are sincere in their condemnation, whether or not they consider it an issue worth sermon time. I am sure that some pastors actively pursue the topic as a way to provide fire and brimstone that doesn't affect most of the donors, and maybe some of these pastors talk themselves into believing that SGL relationships are more important than infidelity, bullying, enabling others addicted to drugs, malicious gossip, and all the other common sins.

Cathryn, you are right that the A-A community should rise above nitwits like Carr. So should the white community rise above nitwits like Phelps and Dobson. The point is, both communities are highly diverse, jerks will always be with us, and all we can do is to speak out and hope to change somebody's heart/ mind/ soul.

As with white people, there are multiple reasons why people of color may have voted against the LGBT community on issues like marriage equality.

Outside of homophobia, the only reasons I could think of would be along the lines of feminist/queer/marxist critiques of the institution of marriage. Even still, I wonder if a person like that would vote in favor of an amendment that described the institution.

Are there any other reasons?

The authors are two of my favorite people and they make some very good points. However, California voters approved Proposition 8 by a 52 to 48 percent margin. A compilation of post-election polls in California suggests that 58% of African American, 49% of Whites, 59% of Latino and 48% of Asian also voted for Prop 8.
Voter support for Proposition 8 split along the lines of gender, age, race, religiosity, political views, and personal knowledge of lesbians and gay men. Men, older voters, the more religious, Republicans and conservatives were all more likely to support Proposition 8 to a statistically significant degree.

Though the association between voters’ racial and ethnic characteristics is complex, African Americans and Latinos were stronger supporters of Proposition 8 than other groups, but not to a significant degree after considering their level of religiosity. That is, much of the stronger support found for Prop. 8 among these groups is explained by their increased levels of attendance of religious services. This point should not be lost on the good Bishops.

After look at political characteristics (party identification and ideology) African American and Latino identity is significantly associated with support for Proposition 8. In other words African Americans and Latinos voted for Proposition 8 in numbers higher than expected given the fact that they are more likely to identify as Democrats and liberals than Californians as a whole.

So it appears to be religious bigotry not race—and African American are simply more religious (measured by weekly church attendance).

I would suggest that the first step is telling the truth about the harm done by those who use religion to justify discrimination and prejudice and the failure of our progressive religious movement to combat this reality.