The Black/African-American caucus met yesterday to discuss the major issues. I felt really good to address the LGBT relations with Black community. I thought it needed to be said among the African-Americans leaders in room.
We had an deep discussion about Tracy Morgan, religion and how we need to take a more proactive stance in promoting LGBT matters in our community. It was also noted that the Black community could learn a lot from the LGBT community about advocacy.
Black leaders mentioned that some issues receive different types of responses than others. For example, we did not respond strongly to Donald Trump when he attacked President Obama's credentials. We could have sent a powerful, direct message to Donald, as well to the media for covering him so much.
We also talked about 2012 and what needs to be done to re-elect Obama. While some leaders had their issues with Obama, they all agreed they will support him. Others felt that Obama lost a good chunk of the Black vote, I totally disagree. I feel that Obama has the majority of Black vote, regardless of the bad economy. What he needs to do is to solidify the LGBT vote and Latino vote, but that's another story for another time.
We also realized we need a watchdog organization like GLAAD to address racist or discriminatory matters. And we should be better at controlling our imaging and messaging. We can make sure the right images and messages are out there about our people.
In all, an hour did not suffice. We wasn't able to get into the juicy issues, but the post meeting conversations were priceless. I hope we continue our conversation and help move our community forward.
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