National
Journalist Discovers 4th Rail of Politics: The LGBT Debate
By Jazelle Hunt
NNPA Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – It was a typical Friday night when journalist, author, and political analyst, Sophia A. Nelson did what she typically does: She posted a photo on her Twitter account. It wasn’t a typical photo and it did not draw a typical response.
Nelson posted a satirical photo of three injured soldiers saying, “PLEASE EXCUSE US. WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO THANK BRUCE JENNER FOR BEING SO COURAGEOUS.”
A devout Christian, Nelson called Bruce Jenner’s transition a woman now known as Caitlyn Jenner as “detestable,” “distasteful,” and “confused,” and proposed that Jenner’s Olympic medals be revoked because “Caitlyn Jenner did not earn them.”
And in case anyone missed the point, Nelson wrote, “Bottom line: Caitlyn Jenner is a man biologically and based on her DNA. No surgery can change that. Calling a man a woman is an insult.”
With that, Nelson became an active target of insults.
Among the Tweeted comments: “You are absolute garbage” and “You’re disgusting, please drown.” One person called her a “c—t” in a Tweet that has since been deleted.
Hundreds of responses poured in over the next several days, some in support, but many sharply critical.
“The anger! When did everybody get so angry? That’s what shocked me so much,” she said. “I would ask my fellow Americans in the LGBT community – if you want people to respectfully engage with you and treat you the same, then you have to be willing to extend that to others who don’t think the way you do. We’ve got to get to a place where we can be civil in our discourse.”
Civil discourse around LGBT issues is Rev. Cedric Harmon’s work. An ordained pastor, Harmon is co-director of Many Voices, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that helps create LGBT-safe, inclusive conversations within Black churches and communities.
“I think that some of the negative backlash comes from the very sincere hurt and harm visited on trans folks every day,” he explained. “On the other hand, the transgender experience is just now getting a full public hearing. So people are coming at this with a whole lot of questions.”
Kylar W. Broadus, lawyer, educator, activist, and director of the Transgender Civil Rights Project of the National LGBTQ Task Force, the nation’s oldest LGBTQ advocacy group, also has trying to mend fences between the straight and LGBTQ community.
“Words are very harmful, particularly when you’re dealing with marginalized communities. Trans communities are hugely impacted by violence, particularly trans communities of color,” he says. “So if we allow people to say what they want, those words roll into bigger hate. And if we don’t dispel the notion immediately, it ramps up.”
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs finds that trans women of color accounted for 72 percent of all LGBTQ people murdered in 2013. At the start of 2015, a Black trans woman was murdered every week for six consecutive weeks. The National Center for Transgender Equality finds that almost half of all Black trans women have been incarcerated at some point, and several groups report that the rate of suicide/suicidal thoughts and attempts among transgender people is around 40 percent.
Ronald Moore serves as president and co-founder of the LGBT Faith Leaders of African Descent, said. “You can have different opinions, that’s just the reality. When you start to act on those feelings or say things that impact other people, that’s when it becomes problematic.”
The political conversation around LGBTQ issues has advanced dramatically over the past three decades. One by one, states have been grappling with same-sex marriage. A Supreme Court decision on the matter is imminent.
Nelson recalled, “Back in 2012 when I was covering the White House…the president switched his position. It caused an uproar in a lot of communities, the Black community, the faith community. Like a lot of people of faith, [I said] don’t believe that marriage between two men or marriage between two women is Biblical and allowable under God’s law.”
Professor Michael Eric Dyson referred to Nelson and others as “sexual rednecks.” Later, MSNBC hosted a televised debate between the two, during which Dyson apologized. But some people on social media weren’t so amicable. Nelson said she has received written threats, even her home.
Nelson, who also holds a law degree, has always felt that LGBT Americans should enjoy a range of civil and human rights, from living and worshipping in peace to adopting children.
“If I were on the Supreme Court I would vote for same sex marriage even though I don’t agree with it, because under the law…I believe the Supreme Court has no other outcome,” she said, adding that an exception should be made for clergy who do not wish to officiate same-sex marriages, and that the law should define marriage as just two adults.
Rev. Harmon said in the case of transgender people, strangers will even cross the line of what is socially acceptable with questions and comments about genitals.
“The burden of having to check every one of those very normal activities is a huge burden every day,” he said. “That’s not a fair or comfortable way of living.”
According to the Pew Research Center, 51 percent of Americans support gay marriage and 42 percent oppose. Also, 72 percent of Americans feel it will be “inevitably” legalized, up from 59 percent in 2004. For the first time, a majority of Americans (63 percent) believe LGBT people should be accepted by society and that people cannot change their orientation (60 percent).
Still, 53 percent of Americans either do not believe or are unsure about whether gender and sexuality are set before birth. And among the 13 percent of Americans who don’t know any LGBT people, 58 percent oppose same-sex marriage.
“This gay, lesbian, transgender community has power that I’ve never seen before. And they have the power to shut down anything with threats of, ‘If you speak out, we will curse you, we’ll attack you, we’ll label you.’ I’ve had a couple corporate engagements canceled…because I don’t agree with same-sex marriage,” Nelson stated.
“I’m old enough to remember when Bruce Jenner was on my Wheaties box and I admired him. For me to not be able to voice my opinion that a man, who has a penis still, can now call himself a woman and I have a problem with that, and I have to get called vile names – it’s like come on. I didn’t say anything that wasn’t factually accurate.”
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Arts and Culture
In ‘Affrilachia: Testimonies,’ Puts Blacks in Appalacia on the Map
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
An average oak tree is bigger around than two people together can reach.
That mighty tree starts out with an acorn the size of a nickel, ultimately growing to some 80 feet tall, with a canopy of a hundred feet or more across.
And like the new book, “Affrilachia” by Chris Aluka Berry (with Kelly Elaine Navies and Maia A. Surdam), its roots spread wide and wider.
Affriclachia is a term a Kentucky poet coined in the 1990s referring to the Black communities in Appalachia who are similarly referred to as Affrilachians.
In 2016, “on a foggy Sunday morning in March,” Berry visited Affrilachia for the first time by going the Mount Zion AME Zion Church in Cullowhee, North Carolina. The congregation was tiny; just a handful of people were there that day, but a pair of siblings stood out to him.
According to Berry, Ann Rogers and Mae Louise Allen lived on opposite sides of town, and neither had a driver’s license. He surmised that church was the only time the elderly sisters were together then, but their devotion to one another was clear.
As the service ended, he asked Allen if he could visit her. Was she willing to talk about her life in the Appalachians, her parents, her town?
She was, and arrangements were made, but before Barry could get back to Cullowhee, he learned that Allen had died. Saddened, he wondered how many stories are lost each day in mountain communities where African Americans have lived for more than a century.
“I couldn’t make photographs of the past,” he says, “but I could document the people and places living now.”
In doing so he also offers photographs that he collected from people he met in ‘Affrilachia,’ in North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, at a rustic “camp” that was likely created by enslaved people, at churches, and in modest houses along highways.
The people he interviewed recalled family tales and community stories of support, hardship, and home.
Says coauthor Navies, “These images shout without making a sound.”
If it’s true what they say about a picture being worth 1,000 words, then “Affrilachia,” as packed with photos as it is, is worth a million.
With that in mind, there’s not a lot of narrative inside this book, just a few poems, a small number of very brief interviews, a handful of memories passed down, and some background stories from author Berry and his co-authors. The tales are interesting but scant.
For most readers, though, that lack of narrative isn’t going to matter much. The photographs are the reason why you’d have this book.
Here are pictures of life as it was 50 years or a century ago: group photos, pictures taken of proud moments, worn pews, and happy children. Some of the modern pictures may make you wonder why they’re included, but they set a tone and tell a tale.
This is the kind of book you’ll take off the shelf, and notice something different every time you do. “Affrilachia” doesn’t contain a lot of words, but it’s a good choice when it’s time to branch out in your reading.
“Affrilachia: Testimonies,” by Chris Aluka Berry with Kelly Elaine Navies and Maia A. Surdam
c.2024, University of Kentucky Press, $50.00.
Black History
Alice Parker: The Innovator Behind the Modern Gas Furnace
Born in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1895, Alice Parker lived during a time when women, especially African American women, faced significant social and systemic barriers. Despite these challenges, her contributions to home heating technology have had a lasting impact.
By Tamara Shiloh
Alice Parker was a trailblazing African American inventor whose innovative ideas forever changed how we heat our homes.
Born in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1895, Parker lived during a time when women, especially African American women, faced significant social and systemic barriers. Despite these challenges, her contributions to home heating technology have had a lasting impact.
Parker grew up in New Jersey, where winters could be brutally cold. Although little is documented about her personal life, her education played a crucial role in shaping her inventive spirit. She attended Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington, D.C., where she may have developed her interest in practical solutions to everyday challenges.
Before Parker’s invention, most homes were heated using wood or coal-burning stoves. These methods were labor-intensive, inefficient, and posed fire hazards. Furthermore, they failed to provide even heating throughout a home, leaving many rooms cold while others were uncomfortably warm.
Parker recognized the inefficiency of these heating methods and imagined a solution that would make homes more comfortable and energy-efficient during winter.
In 1919, she patented her design for a gas-powered central heating system, a groundbreaking invention. Her design used natural gas as a fuel source to distribute heat throughout a building, replacing the need for wood or coal. The system allowed for thermostatic control, enabling homeowners to regulate the temperature in their homes efficiently.
What made her invention particularly innovative was its use of ductwork, which channeled warm air to different parts of the house. This concept is a precursor to the modern central heating systems we use today.
While Parker’s design was never fully developed or mass-produced during her lifetime, her idea laid the groundwork for modern central heating systems. Her invention was ahead of its time and highlighted the potential of natural gas as a cleaner, more efficient alternative to traditional heating methods.
Parker’s patent is remarkable not only for its technical innovation but also because it was granted at a time when African Americans and women faced severe limitations in accessing patent protections and recognition for their work. Her success as an inventor during this period is a testament to her ingenuity and determination.
Parker’s legacy lives on in numerous awards and grants – most noticeably in the annual Alice H. Parker Women Leaders in Innovation Award. That distinction is given out by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce to celebrate outstanding women innovators in Parker’s home state.
The details of Parker’s later years are as sketchy as the ones about her early life. The specific date of her death, along with the cause, are also largely unknown.
Activism
U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries Speaks on Democracy at Commonwealth Club
Based on his first speech as House minority leader, “The ABCs of Democracy” by Grand Central Publishing is an illustrated children’s book for people of all ages. Each letter contrasts what democracy is and isn’t, as in: “American Values over Autocracy”, “Benevolence over Bigotry” and “The Constitution over the Cult.”
By Linda Parker Pennington
Special to The Post
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries addressed an enthusiastic overflow audience on Monday at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, launching his first book, “The ABCs of Democracy.”
Based on his first speech as House minority leader, “The ABCs of Democracy” by Grand Central Publishing is an illustrated children’s book for people of all ages.
Each letter contrasts what democracy is and isn’t, as in: “American Values over Autocracy”, “Benevolence over Bigotry” and “The Constitution over the Cult.”
Less than a month after the election that will return Donald Trump to the White House, Rep. Jeffries also gave a sobering assessment of what the Democrats learned.
“Our message just wasn’t connecting with the real struggles of the American people,” Jeffries said. “The party in power is the one that will always pay the price.”
On dealing with Trump, Jeffries warned, “We can’t fall into the trap of being outraged every day at what Trump does. That’s just part of his strategy. Remaining calm in the face of turmoil is a choice.”
He pointed out that the razor-thin margin that Republicans now hold in the House is the lowest since the Civil War.
Asked what the public can do, Jeffries spoke about the importance of being “appropriately engaged. Democracy is not on autopilot. It takes a citizenry to hold politicians accountable and a new generation of young people to come forward and serve in public office.”
With a Republican-led White House, Senate, House and Supreme Court, Democrats must “work to find bi-partisan common ground and push back against far-right extremism.”
He also described how he is shaping his own leadership style while his mentor, Speaker-Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, continues to represent San Francisco in Congress. “She says she is not hanging around to be like the mother-in-law in the kitchen, saying ‘my son likes his spaghetti sauce this way, not that way.’”
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