Donnie Mclurkin lies at the COGIC Convocation

Donnie Mclurkin thinks he can cure SGL Youth

Watch Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hcRHrTpYh8

Watch Parrt 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3PWB4aDSHU

Watch Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY_tIkP2BIs

Commentary by John Martin Green

Poor Donnie. Having read a couple of chapters in his book at a Barnes & Nobles year before last, I think it was, I kind of wondered why any would feel it important to respond to something Donnie McClurkin had said about homosexuality. While he does speak to a sizeable congregation, bless his heart, in case you didn't notice, Donnie seems rather deeply disturbed.

It struck me, when I read the fairly flimsily penned episodes, that brother would do well by some intensive therapy. He was traumatized by his rape as a child, and traumatized again by a theology and a culture that damns difference - the very difference which he embodies, no less.

Interesting was his quoting a passage of scripture which tells the reader that he must fear God. That is so bassackwards as to be laughable, were it not so widely held and propagated. In fact, God and fear do not coexist simultaneously. One cancels the other out. Which is why, when even an atheist is petrified, that is, fears for his life, he is apt to pray.

But, Donnie isn't the problem. Theological doctrine which condemns difference is. Be it Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc., et. al. Any theology which constricts or constrains, let alone rebukes or curses people's natural inclinations is a perversion of spirit.

A play within a play within a ritual...

BMX-NY Present a reading of a new play, "A Communion with Kings" by BMXNY member, Dyron Holmes.

About BMX-NY

What Is Same Gender Loving (SGL)?

Fundraiser: BMX-NY T-Shirts

For: Friday, October 23rd, 2009 @ 8 P.M.

The Black Men's Xchange, New York  Present a reading of a new play, "A Communion with Kings" by BMXNY member, Dyron Holmes.   A COMMUNION WITH KINGS is a play within a play within a ritual.  The central figure in this piece is HECATOMB, a word that holds the meaning of "a great sacrifice."  HECATOMB is a living soul who is pure and has never been touched intimately by either a man or a woman.  He is an employee at a box office where a performance of a dance concert entitled, "Kings" is being performed.  The Kings in the play are, BLOOD, GOLD and EARTH.  The play asks the question:   In the complex village of  same gender loving brothers, can divine love be found in the dark and light rituals of sex, identity and "dis-ease?"   HECATOMB How do I protect the part of myself that remains innocent while seeking an intimate partnership that will affirm that part of me?   EARTH Am I still worthy of respect, honor and beauty even after I have been tainted by less than holy sexual experiences?   GOLD Why do I need to give a f*ck about the brothers that I have sex with if none of them seem to give a f*ck about me?   BLOOD Can my sexual manipulation of other men be a good thing?   DYRON HOLMES (Playwright) is a writer, actor and spiritualist. His first play, Brothers of Time, was a winner of the National Young Playwrights Festival.  His plays have been presented at Playwrights Horizons, HERE Theater, Lark Theater, Genesius Guild , New York University, Baltimore Theater Project w/ Brave Soul Collective, The New School, Duke Ellington and Off-Stage Bookstore Theater in London . Acting Stage credits include performances at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kennedy Center , Syracuse Stage, Joe's Pub/Public Theater, Crossroads Theater, St. George's Theater in London and the Al-Bustan International Arts Festival in Beirut , Lebanon .  Television/Film credits include: Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Job, NY Undercover, The Hurricane and the upcoming film, Order of Redemption.  He is a graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts and New York University 's Tisch School of the Arts.  He is the founder of The Peoples Monastery and is presently enrolled in One Spirit Interfaith Seminary and will be an ordained minister in June 2010.

JMG Notes: Monogamy vs. Polyamory, or Polyandry: Creating New SGL Paradigms?

Hello Folks. The following post is from John Martin Green. He asked me to post if for him. In the future look for posts from JMG.


At least week’s Black Men’s Xchange-New York we took up the topic,

Monogamy vs. Polyamory, or Polyandry: Creating New SGL Paradigms? 

After defining the terms, polyamory and polyandry, both of which involve relationship practices extending beyond individuals having a single mate, with the consent of all involved, participants shared their perspectives on those relationship models and others they’ve attempted or considered.


Among the most interesting outlooks espoused included the idea that:  

With all of the relationship structures cited (including polygamy), with the exception of polyandry, the central figure is male, such that, operating in a patriarchal society as we are, there is a power dynamic in those configurations that favors the man.  As same gender loving (SGL) men, these might well prove ‘win-win’ situations for us.

Other participants shared that their reasons for attempting or considering relationships extending beyond monogamy include:
Because men, both by nature and nurture, have been socialized to be sexual ‘conquerors,’ in monogamous relationships there is frequently clandestine sexual activity afoot which threatens the monogamy.
Examples along these lines included mentions of real and proverbial church ‘Pastors’ whose spouses, even as they marry, know they are entering tacit polyamorous relationships.


Some of the reasons proposed by participants that alternatives to monogamy might loom as hopeful for SGL folk included:
The anonymity observed in internet sexual hookups, and in more traditional covert sexploits can be spiritually, if not literally, deadly.
With marriage counselors, churches and all the other institutions in society buttressing the maintenance of their monogamous unions, the divorce rate among heterosexuals still hovers upwards of 60%.  SGL people, with little or no institutional support, and more often, negative sanctioning for our mating from those same institutions; and having, like all other men, been socialized to be sexual conquerors, might spare ourselves of “The Myth of Monogamy”* through the creation of our own mating structures.




* “The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People” (Hardcover)
by David P. Barash Ph.D. (Author), Judith Eve Lipton (Author) "Anthropologist Margaret Mead once suggested that monogamy is the hardest of all human marital arrangements..."

A Fond Farewell by Andy M. Saunders

Michael Jackson was a Black man born in America. He was a son, brother, uncle, cousin, nephew, father, recording artist, entertainer, businessman and humanitarian. Much negative press has been published about his life, and certainly he lived his whole life in the public’s eye. However, it is not my place to judge unless I've walked in his shoes. I love Michael’s spirit and I thank my higher power for having been alive at this time.

My first Jackson 5 record, a 45 r.p.m., was “Dancing Machine.” I was 11 or 12 years old in the 5th or 6th grade attending Piney Branch Middle School on Maple Ave., in Takoma Park, MD. My music teacher, Mrs. Davies encouraged a few of my classmates and myself to create a dance to the song. She also insisted that I choreograph the piece, which I did. Life was so limitless at that time. The Jackson 5 and their success said to me that I could be and do whatever I wanted to. I still remember bits and peaces of that dance some 36 years later.

Michael, you've gone much too soon, but the legacy of music you left us will live on and thrive for generations to come. My hope is that, at my own passing on to the ancestors, I have touched just one person’s life in a way that changes them for the better, and that that starts a ripple outward mostly in the Black community where our men need so much support to be and do the great things that people like you have shown us we can do.

I would like to take this time and space to say to Michael Jackson a fond farewell, and to the Jackson Family, including his children that The Black Men's Xchange-New York., (http://www.bmxny.org), send our heartfelt condolences at this time of loss in your life. We are affected greatly by his death as we were, are, and will continue to be, by his work. Rest in peace, Michael Joseph Jackson.

I Loved Michael, But, I Don’t Think he Did by John-Martin Green

We've lost Michael. Michael, the seventies singing prodigy who grew into the most visionary musical performer of our generation. Michael, who scaled untold heights of popular culture, rewriting the record books. Michael, who sang and danced his way into the hearts and souls of men women and children the world over.

I am torn about his departure. It strikes me that he left us a long time ago, actually. His retreat may have begun as long ago as the time of the infamous Pepsi commercial twenty-five years ago at which point he was said to have commenced his addiction to pain killers. Having been alcohol and drug addicted myself, I can attest to the fact that, when one is so afflicted, one is not really present. Perhaps it began a few years before that, with his first plastic surgery.He was clearly a genius - a tortured genius. It frustrates me when I think about the extent to which, brilliant as he was, he seems not to have wanted to be who he was. It vexes and perplexes me that, with unfathomable resources and access to information - including African and African American History, all manner of progressive spiritual restoration models, and the best psychological support services the world has to offer - this uber-gifted man seems never to have opted to heal himself - to deliver himself of the self-hatred by which so many of us are stunted. For even a little of the incalculable psychological support of which he might have availed himself, he may not have had to remain psychologically trapped in boyhood.

While it is likely that the adults with whom he surrounded himself may not have been wont to challenge him to seek out help for fear of being dismissed, I can’t imagine people like Quincy or Stephen or Diana being so cowered. Was there nobody pulling his coat? Nobody at all? If so, that’s a tragedy.
Writers have conjectured about Michael’s changing his appearance so radically so as to remove any traces of his father from his appearance. While he may have harbored some antipathy for his father, I think it’s safe to say he learned his relationship to manhood and to Blackness from his father. His desire to escape the bonds of manhood and Black manhood were so intense that he went to extraordinary lengths to transform his physical self into something else. On a Larry king show one night this week, film director, John Landis told how, in approaching him to direct the Thriller video, Michael told him, 'I want to become a monster.' Before his final departure, he would seem to have come very close to achieving that goal.

Black Gay Pride? by Kweku Nicholas

The latest Black Men’s Xchange-New York dialogue with hetero sisters drew into stark contrast the position of the burgeoning Gay Liberation Movement with the position of Black homosexuals in relationship to our Civil and Human Rights.

When he was asked about the difference between the terms gay and homosexual, facilitator, John-Martin Green explained that, "The term gay was founded on European symbols and iconography to launch a self-determination movement for white male homosexuals. Homosexual, on the other hand, is a clinical term, indicating biological wiring."

"The extraordinary success of the Gay Liberation (self-determination) Movement can be seen in that, a distinction needs to be made in the first place," Green added. "The triumph of the Movement is made clear in the current struggles being waged across the nation for dismantling of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ military policy, for recognition of same sex headed families in the census and, of course, for marriage equality."

"When watching news coverage of the hundreds and in some instances, thousands of protesters demonstrating around these issues," Green said, "with rare exception, we see a sea of White. For our part, homosexual Black men are still playing darting eye games on trains and in other public spaces where we cower in the face of our attraction to each other, for fear that the object of our attraction might reject, or worse yet, revile us publicly."

Green’s point is valid. Most of us don’t feel entitled to our sexuality even at this late date. By and large, Black people still lack a sense of entitlement to the rights and privileges of citizenship, as evidenced by our apathy in the face of countless instances of disrespect dealt to us. Among the few areas where heterosexual brothers may actually feel some entitlement is around their sexuality. To the extent that this is true, it’s ironic, since the sense of sexual agency came from stereotypes of Black men about our so-called sexual prowess.

If we, as Black people need an awareness of our entitlement in order to stand up for our citizenship rights, we Black homosexuals need such a sense of entitlement even more in order to pursue the rights which are still denied us. And these include the right to acknowledge our very existence in our communities.

During the forum, hetero and homosexual participants spoke of our urgent need for authenticity and honesty in all our affairs towards achieving ownership of ourselves, and of forging processes to learn to love ourselves. This last is most important of all. When I love myself, I am most likely to be true to myself, and risk honesty when I express my needs, including my admiration of and attraction to my brothers. The key is in recognizing who that self is. Another index of the success of the gay liberation movement is in the numbers of White gays who feel free to crusade for recognition of their right to love each other.

In fairness, many of us are overwhelmed by financial challenges. Most of us aren’t so well off as to be concerned about the joint property and inheritance rights that come with a marriage contract. We suffer disproportionate morbidities: Black men who have sex with men currently account for half of all HIV/AIDS cases, Black men are disproportionately incarcerated, and we are afraid of being further stigmatized. It’s small wonder that we tend to sit on the sidelines of the struggle for our human rights.

If we are really proud of being gay, that is, if we are empowered by gay as acknowledgement of at least some facet of our personhood, we should be out there like the throngs of protesters at the demonstrations across the country, proudly proclaiming our attraction to and love of each other in our communities. While there are undoubtedly things we share in common with White gays and homosexuals of other backgrounds, in order to achieve our freedom, we have to do what Jews and Japanese and countless other groups have done, and honor our own cultural uniqueness. When an artist, focuses on the specific, he renders the universal. Similarly, an identification of our sexuality that honors our Africanness may provide the pride in our sexuality that will allow us to fight for all the other aspects of our lives.

PREVENTION INTENTIONS by John-Martin Green

Over the past few weeks, I participated as an audience member in two town hall style meetings on HIV in the Black community. The first, at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, and the other at the Gay & Lesbian Center billed as, The State of Gay Black Men. The panel discussion at the first event, was moderated by AIDS Budget Action Coalition Director, Manuel Rivera, and included Dr. Monica Sweeney, Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Health Department's Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control. Panelists spoke of how the incidence of new infections is raging among Black and Latino people and how we must secure a greater share of the one-billion-plus dollars which are being allotted to HIV prevention in New York City each year. We must also hold each other to account, they said, for how those dollars are spent.

The most salient perspective issuing forth from that panel came from Dr. Sweeney in response to a woman who proposed that HIV is being put in condoms to destroy Black people. Dr. Sweeney urged the small grassroots audience peopled by HIV fatigued, stigma-phobic, conspiracy theorists, among others, that, “We think of HIV as if it existed in a vacuum. It doesn’t. The discrimination part, including poor education, poor housing, and job discrimination – all those happened before HIV. If we think of HIV in the context of health disparities; obesity, heart disease, stroke, arthritis; we have all of them, and the conspiracy part was not around HIV, it happened way before [HIV] based on the policies in the US around race issues.”

Oddly, when broaching the subject that 50% of the new HIV infections in NY are among men who have sex with men, Dr. Sweeney said, “However we shouldn’t talk about men who have sex with men, because there are a lot of men who have sex with men who are not HIV+. Another panelist, who identified as a heterosexual HIV+ man about to turn fifty, cited stigma as a challenge in fighting the disease but insisted that we oughtn’t waste time talking about whether men are having sex with men because, “If they’re having sex with anyone, they’re at risk,” he insisted.

I proposed to the crowd that that gentleman was right about stigma being a serious challenge in the fight against HIV but that, “we have to talk about the fact that there are many Black men who love men. We are the most stigmatized people on the planet. Those stigmas include the issues of manhood and sexuality. Sexuality exists on a continuum. We have to create spaces in which to talk about those issues. Not talking about it is killing us. There is also a stigma around the identification, ‘gay,’ which is seen by many Blacks as a White thing. Many Black men who love men will not go to venues where gay identification and HIV are the bywords to receive service. In conceiving culturally competent prevention models, this fact must be taken into account.”

At the Gay & Lesbian Center town hall, the audience expressed frustration over People of Color in Crisis’, and NYS Black Gay Network’s being defunded, and Gay Men of African Descent looking as if it is moving in the same direction in the face of administrative and fiscal underperformance.

I suggested that the crisis facing us extends beyond administrative and fiscal mismanagement. “The problem,” I proposed, “is that the prevention and wellness models being employed to assist Black people are invalid. If we are in earnest about more than just keeping our respective organizations afloat, and really seek to help stem the tide of HIV/AIDS among other morbidities plaguing us, we should convene a think tank to explore alternative culturally competent prevention models, and conduct our efforts on behalf Black people in centers in our own community,”

Here’s to hoping we come together along these lines.

JMG's Recap on BMXNY's Positively Sexy forum

During the course of our Positively Sexy dialogue, on May 8, among perspectives shared in response to the following bolded questions, included:

How, if at all has the face of HIV changed over the last decade?
“There is hope insofar as people taking ownership of the disease [is concerned.]”

“Stigma, denial and the absence of hope [have changed],”

“I’ve been on Adam 4 Adam for five years, and not once has anyone ever asked me my status.”

“The face has changed from white to black.”

“Since HIV is no longer a death sentence, he thinks it’s okay to go bareback. For me, this is like a mental health problem. [I asked,] ‘I don’t understand why you think this behavior contributes to community among Black men.’”

“I don’t have to have sex for sex’s sake anymore.”

Does the virus make one unlovable?
“When I’m thriving in life, I wear a condom. When I’m not; when I’m feeling demoralized, I don’t.”

“I’m diabetic. I used food, in the face of my low self image, the way other men used sex, and so I didn’t become HIV+.”

“When I’m not feeling so good about myself, the parks, [and] the [sex] parties serve as affirmation for me; some kind of acknowledgement.”

Is disclosure still an issue?
“…The silence in our lives and how it crushes…There are levels of denial and dishonesty…”

Can I be empowered, sexy, sexual and positive?
“If we’re not seeking to find health every moment, then we’re missing the point.”

“If I’m going to get naked with a man in more than one way, there has to be something [more] in it.”

“It took me a long time, including a lot of therapy and other [healing] processes, but I have finally arrived at a place where I love and respect me, and know that I am all kinds of sexy.”

What is Same Gender Loving (SGL)?

The term 'Same Gender Loving' [SGL] emerged in the early ‘90s to offer Black women who love women and Black men who love men (and other people of color) a way of identifying that resonated with the uniqueness of Black life and culture. Before this, many African descended people, knowing little about their history regarding homosexuality and bi-sexuality had taken on European symbols and identifications as a means of embracing their sexuality(ies): Greek lambdas, German pink triangles, the White-gay-originated rainbow flag, in addition to the terms “gay’ and “lesbian.”
The term “gay,” coined as an identification by White male homosexuals beginning in the in the 50s, was cultivated in an exclusive White male environment. By the late 60s, the growing Gay Liberation movement developed in a climate excluding Blacks and women. In response to this discrimination, White women coined the identification “lesbian,” a word derived from the Greek island Lesbos. The lesbian movement, in turn, helped define a majority White movement called “feminism.” In response to the racism experienced by women of color from white feminists, celebrated author Alice Walker introduced the term “womanist.”
The term “womanist” identified woman of color concerned with the oppression of women and with addressing the problem of “racism.” In this spirit of self-naming and ethnic-sexual pride, the term “same gender loving” (SGL) was introduced to enhance the lives and illuminate the voices of homosexual and bi-sexual people of color; to provide a powerful identification not marginalized by racism in the gay community or “homophobic” attitudes in society at large.
As gay culture grew and established itself in San Francisco, Greenwich Village, West Hollywood and other enclaves, Blacks, especially, were carded and rejected from many establishments. Even today Blacks, Asians and Latinos often appear in the pages of gay publications solely as the potential sexual objects of white men. Ironically, gay rights activism was modeled on the Black Civil Rights and Black Power Movements of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Unfortunately, this replication of Black liberation provided little incentive for gays to acknowledge SGL Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans.
Since the advent of the gay rights movement many Black SGLs painfully discovered that this “movement” provided little space for the voices, experiences and empowerment of Black people. The rigid influence of the Black church and its traditionally anti-homosexual stance has contributed to attitudes that repress and marginalize Black SGLs. The lack of acknowledgement and support in the Black community has led multitudes of same gender loving African descended people to the White community to endure racism, isolation from their own communities, oppression and cultural insensitivity.
The high visibility of the white gay community contributes to the tendency in Black communities to overlook or ridicule Black SGL relationships as alien or aberrant. The Black SGL movement has inspired national dialogue on diverse ways of loving in the Black community. The term same gender loving explicitly acknowledges loving within same-sex relationships while encouraging self-love.
SGL has served as a wakeup call for Blacks to acknowledge diverse ways of loving and sexualities and has provided an opportunity for Blacks and other people of color to claim, nurture and honor their significance within their families and communities.
Seeking support and positive identification, people of color still endure ethnic invisibility in many gay settings and sexuality invisibility in their own communities. It is the intention of the SGL movement to break these cycles. The term “same gender loving” (SGL) has been adopted by women and men from all over the African Diaspora. To same gender loving sisters and brothers everywhere… Peace, self-love and respect to you, to your families, communities and allies.
“Loving ourselves is its own reward.”