GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

SEPTEMBER 13, 1996

BOOKS

The intersection of race and sexual orientation

by Bob Roehr

"I didn't even think of myself as being gay until law school, April 1991," says Keith Boykin. "Before that I had some thoughts that I might possibly be gay, but I had never had sex with a man, never even thought about the possibility of having sex with a man. I guess I was just fooling myself."

The only fooling now is the mischievous type, which brings forth his gentle laugh. There is a sense of grace about Keith Boykin at 31. It is an easy smile, a sense of energy at rest that can focus with a swift, staggering intensity. He is cool and hot, youth and sagacity, experience and optimistic naïveté.

And he seems on the cusp of national prominence as a gay leader.

The last five years have been charmed: Harvard Law School, the 1992 Clinton campaign, and a coveted two-year stint in the White House. He had a ringside seat to the gays in the military debacle as "the only person in the administration working on these issues, not on a full time basis but on a consistent basis."

"We were completely blindsided by it," he says. The president "overestimated his own ability to change government, to change politics, to change people's minds. He felt he could persuade General Colin Powell to support this." Still, he believes Clinton

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should have lifted the ban and that Congress would have overridden it.

Boykin remains solidly behind Clinton's reelection. "We have to be realistic about this. It doesn't mean he is a savior, it doesn't mean he is a great guy, it doesn't mean he did everything he said he was going to do. But if you want to have somebody who is at least moderately supportive of gay and lesbian rights in the White House, you have no choice but to vote for Bill Clinton, plain and simple."

The president's historic April 1993 meeting with gay and lesbian leaders was a turning point for Boykin. The first person to speak was a Los Angeles activist. "Mr. President, my name is Phill Wilson. I'm a black, gay man living with AIDS."

"I just couldn't believe it," recalls Boykin, a sense of wonder still in is voice. "He was so candid. To me it was very courageous. I thought, I wish there were more people like this, particularly people of color, who have the confidence to see themselves and say it publicly."

Their friendship grew as Wilson returned for other meetings. "When he would leave he would kiss me. On my lips. In front of everybody. In front of the Secret Service. The first time it was very embarrassing and I said to myself, oh my god, I can't believe he is doing this. And then after a while, I realized that this is how we change our culture and society, by just being who we are, by being comfortable about it and not being ashamed of it."

Wilson eventually recruited Boykin to be executive director of the National Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum. Boykin has spent the last year tearing around the country trying to build the critical mass which will transform it into an organization that is truly national in scope.

"Wherever there is a gathering of black people there is going to be black gay people— at the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, black family reunions," says Boykin. "We want to be a part of those groups, we want to build bridges."

"One thing we have to be clear about is that the interest of the black gay and lesbian community doesn't necessarily always agree with, or isn't always consistent with, the interests of the overall gay and lesbian community and the overall black community. Where there are differences, we are going to be there to point them out.”

He faced a daunting challenge immediately upon assuming the job. Louis Farrakhan was organizing the Million Man March. Whether or not to participate became a hotly debated topic within the black community, especially among gays. Wilson was a leading advocate for participation and he slowly won over an initially skeptical Boykin.

They ended up leading a contingent of openly gay marchers who, like a vast number of other participants, defined for themselves what their presence meant. Boykin says they gained a “sense of empowerment” from confronting their fears. "That, to me, was the strongest message, that we believe

BLACK & GAY

IN AMERICA

KEITH BOYKING

in ourselves. We have the courage to say who we are. That our community, the black community, accepts us and they respect us more for doing that."

Last year, in the months between the White House and the Leadership Forum, Boykin wrote the first draft of One More River to Cross: Black & Gay in America (Doubleday/Anchor $23.95), now in bookstores. It grew from a seed planted in law school, a paper on "the intersection of race and sexual orientation."

Boykin thought of turning it into a legal article, but chafed at the dry format, so he put together a book proposal for a more popular approach. The day negotiations wrapped up, "within 15 minutes I had resigned," he says grinning with enthusiasm, "I was ready to leave the White House."

He "wrote it for several audiences, for the black community and the gay and lesbian community primarily, with the expectation that each group can learn about the other." It incorporates a mix of different approaches, part autobiography, part a retelling of the experiences of others, and part reasoned argument.

One of his lead themes is "the constant comparison of whether blacks and gays are the same, whether the two forms of discrimination are the same. And of course they are not, but it doesn't matter... it still hurts." Homophobia, racism, and the black church all have separate chapters.

Boykin is a natural writer who weaves theory and anecdote together beautifully, seamlessly, and with great economy. There is honesty without angst, candor without being maudlin, fairness with no straw men. This is one of those rare books that truly can be called "a good read."

Keith Boykin will be at An Open Book, 749 N. High Street in Columbus' Short North, on Tuesday, September 17 at 8:00 pm, for a book signing and discussion.

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