I'm the one responsible for getting Washington, D.C. filmmaker/writer Michelle Parkerson's article appreciating the beauty of black women in the New American (formerly the Black American), a weekly newspaper, where I worked as a proofreader and copy editor. I edited out of the manuscript* she sent me all references to her girlfriend and the word "lesbian" because of the paper's past homophobia. I gave the piece to Mayo, the art director, who had it typed and pasted up for the printer.
Mrs. Offord, the office manager and wife of the owner, was upset that we hadn't cleared it with her. I immediately pointed out that Parkerson was a good writer, she reluctantly agreed. So even though I tried to camouflage the homoerotic aspects of the article, the lesbian slant was still there, between the lines.
My goal was to see how successful I'd be in slipping in subliminally gay content. Parkerson became a Trojan horse.
The following is the brief article by Michelle Parkerson that ran in the New American (April 25-May 1, 1991):
An Open Letter To African Women Everywhere
I confess.
Last night, I was mesmerized by the September issue of Essence. The pages overflowed with vibrant images of sisters with everything on the ball and all of their clothes on. Each one varied in skin shade or circumstance, but everyone of them was gorgeous and giving it to the camera. I flipped through the photos, feasting on our particular beauty: dark and fair, dread and silky, abundant, angular, Black.
Undoubtedly, women of color are God's most fascinating creation. And undoubtedly, we are the most impoverished. I thrive on the fierceness, the borrowed magic that sustains us through generations of adversity. I know the future belongs to us.
We are the lineage of African women who lavished in their own brilliance, women who struggle now on every frontline. When Black women come together and touch, it is a measure of bravery, a testament to the distance traveled.
*Note: I believe Parkerson originally submitted this manuscript to me for inclusion in the black gay and lesbian supplement I guest edited for the New York Native in 1984.
Showing posts with label Black Lesbians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Lesbians. Show all posts
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
An Interview With Rev. Renee McCoy, Pastor Of A Church In Exile
"Unwilling to separate our lifestyles as lesbians and gay men from our experiences as Blacks in America, we are left to bring about our own liberation without the support and expertise of the larger Black community, and without the strength and guidance of the church."--Rev. Renee McCoy, pastor, Harlem MCC Church ("We are Exiles from Our Own Communities," Insight: A Quarterly of Lesbian/Gay Christian Opinion, Vol. 4, #4, pg. 8).
Harlem Metropolitan Community Church is one of 200 churches worldwide that form the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. These churches serve the lesbian and gay community as an alternative to the traditional churches where much homophobia is present.
Rev. Renee McCoy, a native of Detroit who attended Wayne State University, saw a need for a church that addressed itself to the needs and concerns of black lesbians and gay men. In November of 1981, she founded Harlem MCC.This was a little more than two years after she arrived in New York as a student clergy from the Detroit MCC church. "I wanted to learn New York," she said explaining her move East. "I wanted to leave the Midwest. I'd been there 28 years. I was tired of it. I loved Harlem. I always wanted to work in Harlem. And I came to MCC New York in the Village and I was licensed. I was credentialed out of there. And then I started Harlem MCC right after I was credentialed."
The church began at the Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University where "we averaged 23 in attendance on Sunday which meant that sometimes our attendance went from a low of eight or nine to a high of 46, 50." But the church, said Rev. McCoy in her Morningside Avenue apartment in Harlem, decided "we wanted to be more than a Sunday church. All we had was chapel space at the seminary on Sundays and we used the [MCC] church in the Village for whatever programming we did and we visited people's homes. We wanted to provide more counseling services for the church. We wanted to do regular Bible study in one single space so that people would know we were stationary, that we were part of the Harlem community." The church then moved to Hamilton Place and 143rd Street, in a brownstone owned by a black gay man. But after one week of occupancy, he evicted Harlem MCC because "he couldn't deal with the Sunday meetings and didn't want anybody on the block to know that he was gay. We were a church in exile for two months. We met in the Village at MCC New York until we could secure a place. We found a loft and moved into the loft on November 7, 1982. At that time the attendance was up to 46. Averaging 25 people on Sunday."
More problems continued to plague the church. This time it was the attitude of some of the members of the church toward the neighborhood the church took up residence in. Unlike Morningside Heights or the Village, the neighborhood could not be used as "a hideaway. You could slip into the seminary. No one would see you. It didn't look like Harlem. Nobody knew what you were doing when you came there." Also, said Rev. McCoy, there were congregation members who expressed fear of the neighborhood. "People who were somewhat supporting the church financially could not deal with facing Harlem. They couldn't look at themselves is what it was. 'I can't park my car there,' 'I'm scared of the neighborhood,' "I'm afraid to walk in Harlem.' These are black gay people. Things got rougher at that point. The loft base that we did eventually lease during the winter didn't have heat. We had problems with the toilets. We had problems with the lights. And as a result, attendance dropped. Especially the people who had children. The amount of money lessened."
At present [1983] there are 18 members. It is a church whose members come mostly "from Harlem and the Bronx, Upper West Side of Manhattan, Midtown Manhattan, still some from Brooklyn."
Harlem MCC is now located at 356 West 123rd Street, making this their fourth move in almost two years. The community organization that is subleasing the space to them has done so, said Rev. McCoy, "as a community gesture. We can do things now that we couldn't do, like we had a cookout. It's a small, intimate space." However, she went on, "We"re looking for a permanent space that we can afford. It's rough because every time we move, we lose people. It's almost like building from the ground up." Right now, she said, the church is in need of a piano, preferably a small one.
This is an excerpt from an article that was published in the New York Native in 1983, in its special supplement called "Harlem Rising." It was one of the earliest articles I did for the paper.
Harlem Metropolitan Community Church is one of 200 churches worldwide that form the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. These churches serve the lesbian and gay community as an alternative to the traditional churches where much homophobia is present.
Rev. Renee McCoy, a native of Detroit who attended Wayne State University, saw a need for a church that addressed itself to the needs and concerns of black lesbians and gay men. In November of 1981, she founded Harlem MCC.This was a little more than two years after she arrived in New York as a student clergy from the Detroit MCC church. "I wanted to learn New York," she said explaining her move East. "I wanted to leave the Midwest. I'd been there 28 years. I was tired of it. I loved Harlem. I always wanted to work in Harlem. And I came to MCC New York in the Village and I was licensed. I was credentialed out of there. And then I started Harlem MCC right after I was credentialed."
The church began at the Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University where "we averaged 23 in attendance on Sunday which meant that sometimes our attendance went from a low of eight or nine to a high of 46, 50." But the church, said Rev. McCoy in her Morningside Avenue apartment in Harlem, decided "we wanted to be more than a Sunday church. All we had was chapel space at the seminary on Sundays and we used the [MCC] church in the Village for whatever programming we did and we visited people's homes. We wanted to provide more counseling services for the church. We wanted to do regular Bible study in one single space so that people would know we were stationary, that we were part of the Harlem community." The church then moved to Hamilton Place and 143rd Street, in a brownstone owned by a black gay man. But after one week of occupancy, he evicted Harlem MCC because "he couldn't deal with the Sunday meetings and didn't want anybody on the block to know that he was gay. We were a church in exile for two months. We met in the Village at MCC New York until we could secure a place. We found a loft and moved into the loft on November 7, 1982. At that time the attendance was up to 46. Averaging 25 people on Sunday."
More problems continued to plague the church. This time it was the attitude of some of the members of the church toward the neighborhood the church took up residence in. Unlike Morningside Heights or the Village, the neighborhood could not be used as "a hideaway. You could slip into the seminary. No one would see you. It didn't look like Harlem. Nobody knew what you were doing when you came there." Also, said Rev. McCoy, there were congregation members who expressed fear of the neighborhood. "People who were somewhat supporting the church financially could not deal with facing Harlem. They couldn't look at themselves is what it was. 'I can't park my car there,' 'I'm scared of the neighborhood,' "I'm afraid to walk in Harlem.' These are black gay people. Things got rougher at that point. The loft base that we did eventually lease during the winter didn't have heat. We had problems with the toilets. We had problems with the lights. And as a result, attendance dropped. Especially the people who had children. The amount of money lessened."
At present [1983] there are 18 members. It is a church whose members come mostly "from Harlem and the Bronx, Upper West Side of Manhattan, Midtown Manhattan, still some from Brooklyn."
Harlem MCC is now located at 356 West 123rd Street, making this their fourth move in almost two years. The community organization that is subleasing the space to them has done so, said Rev. McCoy, "as a community gesture. We can do things now that we couldn't do, like we had a cookout. It's a small, intimate space." However, she went on, "We"re looking for a permanent space that we can afford. It's rough because every time we move, we lose people. It's almost like building from the ground up." Right now, she said, the church is in need of a piano, preferably a small one.
This is an excerpt from an article that was published in the New York Native in 1983, in its special supplement called "Harlem Rising." It was one of the earliest articles I did for the paper.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Something In The Milk Ain't Clean
To The Editor [of the New York Native]:
In Vera Hill's letter published in Issue 102 of the Native [ regarding "Celebrating Ourselves,"* a black gay supplement I guest edited in 1984] she states that this newspaper is guilty of changing everything she wrote in her article for the black gay and lesbian supplement without obtaining her consent. As the editor of the supplement, I want to set the record straight. Anyone who carefully reads the edited manuscript against the published piece will clearly see that about 90 percent of what Hill wrote remained intact. And that whatever changes or omissions were made were done for clarity and conciseness. Any mention of Dennis Serrette [African American] and Nancy Ross [white] as running mates in the presidential election was omitted because I felt that Hill was trying to propagate the [radical left-wing] New Alliance Party's endorsement of that ticket.
The supplement's reason for being was to deal with as many different aspects of black gay and lesbian life , from as many different voices as we had space for. Although I did not object to political views being expressed, I did not want anyone using the limited amount of space we had as a political campaign tool. I would have been derelict in my duties as the editor if I were to allow that to happen in this section. In the National Alliance, NAP's newspaper, it was reported (by Jackie Salit, the paper's executive editor) that I told Hill that Patrick Merla, the Native's editor, had ordered the cuts. I never made any such statement.
I should point out that during the whole editing process, I never dealt with Hill directly but through a NAP go-between, Tammy Weinstein. So it is an example of false reporting on the part of the National Alliance to say that Hill accepted some revisions I offered. I never really knew what she thought because Weinstein was the one who kept calling me. When I asked where Hill was so I could get direct feedback, Weinstein would say that Hill was too busy organizing in the street to review the manuscript over the phone. Hill's piece was the only one I edited without the direct input of the writer.
In any future supplement, I will insist on working with the one who is the writer of a piece, not a stand-in. This rule will be applied without exception.
Hill, in her letter, tells Native readers that Serrette and Ross are "progressive, pro-gay candidates," and that Serrette was the only presidential candidate to take part in the gay pride march this year. To them I say, Bravo! But to say, as Hill does that the omission of Serrette's name from her copy is an attack on Serrette and "all Blacks and gays--who are on the front lines targeted for extermination by the right wing" is not only hyperbole but also paranoia. Whatever Dennis Serrette is, he is certainly not the straight black Messiah of black gay men and lesbians. And Hill and her ilk should stop trying to present him in that role.
Hill in our half hour telephone conversation called the Native a newspaper that was "fascist" and "right-wing." If that's the case, why bother to submit the article to such a paper, and, more importantly, why accept the enemy's money? Don't Hill and her colleagues at NAP worry that a "fascist right-wing" paper's money will contaminate their "politically correct" organization?
I certainly have no argument with them about wanting campaign coverage of Serrette, but why, if I may be so bold to ask, did NAP not kick up a storm long before now?And why are they describing an editorial disagreement as "a fight that is currently underway in the gay community"? A "fight" that most of the gay community may not even want to participate in. Who are the combatants supposed to be anyway? And another thing, why is NAP so "eager"--that's their word--in their open letter to other gay papers to bring this "fight" to their attention? To quote Hill from her Native article, "Something in the milk ain't clean."
Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith
The New York Native published this letter in 1984.
*The essay contributors included Joseph Beam, Craig Harris, and David Frechette. The poetry centerfold included Melvin Dixon, Essex Hemphill, and Salih Michael Fisher.
I give credit to Melvin Dixon for suggesting that I call the supplement "Celebrating Ourselves."
In Vera Hill's letter published in Issue 102 of the Native [ regarding "Celebrating Ourselves,"* a black gay supplement I guest edited in 1984] she states that this newspaper is guilty of changing everything she wrote in her article for the black gay and lesbian supplement without obtaining her consent. As the editor of the supplement, I want to set the record straight. Anyone who carefully reads the edited manuscript against the published piece will clearly see that about 90 percent of what Hill wrote remained intact. And that whatever changes or omissions were made were done for clarity and conciseness. Any mention of Dennis Serrette [African American] and Nancy Ross [white] as running mates in the presidential election was omitted because I felt that Hill was trying to propagate the [radical left-wing] New Alliance Party's endorsement of that ticket.
The supplement's reason for being was to deal with as many different aspects of black gay and lesbian life , from as many different voices as we had space for. Although I did not object to political views being expressed, I did not want anyone using the limited amount of space we had as a political campaign tool. I would have been derelict in my duties as the editor if I were to allow that to happen in this section. In the National Alliance, NAP's newspaper, it was reported (by Jackie Salit, the paper's executive editor) that I told Hill that Patrick Merla, the Native's editor, had ordered the cuts. I never made any such statement.
I should point out that during the whole editing process, I never dealt with Hill directly but through a NAP go-between, Tammy Weinstein. So it is an example of false reporting on the part of the National Alliance to say that Hill accepted some revisions I offered. I never really knew what she thought because Weinstein was the one who kept calling me. When I asked where Hill was so I could get direct feedback, Weinstein would say that Hill was too busy organizing in the street to review the manuscript over the phone. Hill's piece was the only one I edited without the direct input of the writer.
In any future supplement, I will insist on working with the one who is the writer of a piece, not a stand-in. This rule will be applied without exception.
Hill, in her letter, tells Native readers that Serrette and Ross are "progressive, pro-gay candidates," and that Serrette was the only presidential candidate to take part in the gay pride march this year. To them I say, Bravo! But to say, as Hill does that the omission of Serrette's name from her copy is an attack on Serrette and "all Blacks and gays--who are on the front lines targeted for extermination by the right wing" is not only hyperbole but also paranoia. Whatever Dennis Serrette is, he is certainly not the straight black Messiah of black gay men and lesbians. And Hill and her ilk should stop trying to present him in that role.
Hill in our half hour telephone conversation called the Native a newspaper that was "fascist" and "right-wing." If that's the case, why bother to submit the article to such a paper, and, more importantly, why accept the enemy's money? Don't Hill and her colleagues at NAP worry that a "fascist right-wing" paper's money will contaminate their "politically correct" organization?
I certainly have no argument with them about wanting campaign coverage of Serrette, but why, if I may be so bold to ask, did NAP not kick up a storm long before now?And why are they describing an editorial disagreement as "a fight that is currently underway in the gay community"? A "fight" that most of the gay community may not even want to participate in. Who are the combatants supposed to be anyway? And another thing, why is NAP so "eager"--that's their word--in their open letter to other gay papers to bring this "fight" to their attention? To quote Hill from her Native article, "Something in the milk ain't clean."
Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith
The New York Native published this letter in 1984.
*The essay contributors included Joseph Beam, Craig Harris, and David Frechette. The poetry centerfold included Melvin Dixon, Essex Hemphill, and Salih Michael Fisher.
I give credit to Melvin Dixon for suggesting that I call the supplement "Celebrating Ourselves."
Monday, September 24, 2012
A Dearth Of Black Gay Books
Voice of the People
New York Daily News
450 West 33rd Street
New York, NY 10001
December 13, 2000
Dear Editor:
In Paul D. Colford's recent article on the burgeoning African-American book market, one editor at Doubleday was quoted as saying "there's probably room for still more imprints." I would agree, particularly as it pertains to those in the black community who are either gay or lesbian. As the editor of an anthology of essays by black gay men, which was published last year, I can attest to the dearth of books in this category.
The publishing industry may finally be coming to the realization that black folks buy and read books but there is still an ignorance of the need for books, fiction and nonfiction, that reflect the diversity of black gay men, many of whom are well-educated and have disposable incomes.
Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith
The above letter-to-the-editor was not published.
New York Daily News
450 West 33rd Street
New York, NY 10001
December 13, 2000
Dear Editor:
In Paul D. Colford's recent article on the burgeoning African-American book market, one editor at Doubleday was quoted as saying "there's probably room for still more imprints." I would agree, particularly as it pertains to those in the black community who are either gay or lesbian. As the editor of an anthology of essays by black gay men, which was published last year, I can attest to the dearth of books in this category.
The publishing industry may finally be coming to the realization that black folks buy and read books but there is still an ignorance of the need for books, fiction and nonfiction, that reflect the diversity of black gay men, many of whom are well-educated and have disposable incomes.
Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith
The above letter-to-the-editor was not published.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
"Victoria Mix": Queer Cinema Comes To Harlem
For five days in November [1996], Harlem became not just a place filmmakers like Spike Lee come to when they have a movie to shoot. This time the world-famous community was the site of a film festival called "Victoria Mix" that showcased dozens of "queer African Diasporic film and video" in the elegant Victoria 5 Theatre on 125th Street, down the street from the Apollo Theatre.
The uptown screenings were part of the 10th New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival, which had two other Manhattan venues screening different groups of films. (The film festival proudly claims to have "premiered more works by queer filmmakers of color than any other film festival in the world.") And for the first time, Harlem was the site of a gay and lesbian film festival, an historic event that Shari Frilot, the festival director, was "very excited about." Frilot, who is of African-American and Puerto Rican heritage, is a filmmaker herself.
"Victoria Mix" consisted of more than 50 films and videos by both well-known and lesser-known filmmakers and was divided into eight programs" "Fire!" (the first evening of film, which was hosted by Gay Men of African Descent); "Harlem Stories"; "Let's Talk About Sex"; "The House That Identity Built"; "Oh Yes It's Ladies Night"; "Taboo Subjects"; "City Lore"; and "Family Drama."
On the night of the "Fire!" screenings, which like the other three programs I attended drew a small audience, there was the smell of smoke in the theatre;that seemed to emphasize the theme of the program. (There had been a fire next door a few hours earlier.) The program took its name from the 1926 Harlem Renaissance magazine co-edited by Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman, in commemoration of "the same creative intensity" that has been passed down and continues to thrive within the current generation.
Of the 15 films I saw, the most noteworthy were: British filmmaker Isaac Julien's beautifully photographed, although at times didactic, feature-length study of race, sex,and class bias called The Passion of Remembrance (1985), Black Nations/Queer Nations? (1995), Shari Frilot's documentary of the March 1995 conference, One Moment in Time (1992), Felix Rodriquez's short film about an Hispanic drag queen's decision to have a sex change operation to please a straight? lover, and Remembering Wei Yi-fang, Remembering Myself: An Autobiography (1995), Yvonne Welbon's documentary about her six-year sojourn in Taiwan.
Frilot, who had three of her films in the festival, told me that she had "every intention of not making it our last year" at the Victoria 5 Theatre. In fact, she plans to do non-"Mix" business there as well.
This article was submitted to the New York Amsterdam News on November 18, 1996 and to Whazzup! magazine (Oakland, California) on December 31, 1996. Neither publication ran it.
The uptown screenings were part of the 10th New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival, which had two other Manhattan venues screening different groups of films. (The film festival proudly claims to have "premiered more works by queer filmmakers of color than any other film festival in the world.") And for the first time, Harlem was the site of a gay and lesbian film festival, an historic event that Shari Frilot, the festival director, was "very excited about." Frilot, who is of African-American and Puerto Rican heritage, is a filmmaker herself.
"Victoria Mix" consisted of more than 50 films and videos by both well-known and lesser-known filmmakers and was divided into eight programs" "Fire!" (the first evening of film, which was hosted by Gay Men of African Descent); "Harlem Stories"; "Let's Talk About Sex"; "The House That Identity Built"; "Oh Yes It's Ladies Night"; "Taboo Subjects"; "City Lore"; and "Family Drama."
On the night of the "Fire!" screenings, which like the other three programs I attended drew a small audience, there was the smell of smoke in the theatre;that seemed to emphasize the theme of the program. (There had been a fire next door a few hours earlier.) The program took its name from the 1926 Harlem Renaissance magazine co-edited by Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman, in commemoration of "the same creative intensity" that has been passed down and continues to thrive within the current generation.
Of the 15 films I saw, the most noteworthy were: British filmmaker Isaac Julien's beautifully photographed, although at times didactic, feature-length study of race, sex,and class bias called The Passion of Remembrance (1985), Black Nations/Queer Nations? (1995), Shari Frilot's documentary of the March 1995 conference, One Moment in Time (1992), Felix Rodriquez's short film about an Hispanic drag queen's decision to have a sex change operation to please a straight? lover, and Remembering Wei Yi-fang, Remembering Myself: An Autobiography (1995), Yvonne Welbon's documentary about her six-year sojourn in Taiwan.
Frilot, who had three of her films in the festival, told me that she had "every intention of not making it our last year" at the Victoria 5 Theatre. In fact, she plans to do non-"Mix" business there as well.
This article was submitted to the New York Amsterdam News on November 18, 1996 and to Whazzup! magazine (Oakland, California) on December 31, 1996. Neither publication ran it.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Stealth Lesbianism
In 1989 I went to work at the Black American newspaper (later renamed the New American) as a proofreader, then later as a proofreader/copy editor. (I worked there until May 1991).
The owner of the paper, Carl Offord (now deceased), once wrote a front page story that had a homophobic headline that is indelibly printed on my mind--"The White Lady and the Faggot." It was an attack on Diana Ross, who had given a concert in Central Park that year (1983) and then-mayor Ed Koch, who had kissed her hand (or her cheek). I'm sorry I didn't save that issue because it is a classic example of blatant homophobia in the black press. The article suggested that Koch, rumored to be a gay man, might give Ross AIDS.
Anyway, I'm the one responsible for getting writer/filmmaker Michelle Parkerson's article, an appreciation of the beauty of black women, published in the paper. I edited out all the references to her girlfriend and the word "lesbian" because of the paper's homophobia. I gave the manuscript to the art director, who had it typed and pasted up.
When Mrs. Offord, the office manager, saw it in the paper, she was upset that we hadn't cleared it with her. Obviously, even though it was toned down, the article's homoeroticism still shone through. I told her that she hadn't been in the office that day, so we weren't able to get her consent. "That doesn't make any difference," she replied. I immediately pointed out that Parkerson was a very good writer;despite her anger, she agreed.
I wanted the Parkerson piece in because (1) it was better written than a lot of the stuff they were publishing and (2) I wanted to see how successful I'd be in slipping in an article with subliminally gay content. Parkerson became a Trojan horse.
It would have been a lot harder to do what we did at the New York Amsterdam News because it is a larger operation, occupying a whole building and with more eyes to oversee things. The Black American was in a single suite of offices and had a smaller staff.
I later sent Parkerson a copy of her article via her Washington, D.C. address.
The owner of the paper, Carl Offord (now deceased), once wrote a front page story that had a homophobic headline that is indelibly printed on my mind--"The White Lady and the Faggot." It was an attack on Diana Ross, who had given a concert in Central Park that year (1983) and then-mayor Ed Koch, who had kissed her hand (or her cheek). I'm sorry I didn't save that issue because it is a classic example of blatant homophobia in the black press. The article suggested that Koch, rumored to be a gay man, might give Ross AIDS.
Anyway, I'm the one responsible for getting writer/filmmaker Michelle Parkerson's article, an appreciation of the beauty of black women, published in the paper. I edited out all the references to her girlfriend and the word "lesbian" because of the paper's homophobia. I gave the manuscript to the art director, who had it typed and pasted up.
When Mrs. Offord, the office manager, saw it in the paper, she was upset that we hadn't cleared it with her. Obviously, even though it was toned down, the article's homoeroticism still shone through. I told her that she hadn't been in the office that day, so we weren't able to get her consent. "That doesn't make any difference," she replied. I immediately pointed out that Parkerson was a very good writer;despite her anger, she agreed.
I wanted the Parkerson piece in because (1) it was better written than a lot of the stuff they were publishing and (2) I wanted to see how successful I'd be in slipping in an article with subliminally gay content. Parkerson became a Trojan horse.
It would have been a lot harder to do what we did at the New York Amsterdam News because it is a larger operation, occupying a whole building and with more eyes to oversee things. The Black American was in a single suite of offices and had a smaller staff.
I later sent Parkerson a copy of her article via her Washington, D.C. address.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Gay Women Or Lesbians?
Dear Editor: Re: [African-American] WNBA [basketball] player Sheryl Swoopes ("Battle of the Same Sex," New York Daily News, October 30, 2005).
I am irked by the press using the term "gay women athletes." "Gay" and "lesbian" are not interchangeable labels. One term identifies male homosexuals and the other identifies female homosexuals. And unless Swoopes is doing a Victor/Victoria act in her spare time, the distinction should be maintained.
Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith
Note: This letter, written as a handwritten draft on October 30, 2005, was never sent to the New York Daily News.
I am irked by the press using the term "gay women athletes." "Gay" and "lesbian" are not interchangeable labels. One term identifies male homosexuals and the other identifies female homosexuals. And unless Swoopes is doing a Victor/Victoria act in her spare time, the distinction should be maintained.
Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith
Note: This letter, written as a handwritten draft on October 30, 2005, was never sent to the New York Daily News.
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