Living Out Loud with Darian

With all of the debate going on in Washington whether or not to pass an amendment to the constitution that would ban gays from ever being legally married in the United States, a really good question came up in a phone conversation yesterday with my friend Rev.Tommie Lee Watkins. Is same-sex marriage really a top priority for black lesbians and gays? We came to the conclusion that it's not. Let me make it perfectly clear I would definitely want to seal my relationship with my partner(when I meet him) legally one day and I don't believe I should be denied that right based on my sexual orientation, but I think if we don't come together as a community to stop HIV/AIDS in it's tracks we won't be alive to reap the benefits of same -sex marriage.

We just observed the 25th anniversary of a disease that was once viewed as a white gay disease, but today it's clearly a black disease. Black men and women make up more than half of all new hiv infections. So while theHuman Rights Campaign is leading the fight for marriage equality, I do not discourage black GLBT people to support the cause but rather encourage them to lend the same passion to eradicate the epidemic that's destroying our community.