Black Feminism and the History of LGBTQ Parenting

I’m at the National LGBTQ Task Force’s Creating Change Conference this week, and was thrilled by the plenary last night on Black Feminism and the Movement for Black Lives. Here’s my favorite quote of the evening, from Black feminist icon Barbara Smith.

Smith, a founder of the Combahee River Collective that produced the classic 1977 statement of intersectional feminism, was on the panel along with activists Reina Gossett and Charlene Carruthers. Smith told the audience at one point: “I was told Black homosexuality would be the death of the race. I said, ‘So what about these children we’re raising?'”

Creating Change 2016. Photo credit: Cathy Renna
Creating Change 2016. (L-R): Moderator Stacey Long Simmons, Barbara Smith, Reina Gossett, Charlene Carruthers. Photo credit: Cathy Renna.

The whole panel is well worth watching.

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