Congressional groups join for ''Invisible Lives'' forum on black LGBT experience
Among the many expressions and celebrations of pride during LGBT Pride Month, a June 22 forum on Capitol Hill may have been among the more cerebral. The event, ''Invisible Lives: Conversations on the experiences, struggles, and triumphs of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Americans,'' presented by both Congressional Black Associates (CBA) and the LGBT Congressional Staff Association (LGBT CSA), was a new piece of the Pride month puzzle.
''This was a Pride event that they had planned for this date for sometime,'' explained Aisha Moodie-Mills, advisor on LGBT policy and racial justice at the Center for American Progress – particulalry with CAP's Fighting Injustice to Reach Equality (FIRE) Initiative – which joined as a partner in the event. ''They reached out to me for a sense of who some great people would be to involve in it. That's how our collaboration started.''
Moodie-Mills worked closely with Isaiah Wilson, a board member of both the CBA and the LGBT CSA, to craft an afternoon of dialogue with a range of panelists and participants, such as Sharon Lettman-Hicks, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition; Darlene Nipper, deputy executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart. The topics of discussion that Friday afternoon in the Cannon House Office Building were: ''Why is marriage equality important to the black community?'' ''What current laws and policies hinder LGBT people and their families from receiving equal treatment?'' and ''How do we build an affirming community for LGBT people of color?''
''As the day went on, we started to pull back the layers to look at more of the intricacies of the issues that are facing the black LGBT community,'' Michael Crawford, director of online programs at the New York-based Freedom To Marry, said as the event wrapped. Having sat on the marriage-equality panel earlier that day, he explained that marriage is a topic that primes discussion of so many others, from children to economics to employment. ''Marriage is an issue that's critical to the black gay community, but there are a range of issues that are important to our community. It's a real good thing when we can discuss marriage – and it's an even better thing when we can discuss marriage and all of those other issues as well.''
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