(Atlanta, GA) At a doughnut shop near downtown Atlanta, two black men chat over coffee. One is gay, the other straight. They agree on this: gay marriage could be as soundly rejected by black Democrats as it will be among white Republicans.

James Johnson, the gay man, says it's his business what he does in his bedroom. But the 49-year-old cleaner isn't sure how to vote on Georgia's constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman.

"I'm gay myself, but I'm torn. It's a spiritual issue," he said. "To me it's not a civil rights issue because it's a lifestyle choice."

As Georgia and three other Southern states with some of nation's largest black populations consider gay marriage amendments next week, the votes of black people could determine success or failure. In a voting bloc sometimes considered almost monolithic, overwhelmingly choosing Democrats, the gay marriage question has black voters and churches as divided as everyone else.

In Georgia, the black legislative caucus opposed the ban, calling the proposed amendment discrimination. But the amendment was ultimately approved because a handful of black lawmakers split with their caucus and voted for the Republican-sponsored amendment.

In Mississippi, which will also consider a same-sex marriage amendment, the amendment was largely supported by black lawmakers. But the only legislators to vote against it were black.

The influential African Methodist Episcopal Church supports gay-marriage bans. But members of the Atlanta-based Concerned Black Clergy group opposes them, with the group's past president even joining a lawsuit trying to block Georgia's amendment from the ballots.

In the other two Southern states set to consider gay marriage, Arkansas and Kentucky, political watchers say there's no consensus among black voters about whether the bans are right or wrong.

Back at the doughnut shop, a black Georgia Tech graduate student quickly summed up why he thinks black voters are so divided on the gay marriage question.

"There's a very big fundamental difference between being black and being gay. You choose to be gay. You don't choose to be black," said Claude-Raymond Rene, 28.

Outside major cities in the South, black voters are even more reluctant to equate gay rights with the civil-rights struggle of 50 years ago.

Black legislators from rural areas talk of personal turmoil over the gay marriage matter. Some of them say they were suspicious of the amendments, because gay marriage is already illegal in all four states and the amendment proposals came from conservative Republicans. But when they considered facing scorn from the preachers back home, many rural black lawmakers voted along with the GOP.

"Look, I'm from rural Georgia. And rather than try to change the mindsets of a lot of people on gay marriage, I thought we should go ahead and put it on the ballot," said Rep. Carl Von Epps, a LaGrange Democrat who split ranks with the black caucus last spring to support Georgia's amendment. "It would be one of the hardest things to explain why I would be opposed to the amendment, because I am also opposed to gay marriage."

Epps' conflict has been repeated again and again across the South, said Janine Parry, a political scientist at the University of Arkansas.

Gay marriage amendments "put African-Americans in a position that's cross-pressured," Parry said. "You may have a lot of African-American voters voting for John Kerry but at the same time voting for this measure."

In Mississippi, which has the nation's highest proportion of black people, gay rights activists say they've made little headway with straight black voters. They hoped for sympathy, for a reaction against attempts to curb rights for a certain group of people. Instead, said Equality Mississippi executive director Jody Renaldo, black voters have been unreceptive, sometimes even hostile, to comparisons between gay rights and civil rights.

"There's probably more homophobia in African-Americans in Mississippi because African-Americans are deeply rooted in their religions," Renaldo said. "I think most black Mississippians will vote for the amendment."

Back in Atlanta, black voters said they don't consider gay marriage a right, even if some prominent national Democrats do.

"It goes against my Christian beliefs," shrugged Sabrina Barber, a teacher from suburban Jonesboro.

Even ministers who have spoken against the same-sex marriage amendments say they're not saying they approve of homosexuality.

"Like most of my colleagues, I have misgivings about same-sex marriage," said the Rev. Timothy McDonald, pastor at First Iconium Baptist Chruch in Atlanta. "But I have misgivings about discrimination and ostracism, too."

The political power of black churches in the South means the four pending amendment votes could hinge on how many ministers take McDonald's tack.

"Black voters can be very socially conservative," said Emory University professor Robert Brown, who studies African-American politics. "You won't see a monolithic black opinion on this question."

©Associated Press 2004
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Bob Schwartz post