And I quote directly from La Macha :

But like I mentioned yesterday, while I don't deny that the Black and Latin@ communities have some big time issues with queer hate, I also think gay organizations have to confront their very real racism within their organizing strategies. For example:

Gloria Nieto had a sense of those demographic forces, too. When Nieto, a lead organizer for the No on Proposition 8 campaign in San Jose, wanted to distribute campaign signs in Spanish and Vietnamese this fall, she had to get them made herself because the statewide campaign only had signs in English.

What this suggests to me is that communities of color have their problems--but largely white organizations seem to not value those communities until the time comes when they need them for their own agendas, and even then not so much.

Will gay organizers do anything to confront this problem? Or will they hide their racism behind "They're just conservative" excuses? The answer remains to be seen.

I mean, for crying out loud, anti-gay marriage propositions haven't passed in Puerto Rico and we can be as a culture and nation as homophobic as any other.

So let me repeat this because it's important : White men and women, whether gay or straight, will be seen as always having the upper-hand in communities of color. The gay communities needs to make themselves part of our communities to gain our respect and our vote; just like any other political movement.

Progressive activists on both sides of the gender and color spectrum need to take a hard look at what happened in California and Florida and re-evaluate the ways we form coalitions.