{"id":145,"date":"2012-05-14T16:47:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T16:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dtr45.com\/?p=145"},"modified":"2012-05-14T16:49:44","modified_gmt":"2012-05-14T16:49:44","slug":"looking-back-at-huey-newtons-thoughts-on-gay-rightsin-the-wake-of-obamas-endorsement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dtr45.com\/2012\/05\/14\/looking-back-at-huey-newtons-thoughts-on-gay-rightsin-the-wake-of-obamas-endorsement\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Back at Huey Newton\u2019s Thoughts on Gay Rights\u2026In the Wake of Obama\u2019s Endorsement"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner<\/a><\/p>\n

This was a speech given August 15 1970 by Huey Newton<\/strong> co-founder of the Black Panther Party<\/strong>..here he addresses the issue of Gay Rights\u2026 Its serious food for thought coming in the aftermath of President Obama<\/strong> endorsing <\/em>Same-sex Message\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

During the past few years strong movements have developed among women and among homosexuals seeking their liberation. There has been some
\nuncertainty about how to relate to these movements.<\/p>\n

Whatever your personal opinions and your insecurities about homosexuality and the various liberation movements among homosexuals and women (and I speak of the homosexuals and women as oppressed groups), we should try to unite with them in a revolutionary fashion.
\nI say \u201d whatever your insecurities are\u201d because as we very well know, sometimes our first instinct is to want to hit a homosexual in the
\nmouth, and want a woman to be quiet. We want to hit a homosexual in
\nthe mouth because we are afraid that we might be homosexual; and we
\nwant to hit the women or shut her up because we are afraid that she
\nmight castrate us, or take the nuts that we might not have to start
\nwith.<\/p>\n

We must gain security in ourselves and therefore have respect and
\nfeelings for all oppressed people. We must not use the racist attitude
\nthat the White racists use against our people because they are Black
\nand poor. Many times the poorest White person is the most racist
\nbecause he is afraid that he might lose something, or discover
\nsomething that he does not have. So you\u2019re some kind of a threat to
\nhim. This kind of psychology is in operation when we view oppressed
\npeople and we are angry with them because of their particular kind of
\nbehavior, or their particular kind of deviation from the established
\nnorm.<\/p>\n

Remember, we have not established a revolutionary value system; we are
\nonly in the process of establishing it. I do not remember our ever
\nconstituting any value that said that a revolutionary must say
\noffensive things towards homosexuals, or that a revolutionary should
\nmake sure that women do not speak out about their own particular kind
\nof oppression. As a matter of fact, it is just the opposite: we say
\nthat we recognize the women\u2019s right to be free. We have not said much
\nabout the homosexual at all, but we must relate to the homosexual
\nmovement because it is a real thing. And I know through reading, and
\nthrough my life experience and observations that homosexuals are not
\ngiven freedom and liberty by anyone in the society. They might be the
\nmost oppresed people in the society.<\/p>\n

And what made them homosexual? Perhaps it\u2019s a phenomenon that I don\u2019t
\nunderstand entirely. Some people say that it is the decadence of
\ncapitalism. I don\u2019t know if that is the case; I rather doubt it. But
\nwhatever the case is, we know that homosexuality is a fact that
\nexists, and we must understand it in its purest form: that is, a
\nperson should have the freedom to use his body in whatever way he
\nwants.<\/p>\n

That is not endorsing things in homosexuality that we wouldn\u2019t view as
\nrevolutionary. But there is nothing to say that a homosexual cannot
\nalso be a revolutionary. And maybe I\u2019m now injecting some of my
\nprejudice by saying that \u201ceven a homosexual can be a revolutionary.\u201d
\nQuite the contrary, maybe a homosexual could be the most
\nrevolutionary.<\/p>\n

When we have revolutionary conferences, rallies, and demonstrations,
\nthere should be full participation of the gay liberation movement and
\nthe women\u2019s liberation movement. Some groups might be more
\nrevolutionary than others. We should not use the actions of a few to
\nsay that they are all reactionary or counterrevolutionary, because
\nthey are not.<\/p>\n

We should deal with the factions just as we deal with any other group
\nor party that claims to be revolutionary. We should try to judge,
\nsomehow, whether they are operating in a sincere revolutionary fashion
\nand from a really oppressed situation. (And we will grant that if they
\nare women they are probably oppressed.) If they do things that are
\nunrevolutionary or counterrevolutionary, then criticize that action.
\nIf we feel that the group in spirit means to be revolutionary in
\npractice, but they make mistakes in interpretation of the
\nrevolutionary philosophy, or they do not understand the dialectics of
\nthe social forces in operation, we should criticize that and not
\ncriticize them because they are women trying to be free. And the same
\nis true for homosexuals. We should never say a whole movement is
\ndishonest when in fact they are trying to be honest. They are just
\nmaking honest mistakes. Friends are allowed to make mistakes. The
\nenemy is not allowed to make mistakes because his whole existence is a
\nmistake, and we suffer from it. But the women\u2019s liberation front and
\ngay liberation front are our friends, they are our potential allies,
\nand we need as many allies as possible.<\/p>\n

We should be willing to discuss the insecurities that many people have
\nabout homosexuality. When I say \u201cinsecurities,\u201d I mean the fear that
\nthey are some kind of threat to our manhood. I can understand this
\nfear. Because of the long conditioning process which builds insecurity
\nin the American male, homosexuality might produce certain hang-ups in
\nus. I have hang-ups myself about male homosexuality. But on the other
\nhand, I have no hang-up about female homosexuality. And that is a
\nphenomenon in itself. I think it is probably because male
\nhomosexuality is a threat to me and female homosexuality is not.<\/p>\n

We should be careful about using those terms that might turn our
\nfriends off. The terms \u201cfaggot\u201d and \u201cpunk\u201d should be deleted from our
\nvocabulary, and especially we should not attach names normally
\ndesigned for homosexuals to men who are enemies of the people, such as
\nNixon or Mitchell. Homosexuals are not enemies of the people.<\/p>\n

We should try to form a working coalition with the gay liberation and
\nwomen\u2019s liberation groups. We must always handle social forces in the
\nmost appropriate manner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner This was a speech given August 15 1970 by Huey Newton co-founder of the Black Panther Party..here he addresses the issue of Gay Rights\u2026 Its serious food for thought coming in the aftermath of President Obama endorsing Same-sex Message\u2026 During the past few years strong movements have developed among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dtr45.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dtr45.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dtr45.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dtr45.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dtr45.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dtr45.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dtr45.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dtr45.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dtr45.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}