Shortly after Keith Boykin told his grandmother he was gay, she confronted Boykin’s partner, saying she wanted to call the man’s mother because she did not approve of his “lifestyle.”
Although Boykin attempted to explain to his grandmother that nothing had changed about him except that he was “finally being honest about who I am,” she continued to say that thinking about his lifestyle made her physically ill.
Boykin’s grandmother, he said, had beliefs that had been shaped by the black church, so he set out to learn as much as possible about what the church and the Bible had to say about sexual orientation.
A well-known activist – he prefers the term “organizer” – who is considered to be one of America’s leading experts on the intersection of race and sexual orientation, Boykin shared his story during a speech at the University Friday night.
Boykin, who in the early 1990s worked in the Clinton administration as the highest-ranking openly gay White House aide, spoke about whether the fight for civil rights for the gay community can be compared to the problems racial minorities have faced.
He criticized Colin Powell and other leaders who have insisted the two cannot be equated, referring to a statement Powell made in the early 1990s when he spoke against lifting the ban on gays in the military.
“Part of what troubled me is that what General Powell was doing in his statement, and what so many pastors do today, is creating a hierarchy of oppression,” Boykin said, adding that the concept of civil rights did not begin or end with the movement of the 1950s and ’60s.
Boykin criticized religious leaders, black and white, who refer to gay rights as “special rights,” saying that freedoms such as the right to marry, travel, visit one’s partner in the hospital or be free from workplace discrimination are civil rights. He criticized the notion that a group of people should be expected to prove they have suffered more than another group.
“We don’t have an intelligent enough discourse to be able to separate the stupidity from reality,” he said. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter which group was most oppressed or which group was first oppressed or whether they’re identically oppressed. What matters is that no group should be oppressed.”
University student Noelle Osborn first heard about Boykin’s work while working as an intern for the Community Alliance of Lane County.
Osborn said members of the Eugene community could benefit from hearing Boykin’s speech because he has a “more complex perspective” on civil rights and “can speak about different aspects of diversity.”
Jory Card, also a student at the University, works with a local organization called Connect, which is described as “a recreational group for queer, trans youth and allies.” Card said he thought hearing what Boykin had to say could help him relate better to himself and others.
Becky Flynn, the regional director of Basic Rights Oregon, one of the event’s sponsors, opened the night by announcing that on Friday, attempts to put on the ballot repeals of a workplace discrimination bill and a domestic partnership bill had failed.
Beginning Jan. 1, Oregonians will have protection from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as protection from discrimination in housing and public accommodation.
Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, who introduced Boykin, congratulated those who had fought to put those bills into law.
“It’s so important that when you have a victory you celebrate it, because it gives you the energy to keep on going,” she said. “I say, take this one and celebrate the heck out of it.”
Piercy, explaining to the crowd that Boykin is frequently brought on as an expert on news networks such as CNN and Fox News, said, “I don’t know whether to congratulate you for this or give you sympathy.”
After the speech, she told the Emerald she thought Boykin “very much believes that we can be better than we are and that the door to us all having the same equal rights and access is very possible. I think that’s a very strong and good message and one that’s very empowering for all of us. He’s confronting an issue that people don’t talk about very often.”
Boykin encouraged the crowd to continue to fight for equality, even when things seem tough.
“Sometimes when you fight for what is right, it doesn’t pay off immediately, but you still have to fight,” he said.
Throughout his speech, which focused heavily on the religious arguments against gay rights, Boykin drew laughter from the crowd.
While discussing a Biblical passage that some people say calls homosexuality an “abomination,” Boykin pointed out that several other things, including eating pork and shellfish are also referred to as abominations.
“It also says you should not wear two fabrics in the same garment. Yet we do not condemn people to hell because they wear poly-cotton blends,” he said before joking, “Maybe we should – that’s the gay man in me.”
Boykin went on to say he believes in the words of Jesus, who told people to love one another. He said people should start working for positive change in the world and work to help others.
“I’m troubled by where our country is today,” he said. “I’m troubled by where our country is headed today. I’m troubled that not enough Americans seem willing to pick up the torch and lead the effort to make change.”
Boykin told the Emerald he was able to reconcile his own faith with religious arguments against homosexuality because he read the Bible and “realized they weren’t inconsistent.”
“My faith was not an obstacle to my spirituality,” he said. “My sexuality was not an obstacle to my spirituality. It was actually perfectly consistent. It’s just a part of who I am and a part of who God had created me to be.”
Boykin told the crowd that a few years ago he was on a book tour and visited St. Louis, where his grandmother lived. She came to his speech and brought members of her church. It turned out she had printed up invitations to the event and even put an announcement in her church bulletin.
“She told me she loved me and told me she had changed her mind,” Boykin said.
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