Hold My Mule (and Bake My Cake)

Guest Contributor @RaymondWPS

I spent last week off with my mother in the southern part of this great state. I watched a lot of daytime television, tweeted way too much about Megyn Kelly killing "Days of our Lives," and recovered from my New Year's Celebration.

My mother is approaching 70. She cooks great food, swears by the King James Version of the Bible, and wholeheartedly believes in tradition, even if she is not always traditional herself.

My mother is like many I've encountered in person and on social media. She'll smile, she'll wave, carry on a discussion, and may talk about her Christian Faith with you if it goes that far. And we've had our heated discussions about my sexuality over the years. Nowadays, it merely hangs in the room since we've beaten that horse to death.

Our love for each other runs deeper than what our views are of one another's lives or political views. Conversations with my mother taught me that tolerance isn't a one-way street where one gets to impose their views on someone else and the other person is just forced to deal.

That's why it was interesting to read backlash around Christian Pastor and Gospel Singer Kim Burrell. Burrell came out to condemn homosexuality, and many Progressives and mainstreamers clutched their pearls.

They vowed to kill her career. Pharrell and other mainstream performers distanced themselves from her. Ellen canceled her appearance. Her radio talk show was canceled. Lots of personal insults on social media came hurling at her and Hold My Mule/#UNameItChallenge's Shirley Caesar for defending her.

Along with those insults, we also had Progressives saying that they found it hypocritical for black people to be against same-sex marriages or condemning homosexual acts, because of how hard it was for black people during the Civil Rights Movement. Time and time again, LGBTQ Progressives and their allies use this talking point when someone in the Black community speaks against homosexuality.

The fight for racial equality during the Civil Rights Movement cannot and should never be ascribed to what many Christian Black people feel is a moral and/or social issue. The modern fight for sexual identity and gender equality is its own moral, religious, and legal battle and should be held to its own standards.

For many Black Christians, you can never equate choosing a bathroom door like an episode of Let's Make A Deal to having a separate restroom and water fountain, being ushered to the back of a restaurant, sitting in the back of a bus, or going to a segregated school. The two are not the same fight, and you can't make them think it is.

There is often a tendency by Progressives to put the weight of the LGBTQ cause on the Black Community's back, a cause that many do not personally or morally endorse. There is a sudden surprise when some Progressives discover that Black Christians may not agree with their sexuality or gender identity. It's as if they think that the Civil Rights Movement gives Black Christians a pass to completely abandon their religious and moral convictions. And as someone who supports equality, but was raised by one of those Black Christians, I resent that sort of groupthink.

Many Internet Christians and Conservatives love to use the phrase "Bake My Cake" in reference to any sort of resistance by Liberal Progressives to capitulate to Christians or Conservatives. Progressives cannot force Christian Black Americans to bake their cakes. Last I recall, forcing Black Americans to do or think anything against their will was struck down by the Thirteenth Amendment.

I am a proud Gay Black American. But I am also proud to have been raised by a Christian woman who may not agree with certain facets of the life I live, but loves me anyway. She taught me to believe in God, be true to myself, and to bet on self-sufficiency as part of my survival strategy. I don't need her or anyone else to bake my cake.

And the Progressive LGBTQ community and allies, for all its posturing of tolerance and love winning, would be wise to understand that they don't need Black Christians to bake theirs.