BY MICHAEL KEARNS

Is Obama His Gay Brother's Keeper?

Does Barack Obama's ascent into the stratosphere of American politics have any direct or indirect impact on our LGBT community? Does a black man poised to enter the White House potentially create an atmosphere that is more inclusive for all marginalized communities?

Derek Ringold is a 27-year-old gay, black man who has decided to vote for Obama, less because of his stance on gay issues and more because of the presidential candidate's physicality. While Ringold wishes that the senator from Illinois would pony-up his commitment to the LGBT community by pledging his support for gay marriage rather than civil unions, it is the shade of Obama's skin that is motivating the young actor, who bears a distinct resemblance to the candidate. “I might get to play him in a movie,” he said.

Ringold is only half-kidding. While he is actually more concerned with the state of the economy than the gay agenda, he does feel that “the symbol of Obama's face” has the potential to create the “spiritual change that the country so desperately craves.”

Ringold, the offspring of a Creole father and a half-Italian/half-Jamaican mother, perceives “being mixed” as a greater conduit to understanding of anyone who is different—whether that difference is race, gender, or other aspects of identity, including sexual orientation.

I asked impassioned veteran activist and Black AIDS Institute Executive Director Phill Wilson if Obama's experience as a black man makes him understand homophobia any more deeply than Hillary's does as a white woman. “People experience and learn from their oppression differently,” said the 52-year-old Wilson.

“Whether Senator Obama's experience as a black man or Senator Clinton's experience as a white woman prepares them to understand homophobia better or worse depends on what lessons they learned from their experience. In this case, I don't think the question is race or gender. I think the question is marginalization and isolation. For me, the question for LGBT voters is not about an ‘identity’ label, but about whose message resonates with us.”

Ronald Dennis, a 63-year-old black activist, artist, and longtime AIDS survivor, acknowledges Obama's “fresh voice about gay issues” but is “skeptical” about Obama's entrenched ties to his church. “I'm left pondering,” Dennis said, “if what he learned in his church and [his beliefs] about gays and lesbians, has not been fully revealed for us to decipher.”

Dennis' belief that his gayness is as much a part of his DNA as is the color of his skin, results in frustration when he sees political purviews crisscross in alarming ways. “Homophobia exists in this nation, [regardless] of one's race or color,” he said. “And racism exists among gay people of all races and colors, too.

“My [black] community is still working on full equality and we've been at it for years now, so gay issues will take time to evolve, too. But from where I sit, working divided is not speeding up either cause.”

It is interesting to note that Jesse Jackson, in his 1988 run for the presidency, consistently used more specific language when addressing the needs of the LGBT community than Obama does in 2008. Obama is spotty when adding “gay and straight” to his list of people (read: potential voters) who depict the landscape of America's humankind.

When I asked Wilson how he—as a gay, black man—feels about the possibility of an Obama presidency, he answers pointedly, “As an American, the possibility of an Obama presidency makes me proud. It suggests that we just might be willing to seriously pursue our founding principles. It means that we just might be willing, genuinely, [to] look at our commonalities and commit to raising the boats for all of us regardless of race, gender, economic status, political stripe, or sexual orientation. I think there is something transformative about that.”

I'll give Obama the final word, from his stunning speech on race relations: “In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand—that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.”