The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has elected Fred Luter of New Orleans as their first African American president. This is noteworthy because in 1845, following Southern Presbyterians and Southern Methodists, the SBC was founded to defend slavery.

That is why, perhaps, it should not be surprising that the day after the historic election, the SBC passed a resolution against same-sex marriage. Thousands of delegates at the group’s annual meeting in New Orleans supported the resolution in near unanimity.

The resolution read in part: “It is regrettable that homosexual rights activists and those who are promoting the recognition of ‘same-sex marriage’ have misappropriated the rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement.”

What is actually regrettable is the fact that so many people believe that this is regrettable. African American public intellectual Michael Eric Dyson has brilliantly addressed the claim that LGBTQI people have hijacked the civil rights movement. He has noted that this is as ridiculous as claiming that Martin Luther King hijacked the movement from Gandhi. (Similarly, no one accused Filipinos of hijacking the movement when they organized around “People Power,” and sang “We Shall Overcome.”) Indeed, Dyson has claimed that Black people should be honored that LGBTQI people use them as role models in their struggle.

In any case, Black Southern Baptists do not speak for all Black people on the subject of same-sex marriage or any other subject. On June 17, 2012, at least 28 LGBTQI groups and other activists and organizations, including the NAACP, marched together in New York City to oppose the NYPD’s “stop and frisk” policy, which many regard as unfair to minorities, and tantamount to racial profiling against Blacks and Latinos. This is just the latest instance of LGBTQI people and African Americans uniting in support of progressive causes.

Similarly, the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS), a.k.a. the Mormons, have been known to have reactionary ideas on homosexuality. However, increasing numbers of LGBTQI Mormons are coming out of the closet. Mormons marched in an LGBTQI parade in Salt Lake City. In June, other Mormons marched in LBGTQI parades in Houston, Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Santiago, Chile.

Though many Mormons supported Proposition 8, the bill against same-sex marriage in California in 2008, other Mormons have come out in defense of anti-discrimination laws to support LGBTQI people in Salt Lake City.

It appears that increasing numbers of people from various religious backgrounds are finally beginning to understand that they should not force their religions down the throats of consenting adults. Young people in particular have understood this for years.

It is ironic that so many people argue that LGBTQI people are hijacking the civil rights movement when one considers that one of the most important architects of that movement was a gay African American man, Bayard Rustin. Rustin was a confidant of Martin Luther King, and he was a supporter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) since its founding in 1942. Rustin also worked closely with A. Philip Randolph, “the Grandfather of the Civil Rights Movement.” Indeed, he helped Randolph organize the historic March on Washington.

There have been other leading LGBTQI African American civil rights activists, including James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry. It is just too bad that so many history writers want to hide the sexual orientation of such luminaries as much as possible.

The problem is not that the SBC is simply homophobic. What else can they be? They are, first and foremost, reactionary. Their views on LGBTQI people, the role of women, race and slavery have always followed naturally from their reactionary (biblical) worldview. In this case, they have much in common with the Nation of Islam (NOI.) The SBC’s election of a Black president seems to mean that they are not as reactionary as they once were. However, they are still reactionary. Similarly, though the KKK is not as racist as it once was (they now accept Catholics and other groups they once rejected), they are still racist to the core.

White reactionary leaders have long argued that it would be wise to have Blacks lead the fight against “the gay agenda.” In this way, it could be more easily argued that LGBTQI rights are not civil rights. Now, the SBC is situated to make just that case.

Many people wonder how it is that, given Black people’s oppression, any Black person could argue against the civil rights of any other group. However, the fact is that many people think of democracy only in terms of getting their own rights. Hence the saying, “How a minority, despised by the majority, becomes the majority, and hates a minority.”

The bottom line is that consenting adults should be able to do as they please, as long as they are not hurting anyone else. This is what true democracy is supposed to be about, regardless of one’s moral views on any particular subject.