Our guest bloggers are Jeff Krehely, Vice President of LGBT Progress and Aisha Moodie-Mills, advisor of LGBT Progress’ FIRE Initiative for racial equality.

There are many ugly and ridiculous things to condemn about Trayvon Martin’s killing in Sanford, FL, and its aftermath. Some examples:

• The Daily Texan running an editorial cartoon that referred to Trayvon as a “colored boy.”
• Geraldo Rivera blaming hoodies for Trayvon’s death.
• The Fox station in Orlando referring to a known Neo-Nazi organization as a “civil rights group” that was patrolling the streets of Sanford after the killing, “to protect people in case things get out of hand.”
• A close friend of the gunman, George Zimmerman, hitting the TV circuit to defend Zimmerman’s possible use of a racial slur, falsely claiming that it was a name black people used “proudly” to describe themselves in some parts of the country.

For some reason, the Washington Blade’s editor Kevin Naff ignored all of these outrageous incidents (and others) when he weighed in on Trayvon’s killing this week (based on our search of The Blade’s website, we think this is the first time Naff has written about the case).  Naff instead criticized 29 national LGBT groups for speaking out against Trayvon’s killing. From our perspective, Naff’s is a misplaced screed that, more than anything, highlights the tone-deaf nature with which some LGBT leaders approach and understand issues of race.

LGBT Progress at the Center for American Progress is, quite proudly, one of the national LGBT organizations and programs that “jumped on the Trayvon bandwagon last week,” as Naff put it in his post. Indeed, we signed a statement with 28 other LGBT groups that condemned the killing of Trayvon Martin, and expressed our sympathies to Trayvon’s family as well as our outrage that racial bias played a role in his killing.

At the heart of Naff’s editorial are questions about whether racial bias actually played a role in Trayvon’s killing. He states “there’s not much about this case that’s so crystal clear” in response to the section of the LGBT organizations’ statement that racial bias played a role in Trayvon’s killing.

Further, Naff also somehow choose to ignore press reports that describe the racial profiling that Zimmerman regularly engaged in, including warning his neighbors about the presence of young black men in the area. To us, it seems pretty obvious that Zimmerman followed Trayvon because Trayvon was black and not because he was somehow acting suspicious.

What’s more, Naff trivializes the parallels between racially motivated hate crimes and those perpetrated against LGBT people by suggesting that the spotlight on Trayvon somehow casts a shadow on LGBT victims of hate crimes.  For example, Naff concludes his column with “…in the weeks since the Martin shooting, LGBT people have been attacked, shot and killed in the U.S. without a press release or peep of protest.”

This “us versus them” rhetoric implies that the LGBT victims are white, which couldn’t be farther from the truth considering that LGBT people of color are the victims of the most severe and deadly hate violence.  What Naff fails to acknowledge is that our “hate crime martyrs” are overwhelming people of color, be they straight or LGBT.  Among them are Brandon White, Deoni Jones, and Robert Champion, young queer people of color who were recently attacked and murdered simply because of who they were.  It’s worth noting that Naff himself has yet to write about any of them despite his chiding about the lack of coverage of LGBT hate crimes in recent weeks.

We agree with Naff that many questions about the case remain unanswered, and that Florida’s ridiculous so-called “Stand Your Ground” law played a central role in the killing.  At the same time, however, it is mind-boggling to us that Naff decided to use his position and power to lash out against those of us who signed the statement, while ignoring the fact that race-based hate crimes destroy the lives of both black and LGBT people.  His attempt to pit homophobia and race-based oppressions against one another helps no one and further drives a wedge between the black and gay communities.

In case the National Organization for Marriage has not significantly proven its intent to “drive a wedge” between racial groups by “fanning hostility,” its latest action is the most detestable yet. Today, NOM’s Brian Brown announced it will be exporting its Dump Starbucks campaign — a massive failure stateside — to countries that are significantly less supportive of LGBT rights:

BROWN: In our first week, we gained 25,000 pledge signers in the U.S. alone; today we go international, expanding DumpStarbucks.com campaigns into Mandarin, Arabic, Turkish, Spanish, and Bahala (one of the chief languages of Indonesia). DumpStarbucks.com online ads will also start running in Egypt, Beijing, Hong Kong, the Yunnan region of China, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait.

What happens in Seattle won’t to stay in Seattle. By making gay marriage core to his brand, Starbucks CEO Howard Schulz is telling millions of customers and partners who support traditional marriage in the Middle East, China, South America and North America that they aren’t truly part of the Starbucks community.

As Joe.My.God. notes, NOM is specifically targeting countries that criminalize homosexuality, like Kuwait and Oman, and even some that punish it with the death penalty, like the United Arab Emirates. The Dump Starbucks webpage tells its visitors that the coffee company’s support of marriage equality will “eliminate” the “definition of marriage between one man and one woman.” Sowing such seeds of fear in countries already opposed to homosexuality extends far beyond “fanning hostility” and could foster increased hostilities against people just for the coffee they choose to drink.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign and Freedom to Marry note that the Catholic Church hierarchy and its affiliates like the Knights of Columbus continue to be NOM’s biggest funders. And while millions of dollars are being funneled into race-dividing anti-gay strategies, soup kitchens, shelters, and other advocacy efforts are closing due to lack of funds, in many cases specifically as punishment by the Church for being LGBT-inclusive. In a letter to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Freedom to Marry and HRC implore the Church to immediately stop funding NOM and supporting its “race-baiting, ethnic exploitation, division, and anti-gay campaigns.” With the expansion of the Dump Starbucks campaign, add “propagating violence” to that list.

A Houston minister is going after Lane Lewis, an openly gay candidate for the Harris County Democratic Party chair and advocating on behalf of his opponent Keryl Douglas. In a letter to fellow ministers, Rev. Willie J.Howard warns that Lewis is “openly Gay and has already told supporters behind closed doors that the Democratic Party will endorse a Gay Marriage agenda in November.”

“Friends, this is not the direction we need to go as a community or Party. If the gays take over we are poised to lose everything we have worked for during President Obamas historic win. The Republicans will rally their troops behind a united front of making sure this push for same sex marriage is defeated,” Douglas writes:

Keryl’s opponent is being supported heavily by Annise Parker, another openly gay politician. If you haven’t seen what has happened at the City of Houston here are the facts:

- More Gays and Lesbians serve in leadership roles on boards and commissions.

- The City of Houston got rid of Blue Cross Blue Shield because CIGNA supports Same Sex benefits.

- The Mayor openly advocated the support of Gay marriage and even tried to embarrass President Barack Obama because he believes marriage is between one man and one woman.

Please share this with your friends and loved ones. This race is the most important down ballot race we will vote for. If we don’t Vote they will continue their take over and pretty soon, the party that we once knew will be a party of homosexuals. Our directives shouldn’t come from San Francisco, but from Harris County voters. How will Democrats look electing a man who sales perfume for a living and lays up with another man? Why are our so called community leaders (Rev. Lawson, Howard Jefferson etc.) supporting this agenda? Are they supportive of this lifestyle too??

Lewis was president of the Houston GLBT Political Caucus and is currently serving as the interim president of the Harris County Democratic Party.