Jonathan Adams

Assembly Speaker Bass addresses attacks on Blacks after Prop. 8 vote

Watch video of California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass on Prop 8

The Los Angeles Democrat, who is California’s highest-ranking African American elected official, said she was “really appalled at how quickly (the issue) was racialized, and it wasn’t even analyzed.”

“I have friends in Los Angeles, who are African Americans in the (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community, and they went out to protest the vote and had racial epithets hurled at them,” Bass said. “A couple of them were fearful, and they left because they were threatened.”

Bass, who opposed Proposition 8, said she was “appalled at how quickly some members of the LBGT leadership went there, as opposed to saying, ‘what did we or didn’t we do in the campaign?’ “

The No on 8 campaign, she said, failed to do enough campaigning in the black community “and the LBGT leadership is looking back at that.” SacBee

Posted at 8:52 AM, Nov 20, 2008 in LGBT | Permalink | View Comments