Rep. Karen Bass, ranking member of the impossibly named House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, was greeted warmly by In the Meantime Men’s President Jeffrey King on Saturday, Aug. 9, before a town hall meeting at The Carl Bean House in the West Adams district of Los Angeles. It was an afternoon of truth-telling and solution-seeking as the former community activist talked about the historic U.S.-African Leaders Summit and how local African-American activists might respond to the spate of anti-Homosexuality Laws hurting LGBT people in 37 African countries.
At the end of the hour-long discussion, one take-away seemed the most feasible: create a grassroots campaign to bring awareness to and raise money for local LGBT groups in Africa that know how best to respond on the ground.
Bass was introduced by Darryn Harris, a former Bass staffer who is now Assistant Director for Government and Community Relations at UCLA and is considered a young power player among LGBT African American leaders. Harris heads the Black Los Angeles Young Democrats, which co-sponsored the town hall with In The Meantime Men’s X-Homophobia Campaign, Holman United Methodist Church and the Los Angeles Black LGBT Network.
Harris reminded the audience that Bass founded the South L.A.-based Community Coalition in 1992 and in 2008 was elected Speaker of the California Assembly, the nation’s first African-American woman to hold such an exalted position. In Nov. 2012, she was re-elected to a second term serving the 37th Congressional District.
Bass said she’s not an expert on LGBT issues in Africa but wanted to share what she’s learned. She reported that the “overall thrust” of the White House-organized U.S.-African Leaders Summit was focused on business, good governance, security, human rights and leadership. But because the official agenda was restricted to invited guests only, more than 100 other activities were organized to include the public, including Bass’ Growth and Opportunity in Africa Forum and a panel organized by the National Endowment for Democracy (on which Bass sits as a board member) where LGBT issues such as the criminalization of homosexuality and HIV were discussed. (See video of the event here).