Emerging Black LGBT Politicians: Day 3 - Rev. Tommie Watkins Jr
08 Jun 07 12:00 AM EDT
Black LGBT
Political Leadership
This week, NBJC proudly spotlights three emerging Black LGBT politicians as they embark upon an intensive three day, LGBT focused Campaign and Candidate training in Chicago.
For the second year in a row, NBJC has partnered with the Victory Fund’s, Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute to identify, recruit and train the country’s emerging Black LGBT leaders. Today we focus upon minister/activist/author, Rev. Tommie Watkins Jr.
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He is Young, Gifted, Black and Gay a powerful combination that has often torpedoed through the life of Tommie Watkins Jr. But as the old saying goes "what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger."
Tommie, of Hueytown, AL was once president of his class in the Naval Academy but was abruptly kicked out of the Navy in 1997 when it was discovered that he was gay.
Watkins was later ordered to pay nearly $100K in tuition. But he courageously stood up to the Navy, sued and eventually won his case in 2000.
As a result of the media coverage, Watkins, also an ordained Baptist minister was barred from preaching in his home church in Alabama and later was forced out of another ministerial position in Miami within the African Methodist Episcopal denomination.
While in Miami he was told by a high ranking AME official to find a woman, get married and quit talking about being gay. Tommie did neither and for a second time he was forced out of a position that he loved but not without another legal fight. |
Today the Rev. Tommie Watkins stands unyielding, unwavering, and undeterred in his mission to make the world a safer and fairer place for all LGBT.
What event(s)/person or people have inspired you to you enroll in the Campaign Candidate Training?
I have always thought about running for public office because of my strong leadership skills. The lack of openly “non-heterosexual (LGBTQI)” African-Americans in the political arena inspired me to strongly consider this possibility since I am an activist for equal human rights for all persons and have done human rights work for almost 9 years.
I now work with the Honorable Patricia Todd who is Alabama’s first openly lesbian state representative and through discussions with her, I am convinced that running and winning a political race can be accomplished.
Also having Senator Obama run as an extremely viable Black candidate for President of the United States inspired me to consider the lack of Black male leadership in our country as well as the very limited existence of Black gay male leadership compelled me to apply and attend this training.
What do you want to with the knowledge gained from the training in Chicago?
The knowledge that I gain from the training I am hoping to formulate a plan to seek office and begin a small campaign team to discuss the particulars with. I have informally begun this process. I will also share what I will learn with other LGBT persons and refer them to the training as well.
What challenges have you faced being Black LGBT in America?
Being an openly gay ordained Baptist minister, I have faced termination from my employment as an HIV/AIDS program director and grant writer because I would not marry a woman to cover up my sexual orientation after being highlighted nationally for winning a lawsuit against the United States Government for forcing my resignation my senior year as a Midshipman First Class at the United States Naval Academy. They insisted that I pay nearly $90,000.00 for my education.
An Administrative Law Judge in Miami, Florida told me that I lost my job because I was a “militant homosexual.” These events are unethical and illegal and the fact they were tolerated and embraced compelled me to face and educate around racism, classism, and homophobia/heterosexism.
I have also have been banned from my Baptist church’s pulpit and so have now become an Episcopalian. I am alarmed and saddened to have been rejected by my own parents, church family, and some friends mostly who are Black because of an immutable characteristic of possessing a homosexual sexual orientation.
How have you overcome these challenges?
My faith and prayer life to the Divine Spirit of the Universe got me through these challenges. I also had to look very deep at the insidious homophobia that had penetrated my subconscious and produced depression, shame, and inner war within. Only by reading affirming books and doing my own homework on sexuality, sex, and spirituality particularly resolving the six passages of Scripture that supposedly condemn homosexuality was I able to deconstruct the religious hegemony that was the root cause of so much pain for me.
Self-knowledge, self-affirmation, and self-actualization then led me to be able to frustrate and dismantle long-standing systems of oppression and thus I published the first book, Living Out Loud www.twgllc.biz/livingoutloud, which articulates my journey in this process.
What advice would you give to others still seeking to be comfortable within their own skin?
I would suggest to them to seek out their own affirming process in a faith community and begin their own struggle to become comfortable with themselves and stop believing the SERPENT (words of others).
Like I began in the book, Living Out Loud, male and females were created naked and felt no shame and only after eating the fruit did they discover their nakedness and began to want covering. The Creator comes along and inquires as to where are Adam and Eve and Adam responds that he ran and hid because he was hiding, ashamed, and full of fear because he was naked. The Creator inquires, “Who told you you were naked?”
For me, I was full of shame, fear, and hiding because I was naked to the world about my homosexual sexual orientation and allowing the words of other entities to tell me something is wrong me with and only until I became comfortable with Tommie did others do the same. So my prayer for them is that they simply stop looking outward for outside validation since darkness will never validate light. Allow peace to come from within through much prayer and self-love.
