Irene Monroe on immigration

Irene Monroe is this Black lesbian theologian. Totally fierce. Trained with Peter Gomes (pronounced in one syllable like Gnomes, not in two like Gomez), an African American theologian, also gay, in that high-style ivy-league great books kind of way. Him, that is, not her. She's radical call-it-out fierce, and don't think you can hide any homophobic nonsense behind your gilded bible!

("Gilded bible" is going to end up in a poem. Came to me on my walk this morning when I smiled and nodded at a happy family walking in the opposite direction all dressed up like Sunday-best, and the Father asked if he could speak to me a moment, and I eyed the gilded bible in his hand and realized they're prob'ly missionaries, and so explained que "tengo prisa" and went on my way, tempted to phone L* and tell her not to answer the door if anyone knocks 'cause there's missionaries coming your way!)

Every six or eight months or so, I google her and read all her articles online and get all jazzed. This is the one I found today:

Standing Up for Immigration

As the country now finds itself in a battle over immigration reform, one particular disenfranchised community—African-Americans—has displayed troubling feelings on the issue, ranging from a disquieting silence to unabashed xenophobia. And although the struggles of being black, immigrant, and LGBT are not mutually exclusive, many African-American organizations and individuals, however, have veered off the road on this issue.

For example, where the NAACP has been outspoken in their advocacy for immigrant rights, the National Urban League, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which aided in spearheading the civil rights movement of the 1960s, have not.

And while the Book of Leviticus is continuously misused by black ministers in their attacks on LGBT people, one passage illustrates how clerics should employ the text to guide them on the issue of immigration rights: “Don’t mistreat any foreigners who live in your land. Instead, treat them as well as you treat citizens and love them as much as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners in a strange land.”


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