 "Photo: Photo courtesy of CNN")
Keith Boykin, the editor of the online news site, Daily Voice, held an open lecture this past Wednesday evening, at UNC Charlotte’s Cone Center.
Although famous for being President Bill Clinton’s special assistant, his book writing (including “Respecting the Soul” and “One More River to Cross”), and being a BET host, Boykin came to speak of something even more extensive than his success.
He came to speak of being African American and gay, in a society so unwelcoming, and exclusive.
From his time as an elementary president in Saint Louis, Mississippi to his high school career of being a track athlete, feature editor of a newspaper, and a student government member, Boykin was always busy.
In 1989, Boykin started his freshman year as a Harvard Law student. Along with a few of his fellow students, Boykin noticed that Harvard’s faculty was anything but diverse. Not wanting to let go of this vision of collaboration in a place so stereotypical, he brought together student groups in a coalition that included everyone from blacks to lesbians and mentally handicapped, and excluded no one.
“Everyone benefits from diversity.” said Boykin.
Their coalition invaded main places on campus like the dean’s and president’s office. When Boykin saw the dean outside of his office, and the dean refused to greet him after he repeatedly tried to talk to him, the dean began to fear Boykin and ran as fast as he could across campus.
Little did he know, Boykin was not only a good law student, but a great track athlete, as well. Boykin soon caught up to the Dean, wanting to question him about his failure to respond to his coalition to become more involved in the school.
The image of him catching up to the dean made the Boston Globe’s front page the next day.
But having his picture in the paper was not what Boykin appreciated the day he chased down his professor. He learned how powerless he felt in authority. But even by losing, he realized he could still win. He learned from then out to keep pressuring and pushing authoritative figures, and to keep striving for what he believed.
He knew that the journey ahead of him called to “speak truth to power.”
His inner most truth could not have been tested more when he found himself in question of his sexuality his sophomore year at Harvard Law. He had finally slowed down his active lifestyle, and was not as involved as he had been in the past with extracurricular activities.
When he finally had the time to figure out his interests away from work, he began to explore books of homosexuality at a local bookstore. He picks out and reads a book about his new discovery, in a literary by Richard Friedman.
When he is sure of this enlightening envision, he grew eager to tell his fellow friends and family. He started with his mom.
Boykin wrote an entire script of how to approach his mother. But when he finally decides to stop calling and hanging up on her, Boykin stuttered “I’m gay” simply under his breathe.
There was silence and heavy breathing. But after reassuring his stand by asking him over and over again if he was sure, Boykin’s mother finally accepts her son’s confession, and tells him that she loves him. To Boykin, this was an example of the many ways in life that she has shown she unconditionally loves him.
After outing himself to his mother, Boykin began to tell people left and right, in hopes that he would soon just be openly gay, rather than having to go through the working process of coming out.
“I wanted to be out, not come out,” he said.
Still, he remained hard at work, trying to get the word out about himself. His grandma, however, did not approve. She nagged him about his lifestyle, telling him it made her ill to even think about. In defense, he argued he wanted to be open and honest with her.
When Boykin was preparing to start a job at a law firm, he received a special phone call soon after he came out. It was from the press editor of the Clinton law campaign and he wanted Boykin as am aide.
Not only was he surprised Clinton wanted him to help with his campaign, but he was also surprised when Clinton won. After a series of jobs on losing political campaigns, Boykin had anything but a superior track record.
In 1984, he helped Walter Mondale lose, followed by Atlanta, Georgia Congress candidate, Julian Bond in 1986, and Mike Dukakis in 1988, and even a license collector candidate in 1989.
One of the first issues Boykin wanted to address when Clinton was elected was the exclusion of open homosexuals in the military. He incorrectly assumed that President Harry Truman had ended all discrimination in the military when he included all races.
Colin Powell, who was then Chief of Staff would not back down. He stated that skin color was “benign” and “non-behavioral”. Boykin was quick to counteract this statement’s falsity. He explained that skin color is behavioral even still today, because people still perceive skin color with a certain behavior. He asked how skin color could ever be benign in a country that had a past so rich in racial hatred?
Powell was assuming that sexual orientation represented a certain behavior, just as people wrongfully do with color.
Even in 1993, when Boykin had disclosed his sexual orientation to a newspaper, people everywhere asked him why he would do such a thing. For in a world of many different people, sometimes heterosexuals, homosexuals and bisexuals do not always “peacefully coexist.” Boykin was not only a homosexual man, he was also a homosexual man who he said dressed and acted straight.
Boykin took hatred toward his sexual orientation much like he took racism; with a grain of salt. As more and more questions probed the morality of his sexual orientation, the more and more Boykin became educated.
When people argued that the Bible said it was wrong, he argued that first and foremost, our country was founded on a separation of church and state, and the reason we are in America is to have the freedom to openly be ourselves.
He reminded those questioning him that the bible also stated that two different seeds should not be planted in the same garden, and yet, no one tells a bad gardener they are going to be damned to hell.
“Religion should not be used as a weapon of hate, but as a tool for love,” said Boykin.
Boykin knows that although religion can play an unhelpful role, it does not have to. You can still be religious and accepting of others.
Boykin left on a special note, reminding us that courage comes from going beyond fear. Do everything you love and believe in with a purpose of greater good.
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