Independent Lens: The New Black

See how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. “The New Black” documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community’s institutional pillar — the black church — and reveals the Christian right wing’s strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda. The film takes viewers into the pews and onto the streets and provides a seat at the kitchen table as it tells the story of the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland, charting the evolution of this divisive issue within the black community.

Independent Lens: The New Black, Friday at 10 .p.m. on PBS 6