If you are African American and gay, and fighting alongside your white brothers and sisters for queer civil rights, the notion that "Gay is the new black" is not only absurdly arrogant, it is also dangerously divisive.
In a presumably "post-racial" era with the country's first African American president-elect, it's easy for some to assume that race doesn't matter.
But when critiquing the dominant white gay community's ongoing efforts to gain marriage equality and its treatment of blacks as their second-class allies in the struggle a reality check happens -- both straight and queer African American communities bond together against their strategy for marriage equality.
Why?
Because race does matter!
Case in point: Proposition 8 and blaming the black community for its win at the ballot box.
The Proposition 8 debate has brought much consternation and polarization between white gay community and African Americans.
And with the expectation of a dominantly white Marriage Equality movement pushing forward a single -- issue agenda, the movement arrogantly ignores vital ways for coalition -- building within black communities, and honorable ways of connecting their struggle to those of African Americans.
But there's an example that defused the tension in much of the heterosexual African American community when it was publicly arguing that same-sex marriage is not a civil rights issue.
In commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Loving v. Virginia in the June 12, 1967 historic Supreme Court decision that advanced racial and marriage equality in this country, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., marked the anniversary by stating the following: "It is undeniable that the experience of African Americans differs in many important ways from that of gay men and lesbians; among other things, the legacy of slavery and segregation is profound. But differences in historical experiences should not preclude the application of constitutional provisions to gay men and lesbians who are denied the fight to marry the person of their choice." And in April of 2006, NAACP LDF filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case brought by New York same-sex couples challenging their exclusion from marriage.
But the Marriage Equality movement neither extends its reach beyond its concerns within its community nor outside of it.
How the marriage debate should have been framed -- in a way that speaks truth to various queer communities of color and classes -- has not been given considerable concern.
And with no public language to adequately articulate the unique embodiment of queer communities of color and classes within the same-sex marriage debate, this has become contentious. The dominant white queer languaging of this debate, at best, muffles the voices of these communities, and, at worst, mutes them. In other words, in leaving out the voices of queer communities of color and classes, the same-sex marriage debate is hijacked by a white upper class queer universality that not only renders these marginalized queer communities invisible, but -- as it is presently framed -- also renders them speechless.
Within and across states the Marriage Equality movement persistently dons white leadership. Faces of color become important, visible and needed to the Marriage Equality movement only when the movement is actually pimping a black page from the civil rights movement for a photo-op moment to push their agenda.
Saying "Gay is the new black" poses the following problems for many African Americans:
* The Marriage Equality movement exploits black suffering and experiences to legitimate its own;
* The Marriage Equality movement's rallying cry against heterosexist oppression dismisses its own responsibility when it comes to white skin privilege.
* The Marriage Equality movement appropriates the content of the black civil rights movement, but discards the context and history that brought about it.
But this is not surprising because the larger queer movement has distorted, if not erased, its own history when it come to the Stonewall Riot of June 27-29, 1969 in Greenwich Village, New York City, which started on the backs of working-class African-American and Latino transgender patrons of the bar. Those brown and black queer people are not only absent from the photos of that historic night, but they are also bleached from the annals of queer history and gay pride events.
Because of the bleaching of the Stonewall Riots, the beginnings of queer movement post-Stonewall is an appropriation of black and brown transgender liberation narratives absent of black and brown people. And it is the visible absence of these black, brown and yellow queer people that makes it harder for white queer elites in our movement to confront their racism and trans-phobia.
If African American queerpeople are not included in the history and in the decision -making issues involving queer life, how then can the movement expect our participation, let alone the rest of the African American community?
Sadly, if racism continues to go unchecked in the Marriage Equality movement it won't only cost California's queer community the right to marry, it will cost us all.
George Aiken once said "If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon."
Honey it's noon. It is now the Gays.
There are also those who still suffer due to racism and de facto segregation and violence against minorities in small backward communities across the US (like the craphole I grew up in), but guess what gay people have been being murdered and harassed for being effeminate and attempting to maintain life long partnerships with members of the same sex for thousands of years. Being gay was considered wrong during Greek and Roman times as well, despite some of the misinterpretations of history you may hear being spouted off by some LGBT people desperate for some kind of positive affirmation of themselves. (I don't understand why they look to the violent culture of the Greeks and Romans though, we got a few good things from them but most of their culture was nasty and brutish.)
Although a few have been lynched it's very debateable whether or not a straight person did the lynching. Stop trying to hitch a ride on the backs of Blacks and stand up for yourselves.
Many Blacks have lost their very lives for the struggle. Are you willing to do the same. If not then stay put where you are. Don't expect someone to do for you what you won't do for yourself.
In the 1990's my partner and I were living in an apartment building that was largely gay. When the building was bought, the new owners declared that "unmarried" couples would have to pay double the rent or leave. Most of us left, and the few that stayed had their leases broken for phony reasons. I have known plenty of gay teens harrassed to the point that they had to leave the regular school to go to the gay school. Except there aren't any gay schools in Miami, so they dropped out. And dropping out of high school because you are gay = no college, janitor job.
Any other ignorant statements you need debunked?
I think most importantly what this article does is show concerns that people are afraid to see... some movements are flawed period.
Black people lets hold the hands of our gay brothers and sisters and sing KUMBAYA..........we must all work for equal rights for everyone.................NOT
Black people did not start this little riff. Black people were accused of oppressing the gays in California after the election......on this website and others blacks were called N words etc. Others have written below what they saw or heard. We were being used as scapegoats by an inept gay organization. They needed to get their little base fired up so they thought they would use the tried and true scapegoat and guess what it worked. The gays got all fired up and started acting like fools..........
Guess what black people all over the country saw this crap....it is not all right that you use us as scapegoats.....it is not all right that you call us N words, want us hanged and now that the facts you thought were true were not true you want us to hold hands and sing KUMBAYA.....read some of the posts here and on the subject........lots of white gay racists....the larger gay community needs to denounce the hatred...........sickening............
Yeah sure.
The black community is indeed the last group of people to deny civil rights to others. Do I blame them entirely? No but they could have swayed the vote by remembering what it is like to be denied basic civil and human rights? Yes, but they let THEIR prejudice and religion deny a group of people THEIR right to civil rights.
I am a 56 year old Black woman who believes that it's none of my business who someone chooses for a mate. Therefore I voted no on prop 8. I have friends who voted yes that are Black. You and people like you are the reason I never tried to convince them otherwise. First of all the Black vote is not a swing vote because of disenfranchisement through the justice system. Obama would've still been elected without the Black vote.
And as far as Blacks "remembering" what it's like to be denied civil rights how can we forget when we are reminded everyday while racism is not dead, but still lives in the hearts of people like you.
I agree with Ms. Monroe that "gay is not Black". First of all Black can not hide in the closet.
Gay feels that Black needs to give them a lift and hitch a free ride on the back of the Black struggle. That's alright, because," You ain't heavy. You're my Brother". MLK and countless others have lost their very lives for the struggle. We shed our blood everyday that racism lives.
Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to die for what you believe is right?
You want Blacks to do for you what you aren't willing to do for yourselves.
Get off our backs and walk the Green Mile for yourself. Prove you're worthy....
As a black lesbian I think Ms. Monroe is right. With all people who have privilege its hard for some people to accept.
It is the responsibility of members of the LGBTQ community to acknowledge their privilege and work to educate minority communities. There is blame that needs to go to gay rights activist that they don't want to accept. One cannot expect a community to just agree with another minority, it is the gay activist job to educate and inform. Leaving communities of color and of lower class out of outreach cannot be done anymore. How about someone take responsibility for that!
the marriage equality movement, though a positive, shows again the issues within our own gay community. People with the most money run these campaigns and these are gay white men, who have everything but marriage equality. What about people in our trans community murdered on a weekly basis if we could get half the involvement maybe that would mean something or our queer teenagers of color who are homeless and yet are still being overlooked by our communities? The gay activists don't have clean hands in this and until they realize this nothing will change. Accept your privilege and lets move together. We need to do outreach in black and latino communities, but that would mean accepting privilege and it seems like people are afraid of that.
Seems that all the gay academics that weight in are not from sociology or social psychology.
Irving Goffman's classic text "Stigma and the management of a spoiled identity" from the early 1960's is the best reference for this debate (btw its a cheap book and an easy read).
Goffman states that there are two types of stigmas: visible and invisible.
Race obviously is a visible stigma (as well as handicaps). He specifically discussed homosexuality as an invisible stigma, one that may be kept from public view.
In detail Goffman details the different consequences each stigma has for the individual, their identity and sense of self.
So according to a classic text in Sociology, Gay cannot be the new Black.
2. Last weekend an Ecuadorian immigrant in Brooklyn was beaten to death because he and his brother were mistaken for gay. Clearly SOMETHING seemed visible to his murderers.
Perhaps Guffman's "classic text" needs an overhaul.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/opinion/17wed3.html
Exploits?
Ms. Monroe misses the point entirely. Blacks are a minority in this country who suffered (and suffer) at the hands of the majority because of a physical characteristic outside their control. Gays are a minority in this country who suffer at the hands of the majority because of a physical characteristic outside their control (sexual orientation is NOT a choice). It's as simple as that.
The Marriage Equality movement isn't exploiting anybody or anything. They're fighting for equal rights and it's perfectly legitimate to compare this movement to the civil rights movement.
The numbers among the black community re Prop 8 were disappointing. I attribute them more to the black movement's foundation in the organized church, and the ability of some church leaders (so far) to use biblical teachings out of context and the "group-think mentality" of those seeking spiritual answers to oppress us.
Trying to build into law a special heterosexual right to marry is very similiar to laws barring interracial marriage in an earlier time. So there are similarities to which the black community should be able to relate.
But an organized "gay white majority"? The gay community is one of the most color-blind and diverse of any community, in my experience, with broad-spectrum acceptance of human differences, whether color or otherwise.
So can you all get off our backs.
Stop blaming prop 8 on Black churches.
Coretta Scott King was a staunch advocate for gay rights, but I'll bet if I walk into one or any of you alls resouce centers you will have nothing on your bulletin boards about her or her advocacy.
When public racism became unnaceptable in the 1970s, the Southern Baptist Convention, which was formed in 1845 to support slavery, apologized for its shameful past. Sadly, at that same meeting in New Orleans its new target became gays and lesbians.
At the same time, the Mormon Church, too, broke with its own brand of religion-backed racism at which time it, too, conveniently discovered gay people.
These negative religions need demons in the flesh, and they demonize gays, just as they once did blacks - it's an excellent way to raise money from freightened straight white people.
As far as black voters are concerned, I am sure that number, too, breaks along religious lines.
Is there still discrimination according to race? Of course.
But it is not acceptable in these United States to publicly describe blacks as less than human and a danger to society.
Gay folks are still there.
There two are not the same end point.
The word gay used 8 times. And 2 of those were necessary because they were qoutes.
Interesting.
However, your suggestion that blacks can't get on board is ridiculous, and petty at best. Seems you are suggesting that if those rich, white homos would just try to include blacks a little more, something would get done.
Well newsflash - everyone had the opportunity to vote and they did. They voted to deny equal rights. It's not about black, white, rich, poor, gay or straight. It's about equal rights - and no matter what color or creed you claim to be, voting to deny others the same opportunities you are afforded is wrong.
You're right, race does matter. But if you think the LGBT community needs to put its needs/rights on hold to hold the hands of the black community, you're sadly mistaken. Take a look at anti-discrimination law and you'll see race is everywhere. Sexual orientation and gender identity are not.
If you really had a hammer you wouldn't even be here on this page. You would be somewhere doing for yourself instead of blaming Black people for your problems. You're thinkibg about weddings and parties. We're still struggling. Obama wants to hold your hand. Not me. He needs you. I don't.