There were a couple of posts that I read over at Rod 2.0 that truly hurt my heart. The first involved the rape and murder of a black openly gay teenager in Baltimore, apparently by a family friend. The second involved the beating of a black openly gay teenager in Houston, by schoolmates, while school authorities failed to heed the boy's pleas for help.
In a letter to the editor of the "Baltimore Sun" honoring the memory of Jason Mattison, Jr., Baltimore teacher J.B. Salganik asked an extremely important question: "Why does the black community reject civil rights for gays?" This is a question that needs an answer.
When I think of these two stories, coupled with the psychological abuse inflicted upon black gay youth by Donnie McClurkin, I cannot help but get angry. Too many within the black community are digging their heels in on this issue. I don't understand it. Religion and religion as a crutch seem to me to be the biggest culprits, combined with the classic "eww factor" that hets have regarding sexual relations among members of the same sex (how about getting out of our beds, because Lord knows I am not trying to envision hets having sex when I see them).
I am offended by the selfish hording of the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. What happened in this country in the middle 20th century was something that the world recognized as both remarkable and worthy of emulation. Several groups, the world over, seeking civil rights have looked to the Civil Rights Movement as a template. The gay rights movement does the same, just as the women's movement and any other movement one can think of in this country. The fact that the GLBT community, which represents the totality of the racial and ethnic communities in this nation, looks to the Civil Rights Movement in reverence should be seen as an honor. Instead, the so called defenders of the realm see it as a usurpation, and I call them, each and every one, fools for doing so.
Too often, the black GLBT community is ignored by the larger black community, summarily dismissed to try to maintain some bizarre fiction that homosexuality is a "white thing." Too many within the broader black GLBT community cower within the confines of the closet more concerned about "clockability," masculinity and perceived femininity than with their own sense of dignity and self worth. Mind you, I am not talking about the people who are really working their way toward more full and open lives as out black folks. No. I am talking about the people who have given up and convinced themselves that some half-life is better than owning their truth and letting the world know it.
Those of us who are out need to speak more forcefully, and we need to remind the black community. We need to continue participating in the advancement of the community. But we need also to be out as black gay adults, if only to remind black GLBT youth under siege that they can make it through, that the bullying, whether from the school yard or the pulpit, isn't really about them.
I need to do more to help out. The future generation of black GLBT youth deserves our help. We can't let more of our youth die or be beaten because of who they are. This has to stop. Black GLBT adults need to come out in droves, need to show the world that we are an integral part of the broader black community, as well as an integral part of the broader GLBT community.
We owe it to people like Jason Mattison, Jr. and Sakia Gunn and Jayron Martin and the thousands of other black GLBT youth who suffer at the hands of a community that tries continually to say that you are not welcome, worthy or wanted.
Man, I hate it when I get emotional.
8 comments:
Why is being emotional a bad thing? It is what drives us to action and changes the world around us. You see injustice and it speaks to your heart, my friend. That is not emotionalism. That is the voice of a prophet speaking out against what he sees. That is what MLK,Jr did...and Ghandi...and others.
"Those of us who are out need to speak more forcefully, and we need to remind the black community. We need to continue participating in the advancement of the community. But we need also to be out as black gay adults, if only to remind black GLBT youth under siege that they can make it through."
Here, here.
Truer words were never spoken. Thanks for the link and I'll do the same. And nice blog btw.
@Dave: I don't see being emotional as being necessarily a bad thing. I just know that sometimes I can get in my own way when I try to make a cogent argument when I am too emotional about the subject.
@Rod: Dude, I am honored that you even checked out my little corner of the blogosphere. I've been a fan of your blog for ages, and I totally appreciate what you do. Thank you.
A powerful post...It spoke to me on a number of levels.
However, I do bristle a little at the singling out of black communities. Are you suggesting that black communities should be singled out for special chastising? I'm unconvinced that black communities are digging their heels in any more than any other racial groups. The deaths you mention in your post are horrible crimes, but we can point to similar horrors in non-black communities.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that black people are beyond reproach and their homophobia should be excused. I'm only suggesting that, in many spheres of social life, black people share the same cultural values, biases, and belief systems (even the negative and prejudicial ones) as all other Americans. Indeed, once you control for religion, black attitudes about homosexuality are not that different from their non-black counterparts.
As for the issue of the use of Civil Rights history, that’s a more complicated issue. I do think there are very real and meaningful parallels between black and LGBT civil rights. However, it’s not a perfect parallel. And, as a black gay man, I often find many gay activists’ symbolic deployment of the Civil Rights Movement to be more than a little cynical…more often used to finger point at hypocrisy in black communities and completely blind to the ongoing struggles for equality that still animate black activism. I don’t have any data on this, but I’d be curious to see how Jewish communities responded to the use of the Holocaust analogy by HIV/AIDS activists in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. It would make for an interesting comparison. I can’t imagine that it was received graciously by all the “gatekeepers” of Jewish memory…though I don’t think all Jews got painted with the homophobe brush. (But, again, that last point is just speculation since I don’t have any data.)
I guess my concern is that singling out of black communities carries with it faint echo of the blaming of black voters that followed the passage of Prop 8 in CA. (And I don’t think the post-Prop 8 fallout did anything to broaden coalitions between LGBT activism and black voters.) But, all that said, I understand the frustration and emotion that accompany these sorts of crimes.
We should be doing better…all of us.
@Anonymous: I am definitely not singling out the black community suggesting that erroneous "they are more homophobic than any other community line." It simply isn't true. It's more of a within community perspective, kind of like the way Essence or Ebony address within community issues.
I also agree with you that there is a cynicism within some corners of the GLBT community with regard to citing the Civil Rights Movement (CRM). But, there is a special bit of disdain that some in the black community hold when legitimate comparisons are made by people who are sincere in their perspecitives, and that is what I am talking about.
I am not sure about the Jewish response to the comparison. It is a good question, but there is an interesting wrinkle since there were also gay victims of the Holocaust. However, I do understand your question. It reminds me of those who compare the Middle Passage with the Holocaust.
And regarding Prop 8, I didn't believe it when folks were screaming about black folks being the deciding demographic in that contest. Those folks who made those charges happily forget all of the old and religious white people (who more than out number the black populace of CA) who supported passage. I don't consider them to be serious, and that includes Dan Savage. That whole episode became an excuse for latent and blatant anti-black racists within the gay community to lash out.
My post is not remotely in the category. I simply think that we need to have a discussion within the black community about this issue, and I know that Tavis would not be able to handle it.
Perhaps it's the lowest common denominator of "We've got our rights, and you ain't gettin' any!", which the black community AND other communities seem to be saying to the GLBT community (frequently through political action committees).
Christian condescension and derision from white televangelists, and the like, are identical to the black church. They all profess to be holier than thou, and can't wait to demonize homosexuals. In doing so, they elevate themselves as "special", and declare marriage sacrocanct, and available only to themselves.
Whether spewing hate toward homosexuality, or pretending it's not present, both groups are making something natural seem "wrong", "unworthy", and "defective". Homosexuality is natural, it is good, and it is also legal.
Regarding the beating, it's the school leadership who need to be seen as the tacit enablers. They clearly don't have a zero tolerance stance, or such things wouldn't happen. If someone seeks help from leadership and is not given any, it's a "green light" to those interested in infliciting violence. In a work place this would be the basis for a "hostile workplace" lawsuit.
Somewhere in all of this is a tremendous level of bigotry, seen but not labeled.
Perhaps it's time "black bigotry" got a name tag, for fast efficient identification and labeling.
I'm just sayin'...
The first Anonymous here.
@hscfree: I like the comparison to Ebony and Jet. That helps me understand where you were coming from. It’s pretty clear from the content of this post and your site that you are not engaging in blind attacks on the black community (“Black community” is a troubled and unstable construction if ever there was one…not quite as fragile as “LGBT community,” but those are points for another post.)
I just wanted to throw out some other ideas that I think have to be included in discussions about black communities (and the plural increasingly makes more sense in these types of discussions) responses to issues of equality and history.
@Second Anonymous: I seriously doubt that it’s a case of “We’ve got our rights, and you ain’t getting any!” I don’t think many blacks even think, “we’ve got our rights.” Without dismissing any of the huge gains made through the efforts of the CRM, black activism more generally, and various governmental actors, I think it is fair to say that many blacks see themselves as still engaged in a struggle for racial equality. And, perhaps, black voters feel like their battle for racial equality is still being fought and don’t see room for sharing organizational, symbolic, affective, and material resources with LGBT activists. If that’s the case, then we should be encouraging discussions about linked oppressions and building political coalitions that embrace a broader progressive politics that can reconcile LGBT rights with a broader program of racial justice. This requires more than constant restating of the “how could people who have been oppressed support our oppression” meme. Resistance to a political alliance that is sensitive to the linked nature of sexual and racial oppression comes from both black and LGBT communities…and I say that fully understanding that positioning “black” and “gay” as distinct communities ignores the significant overlap between the two. (I am the overlap!)
Also, I’d be careful about making assumptions about endogenous homophobia within the “black church” (yet another one of those simplistic constructions that provide diminishing analytical returns). I think – and the historians reading can correct me if I’m wrong – that the black church has historically had a complicated relationship to homosexuality. A relationship more akin to “don’t ask, don’t tell,” than virulent hatred spewing. This more explicit black church homophobia is probably part of a broader evangelical power jockeying that has been on the rise in the country over the past 20 years. In fact, I would hazard to guess that white evangelicals have been aggressive (and effective) in building coalitions with some black churches. It’s these coalitions – nominally framed around religious alignment, but probably more tightly bound through organizational structure, money, and politics – that have come to represent the voice of the black church in media discussions of same-sex marriage. The black church is not a monolith, and we should ask ourselves why is that we only hear about religious leaders like Harry Jackson when the media wants a quote about the black church’s opinion about LGBT issues. There are other voices out there. Why aren’t they being heard? And, personally, I don’t think it’s because they are not speaking.
I couldn’t agree more with your point about the schools though. I don’t care what attitudes or beliefs kids bring into schools, it is simply unacceptable to have educational environments where students are not safe. The school administration has a responsibility to protect all its students. So while the individual bullies and attackers should definitely be punished, we have to ask what is going on in that school that allows these sorts of attacks to even occur within school building, buses, or school sponsored events.
But these are certainly the types of discussions we should be having within and across communities.
I'll take on the raised by Anon1. I've found it interesting that the majority of national black politicians are quite supportive of the gay rights movement, and their votes reflect that. The Congressional Black Caucus is an excellent example (not including Artur Davis, but look at where he is from and the job he is trying now to seek in AL).
I've never really understood that disconnection.
And think of the two most prominent black ministers. I mean Al Sharpton came out as the brother of a lesbian, and Jesse Jackson, as far as I know, has not been homophobic. I don't understand that. Cornell West has addressed this issue quite well, and he is a STRONG Christian, and a scholar in religious traditions. I agree with you that the fervor of the last evangelical movement in the 70s and 80s have unleashed more of the vitriol that we have seen of late.
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