At the recent LGBTQ blogger summit i attended in D.C. the topic of equating the LGBTQ equality fight with the Civil Rights movement of the African American community came up in a panel discussion on Prop 8. i have been one equating it but started to question myself after an African American person brought up that it really is not similar. So, today i read this thought-provoking article on a blog of a person i met at the summit. He is from North Carolina and has a heart of gold. i think he makes valid points and is balanced in his view of the situation. i personally have experienced homophobia and rejection from people who don't like gays or think i am going to burn in hell. It hurts and cuts deep.
HT and thanks to Matt Comer for his provocative post on African American & LGBTQ competition:
It seems as though, after Prop. 8, there’s been a whole lot of conversation on the intersections between race and sexuality.
I wonder if we’ve learned anything. Or, maybe we’ve all be foaming at the mouth with absolutely zero listening capacity.
In a recent Bilerico post, “No on ‘Gay is Black,’”
I wasn’t surprised to see the conversation very quickly turn into a
competition of which group has suffered the most. It’s as if civil
rights should be doled out on the basis of the pain inflicted rather
than on the basis of what is actually right and wrong inside the legal
and moral framework of our Constitution and national ideals.
Addressing activist Lane Hudson’s assertion that the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 should be amended to include LGBT people, former Washington
Blade editor Chris Crain wrote,
“The fact is that the significance of such legislation would be largely
symbolic. No one is marching in the street because we’re refused rooms
at hotels, service in restaurants and lunch counters or seats at the
front of the bus. Has anyone ever seen a “queer-only” water fountain?”
In a late-November post here in response to Crain, I wrote:
There might not be “queers-only” water fountains, and
city governments might not be spraying my children down with
firehouses, and my ancestors might not have been slaves, but that
doesn’t mean the discrimination I face is any less unequal and
un-American.
There are straights-only jobs. There are straights-only homes and hotels. There have been attempts to create straights-only counties. There are straights-only schools. There are straights-only youth services. There is a straights-only military, and a straights-only, government-sponsored institution of marriage.
The title of the post was “My suffering no more, no less - just different.”
Since Prop. 8, I would have hoped our community had seen the light:
We must, like really, really MUST, reach out to communities of color.
And, I’m not just talking about the ones who don’t like us. I’m talking
about ALL communities of color, especially those inside our own LGBT
community.
In fact, we should be reaching out inside our community before any
movement for outreach in straight communities of color. Remember: “If
you can’t keep your house clean, you certainly can’t be the one to
clean up anybody else’s.”
I don’t like the arguments based on who has suffered most, or who
has faced more bigotry. We’ve all faced it, to some extent. Some of us
have experienced more and some of us less, but the pain and hurt, along
with the real world complications, caused by discrimination and
prejudice affect us all equally. You can’t put a measure on human pain
and heartbreak.
I’ll admit history holds truly different and unique stories for the
African-American and LGBT communities. That’s a fact we all have to
face. But, at the same time, I know that while I haven’t been lynched,
I’ve experienced more pain than any American should ever have to
experience.
I think we have to start realizing that our pain as LGBT people and
the past and current experiences of people of color are all tied to the
same source.
Charles Merrill stated in the “No on ‘Gay is the New Black’” post:
The oppression of all three groups Jews, African
American and LGBT’s stem from the same source, passages in the Old and
New Testament of the Bible.
I blame main stream religious denominations for not speaking out
against other Christian denominations. Faith is considered “private”
and not a topic for dialogue. This is how the extremists gain control.
Even when it is discussed, it is one passage against the other
passage. Not a free thinking dialogue pertaining to modern society and
scientific findings.
Would history have treated African-Americans any better in the
absence of “religious” support for their bondage? I don’t know, but it
might have. And I’m more than certain that LGBT kids wouldn’t be
killing themselves if radical fundamentalists didn’t demonize them,
turning them into walking zombies who think, at ages as young as 11 or
12, that life and love are meaningless and worthless.
Our oppression stems from the same source. Why does it seem we’re
fighting among each other for the “We’ve had it worst” trophy, instead
of working together to grant equality for all?
If the LGBT community - including our own communities of color -
want to succeed in our movement for life, liberty and happiness, we’ll
have to start treating each other a whole hell of a lot better. I mean,
if we can treat each other like shit, why can’t the fundamentalists,
right?
It’s time to stop the competition. There is no trophy to be gained.
No one has to be “first in line.” We can work together and accomplish
equality for all. Just imagine what kind of coalitions we can build.
Just imagine.
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