A Black Person is a Gay Person's Best Friend

Overview:

Description:

A Black Person Is a Gay Person’s Best Friend: Bridging the Civil Rights Divide

My brother and I talk every day - sometimes several times a day.  So the fact that we talked on November 4, 2004, didn’t have any special relevance...at least initially.  We have always discussed wide-ranging topics, whether the issue involved politics or simple midlife nostalgia.However, this conversation began more poignantly than most others. His immediate greeting to me was, “They really hate gay people.”At first, I didn’t know to whom he was referring.

But after our conversation took a more relaxed tone, he expounded upon his opening statement:These people in Ohio really hate gay people..it’s that serious.  And what shocks me more is that most of these people who now think that gay people represent such a big threat to them are Black.  Can you believe this?!  The people of Ohio - and more importantly, the Black people of Ohio - have sided with George Bush for no other reason than their shared and  profound disdain for gay people.  This is crazy.”

Yet, to many, it is that serious.  Sadly enough, the apparent animus of the African American community towards the LGBT community didn’t just manifest itself during the 2004 Presidential Campaign.  For many people, the Black Community’s resentment towards gays was part of the community fabric.  It was palpable. It was loud.  It carried resonance.  And for the first time, my brother understood the depths of this reality as he watched the 2004 Presidential Election results from his home in Cleveland.  But as much as it was a surprise to him, it was a mere reiteration to me of the observations I had made when trying to include gays in multicultural discussions with American ethnic groups.

Gayness is not seen as cultural, but behavioral; and the gay rights movement has been dismissed by many as just the passionate attempt of social radicals to get legal protection and societal recognition for aberrant behavior.  Mentioning gays in the same sentence as multiculturalism, some argue, cheapens the notions of mutli-culturalism and “civil rights” and de-legitimizes them for those demographic groups for whom those ideas were originally constructed.   In other words, the gay person is not only supposed to not participate in diversity discussions, they’re not even supposed to be at the table.

The issue is even more pronounced when we talk about “civil rights” as opposed to just “diversity.”  Rightly or wrongly, “civil rights” in this country has become synonymous with the African American experience.  Therefore, to make the case for gay “civil rights” is to equate the struggles of the LGBT Community with those of the African American Community.  For many Blacks, this is a tenuous idea at best.  So the disconnect is two-fold: 1) Gays are not viewed as being in need of protection because their oppression is based on behavior, not status; and 2) even if Gays were said to be normal, their struggle in no way compares to that of other groups, primarily that of African Americans.

What further undergirds this resentment is the feeling that Gays advocating on their own behalf will take away time, money, resources, and national spotlight from the plight of other groups.  In other words, many rank-and-file Blacks feel that in order for gay people to gain something, they must in turn lose something, which is a highly unattractive proposition for a group that already feels marginalized.

The “problem,” of course, is that the LGBT Community refuses to accept these notions, and rightfully so.  The LGBT population is maturing politically. They no longer are simply reactionary; they have become directed visionaries, furthering their cause for self-realization.

A number of Fortune 500 companies now include sexual orientation and gender identity in non-discrimination policies.  There has been a proliferation of “gay” employee resource groups.  And even the most traditional human resource manager can mentioned the gay community without simply being obligatory.

But strangely enough, while we now have that discreet ability to talk about the Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transgendered persons, and everyone in between, there is  still a fundamental disconnect when trying to connect this idea of inclusion of gay people to the profound notion of “Civil Rights.”  I call this the Civil Rights Divide..and most notably, the group that from my casual observation has been the most vocal opponent of this ideological marriage between Civil Rights and LGBT efficacy has been the African American community, since the idea of “civil rights” has been used to define the African American experience in this country.

But it is my contention that unless we can successfully bridge this divide, and get not only Companies but political groups to embrace gays within this idea of civil rights, any efforts we make...politically and socially...are marginal at best.

Submitted by:

Date added:

Friday, 20 Mar 2009