Comments on: Gay Is Not The New Black (By LZ Granderson)

By: swiftset

swiftset — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:53:43 +0000

wealth, you mean? anyhoo, in total agreement with the posts and the comments.

By: toddyenglish

toddyenglish — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:58:33 +0000

In total agreement, sadly. When I read the article I was saddened because I agreed with over 95% of what LZ Granderson had to say. Again, it is not a generalization nor castigation of all white LGBT people…But the “community” as a whole completely ignores gays of color, especially blacks.
That is why I am glad there is such a dearth of black gay voices in the blog world and youtube land. We NEED them, for real.

By: toddyenglish

toddyenglish — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:54:49 +0000

I agree. My complaint is that the gay community does not know how to pick and choose it’s battles. It is DEMOCRATIC to stand up and dissent when you don’t like something. However, when you horse whip a gay ally because he hasn’t made significant change as fast as you want then that is just insanity. These same activists comparing this struggle to that of the civil rights movement fail to realize that it took YEARS to engender full equality for African Americans. The struggle was hard fought…All they are doing is alienating those of us that do want to support the president.

By: toddyenglish

toddyenglish — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:49:22 +0000

In total agreement Thomas. The mainstream LGBT community has done little to nothing to embrace their African American counterparts. If we are to call ourselves “The gay community” then you cannot pick and choose–until you need their help–who gets to be apart of it.
However, some of this I do attribute to apathy on behalf of the black gay community. Yet, when you face racism from the gay community who you’re trying to be apart of…What then? As I’ve always said if you’re black and gay or lesbian you become the ultimate riddle.

By: Darnell

Darnell — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:38:28 +0000

I agree 100% with what he said. The white gay community has chose racists to do their speaking, Dan savage and others who come off like Klansmen with anyone black, gay or straight. The black gay community and the white gay community have nothing in common other than sexuality and while many don’t want to say it, racism is alive and well and thrives more in the gay community than it does in the mainstream. The issues that black gay men and own face have little to nothing to do with white gays, like get a good job, decent housing and even basic healthcare.

While gay equality is something we should all strive for, the average black gay can hardly open the front door without being confronted with a myriad of issues. The man has been in office for 6 or 7 months and has two wars, unemployment at 10% or higher and 17% for black men, and, all they can do is whine about DADT? I guess when you have a good job, nice home and great health care and can hit the circut parties once a month you can get into side issues.

After Prop 8 hate and all the hate they spewed then and the constant, nonstop bashing of Obama to fix issues that they were quiet on for the past 8 years, the white gay’s have nothing to offer me and I view them the same as I would Pat Buchanan.

And, lastly this is a topic that should be discussed out in the open, but, the minute its bought up on gay blog’s, all you get is why can’t you stop being black first and gay second?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:41:45 +0000

I read the article on CNN, and for the most part agree with it. Racism within the gay community is an issue that often gets swept under the rug, and this separatism is big reason why white LGBT organizations have such a hard time reaching the black community.

However I’m conflict about the author’s view that gays should bite their tongues when it comes to criticizing Obama. While I definitely think some gays have been riding the president too hard on LGBT issues (the man has only been in office for 6 months)and have unrealistic expectations of how quickly he should address things such as DADT and marriage equality, I don’t think we should simply sit down and shut up just because some in the black community don’t want to hear about gay rights.

By: aSeaNamedSolaris

aSeaNamedSolaris — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:15:17 +0000

I read this article somewhere. For my part I have to confess a distaste for activity that is divisive whether on the part of Blacks or Whites. To be sure a statement like “Gay is the new Black” is bound to be divisive and rather insensitive.

What I do not like is the proprietary sense Black people seem to have about Civil Rights, as if we are the only ones that have struggled and that our struggle trumps all others. I am certain the Jewish folk feel the same about anti-semitism. Why do we insist on believing our struggle is more important and more difficult than anyone else’s? I would think the fact that two people or groups who suffer or have suffered would provide a link that would propel them to gather and share resources, not trivialize their suffering by comparing notes.

White LGBT made a tactical mistake in the methods they employed to access the Black community and Black LGBT. The racism and prejudice in the LGBT community is real and present and is what inserts mistrust between White and Black LGBT. White LGBT have made little effort to overcome it but when our help is needed they launch a campaign trying to draw comparisons to the Black struggle. Predictably, this has been met with mistrust, anger and disappointment.

We need a common denominator in this formula. To me, it is the struggle or a struggle for civil rights and equality. Why do we insist on coming to each other on what divides us rather than what unites us?

The problem with these matters is that they are terribly emotional and people tend to be dragged down by the undertow of their emotions.