Not long ago, The Advocate declared on its cover, "Gay is the New Black?" In some ways yes, and in some ways no. America’s history with African Americans is pretty black and white—pun inevitable. Institutionalized slavery is an undeniable part of American history. Hurricane Katrina and the U.S. prison system are modern indicators that African Americans absolutely are treated as second-class citizens in an institutionalized, mechanistic way that is at once impossible to disprove and at the same time virtually invisible and generally tolerated. Yes, I’m calling you out, Birthers.
On the other hand, many laws still exist that allow for or even encourage discrimination against gay people. And by “gay people,” I am simply abbreviating the full spectrum—transgender, bisexual, homosexual women and men, and anything other than the normalized man-woman partnership. If we’re going to compare and contrast gay vs. black, it’s really rainbow versus black and white. We’re still in a time of general ignorance about who LGBT people are. It’s really simple: we’re just people. But other people don’t seem to get it. All but the most bigoted among us really do understand that black people are normal human beings. No white person in 2011 would ever think to whisper to an African American person that he or she is more likable or considerate than another in the office because he or she is less obviously black.
David discuss an age old issue of gay men acting like black women. Please read
this piece.
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