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I was going to talk about the rather chilly racial climate in Toronto post-presidential election, but this piece caught my eye. Sex columnist Dan Savage opined over the demise of Proposition 8 in California -and guess who is accused of its downfall?
I’m not sure what to do with this. I’m thrilled that we’ve just elected our first African-American president. I wept last night. I wept reading the papers this morning. But I can’t help but feeling hurt that the love and support aren’t mutual.
I do know this, though: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there—and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum—are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color.
Oh please. Yeah, I said it. Let me explain what has added to my fustration to Savage's belief: A couple of weeks ago I was chatting via IM with a male friend (white, gay) about Proposition 8. Admittedly, I had only a general knowledge that the issue would be raised during the election and my friend and I both expressed how disappointed we were. Then my friend says, ‘well, if gays do not have the right to marry, than Blacks should lose their civil rights.’ I was shocked. At first I tried to respond in a mature and civilized way that would not ruin our almost 15-year friendship, but later on, I was angry at myself for not responding the way I had immediately felt after he said that, which would have been to cuss him out. Did he think about the lack of logic to his argument before he said that, or was he simply lashing out in anger? And while I said that I thought his views were extreme and irrational, should I have called him a bigot? there was an insinuation that his rights as a gay man somehow trump my rights as a black woman and a dismisiveness to the rights that people died for just to be able to be treated as human beings. I resent those implications.
Yes, obviously discrimination against the LGBT community is abhorrent. Just like racism, sexism and ageism is. But what irked me was that my friend, whom if he chose to, can conceal his sexuality to his co-workers and family members, (which he has, BTW) - yet my blackness and my gender cannot be concealed and I cannot choose to hide it in the public eye when it is suitable for me. Regardless of his sexuality, he is a man, and because of patriarchy, has more privledge as a white man than people of color. But does this means that racism trumps homophobia? No, it does not. does that mean that the LGBT community should hide their partners and their social lives? Certainly not. But people who make those pronouncements ( and this is not the first time I had heard such an argument) have to realize that discrimination comes in a different form for people of colour and you cannot always equate one discriminatory act with another.
Secondly, while I resent the implication from Savage that 'all blacks are homophobic' I have to say that in my experience, I have met a number of black folks whom, under the guise of religion, are extremely homophobic. Danielle's at the Black Snob, writes,
Basically, "we" have a lot of nerve when we call for the limiting of someone else's rights. Especially when there are so many black people who are gays and lesbian who don't feel the love and support of our community. All because we are so wrapped up in one passage in Leviticus and not the numerous others we ignore (shellfish, anyone?), not the other parts of the Bible we ignore, not acknowledging that we cherry pick and interpret as we choose in an effort to do to others what was done to us.
Melissa Harris-Lacewell at The Kitchen Table tends to agree with Savage - or at least sides with Savage in the presumption that all blacks are homophobic:
Is this going to be our legacy as a people? Will African Americans prove to be little more than a selfish, regressive, identity group who snatch a symbolic victory for themselves while simultaneously denying full democratic equality to others? If so, then we are no better that the HRC supporters who now wave Sarah Palin banners because they are determined to have a uterus in the White House.
In Savage’s post, he















