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YO!
YO! is a collection of short pieces by the writers at Youth Outlook!
 From: RaceWire As one of the 18,000 couples who were married while the practice was legal last summer and one of the leaders of the only Black LGBT political advocacy organization in Los Angeles County, I have a unique perspective on how issues of race and sexual orientation are portrayed and debated in the wake of the passage of Proposition 8 and will use this piece to discuss why I think Gay is NOT the new Black. Last year’s campaign to amend the California constitution to say that “Only a marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized” was the nation’s most expensive ballot measure fight on a social issue in history: a combined 83 million dollars was spent on both sides. Proposition 8 passed by 600,000 votes out of 13.4 million cast, 52.3 percent to 47.7 percent, on November 4, 2008, the very same day that Barack Obama was elected the very first Black President of the United States. Early exit polls indicated that 70 percent of Black voters had voted Yes on Proposition 8. Later analysis revised this number down to 58 percent of Black voters supporting a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, but a racially tinged firestorm in the LGBT community had already been ignited. On November 15th hundreds of thousands of Americans marched in parades protesting the passage of Proposition 8 in dozens of cities. Many of these protesters correctly (and incorrectly) made analogies between their actions and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, carrying signs with slogans like “Gay is the new Black.” When (predominantly white) gay people say that “Gay is the new Black” they are invoking a common saying from the fashion world to send the message that discrimination against gay people is the same as discrimination against Black people. This is such a thoughtless exaggeration that it enrages Blacks and increases the divide between the two groups, causing people like myself who are both Black and gay to become even more invisible. It is natural for LGBT activists to want to associate themselves with the successful Black civil rights movement and it is true there clearly are parallels between some of the legal discriminations that Blacks faced in the past (federal ban on serving in the military, state bans against marrying interracially, no laws banning employment or housing discrimination, et cetera). However gay people were never enslaved or murdered openly without legal recourse in great numbers and it is simply frivolous to attempt to equate the two experiences of being Black in America to being gay in America. The multiple reasons why electing a non-white American President resonated with so much of the country (and the world) and was such an important break from the past because it reveals how far the country has come from its shameful mistreatment of people of color. Barack Obama’s success eloquently illustrates that race is still a central dividing line in American life while Proposition 8’s passage is simply another example that the rights of minorities should never be subject to the whims of a tyrannical majority. comments |
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I think prop 8 needs to get passed there is no reason why not. as 99problems sais we need to be on the right side of history http://tinyurl.com/c5vtxk
By janger · Posted on Apr 1, 07:24 PMJust because people simply don’t get it doesn’t mean it’s any less true. Sexual orientation discrimination and race discimination is exactly the same in kind, obviously much different in degree, but then again, I should hope we would at least learn SOMETHING from our tattered history.
By John K. · Posted on Apr 1, 08:52 PMAs someone who is gay and not white, but not black, either, I totally get and agree with what you are saying. I marched in my city (Seattle) on Nov 15th, and felt alone in a sea of white gay folk. I felt that people were too polite to say anything, because perhaps Seattle is just too polite, but I heard of other nonwhite gays in other cities being harassed by some members of the so-called gay community, even while holding up protest signs against prop 8 and marching. Sometimes I think some white gay people equate the oppression of being gay with all other forms of oppression and are not quite aware that some people in their communities are experiencing multiple forms of oppression and that sometimes they themselves are the oppressors. I know they mean well, but some of them really need to take a class or something.
By dave98112 · Posted on Apr 1, 09:30 PM“However gay people were never enslaved or murdered openly without legal recourse in great numbers and it is simply frivolous to attempt to equate the two experiences of being Black in America to being gay in America.”
Apparently you’ve never set foot in Iran, Syria, or the majority of African nations. Gay people are enslaved and murdered on a genocidal scale even to this very day.
As a Black man who is also gay and who has traveled beyond our borders, I can say no, it’s not the same. In some ways gay people have been treated far worse. Black people were never the target of cruel Nazi experiments or genocidal gassing on behalf of the Nazis. Being Black was never once considered a mental disorder deserving of shock therapy. This is not to say that I would disqualify the Black experience or say that it lacks legitimacy. But, that is what it seems you are doing when it comes to comparing the plight of gay people. I can clearly understand how such an analogy would seem offensive coming out of the mouth of a racist White people who also just happens to be gay. But, I think it’s just as offensive to somehow think that we Black people are the only ones who could lay claim to the title “civil rights” as so many homophobic pastors would like us to think.
By Greling Jackson · Posted on Apr 1, 11:45 PMDiscrimination is wrong whether its against someone’s sexual orientation or their skin pigmentation.
By Reverend Boony · Posted on Apr 2, 06:04 AMBoth the author and Greling make strong points. Wouldn’t it be nice if we did not have to see color. I think each groups plight is unique and unfortunately human beings always like to label everything and associate it with what they already know. The gay plight is differrent then the African American plight and should be treated differrently. However, with Proposition 8 there was an increase in hate crimes towards gays. People felt righteous in waving their Yes on 8 signs of homophobia and hate. Half of California still does not get that they are hateful discriminatory bigots. Sexuality is differrent than race. You are what color you are. Sexuality makes every human question themselves and their own sexuality. I think this is why people think it is still ok to wave their flags of hate and drive around with their dispicable Yes on 8 bumper stickers. For those of us who know who we are and we know we were born gay, we need to band together regardless of color. We need to take care of our familes and not have to be afraid that a hate crime may be committed against us! C’mon people love sees no color! Together we are strong! Regardless of the color of your skin we gays all share the burden of this plight. We need to stick together.
By MsCherie · Posted on Apr 2, 11:09 AMWow, what? As a gay black man, I thoroughly disagree.
Did you know there are 128 prisoners to be executed shortly in Iraq? They were charged with the crime of homosexuality.
Educate yourself.
By J. · Posted on Apr 2, 11:26 AM“Today blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social changes. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that to protect them from racial discrimination. The new ‘n*ggers’ are gays. No person who hopes to get politically elected, even in the deep South, not even Governor Wallace, would dare to stand in the schoolhouse door to keep blacks out. Nobody would dare openly and publicly to argue that blacks should not have the right to use public accommodations. Nobody would dare to say any number of thing about blacks that they are perfectly prepared to say about gay people. It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. – Bayard Rustin, Speech delivered to the Philadelphia chapter of Black and White Men Together, March 1, 1986
By Charles · Posted on Apr 2, 07:59 PM“However gay people were never enslaved or murdered openly without legal recourse in great numbers” What?
By Jason Mills · Posted on Apr 3, 12:34 PMHolocaust? Inquisition? Basically since the beginning of Christianity we’ve been murdered and harassed. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, BLACKS DO NOT HAVE THE MARKET CORNERED ON MISERY. Why can’t be just band together instead of being so damn sensitive.