2008 NYC protest outside the Mormon temple in Lincoln Center; part of a series taken for Wikipedia/Creative Commons
After Proposition 8 passed, many gay people were angered by the 70% African-American support rate for the anti-Gay California measure. The media outlets, particularly Fox News, were keen to take the focus away from the conservative Mormon church’s involvement int its passage that spurred large nationwide protests. Fox News et al. created the appearance of a “war” between the reliably-Democratic voting blocks of blacks and gays. Stephen Colbert ridiculed this in several segments (below is with Dan Savage, who is hysterical in the interview):
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Proposition 8 Protests – Dan Savage | ||||
|
||||
Nevertheless, there was a modicum of truth to it as the gay and black communities have had a long, complicated relationship. Although civil rights icons like Coretta Scott King, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have endorsed social justice and marriage for gay people, their followers remain unconvinced.
Homophobia is rampant in the African-American community. Andrew Sullivan writes that, “The black church is one of the most powerful forces fomenting homophobia in America, and has fostered attitudes that have literally killed countless gay black men.” Dan Savage, who after seeing the Proposition 8 support broken-down by race, expressed his outrage:
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.
Porn king Michael Lucas has cited homophobia as the reason he can’t find more black models for his films. Responding to a letter he received on his blog, Lucas wrote:
I would love to use more, but unfortunately, Black models are not that open to appearing in adult gay films. It of course has a lot to do with the rampant homophobia in the African-American community, and models are just scared of being in productions.
African-Americans ignore the homophobia in their community, but gays tend to ignore the racism in their own. I have seen many gay men reveling in guilty giggles after they’ve shared a racist joke.
This racism has an impact. According to a recent study by H. Fisher Raymond and Willi McFarland, from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the social barriers black men face may be responsible for the raging AIDS epidemic in their community. Other races find black men undesirable, limiting their diversity of sexual partners.
The perception is that black men are most likely to transmit HIV. African Americans make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, yet they account for 57 percent of new AIDS infections. According to the study:
Black gay men are the least preferred of sexual partners by other races, according to the interview data. Black men also are perceived to be riskier to have sex with, which can lead to men of other races avoiding black men as sexual partners. They are also perceived as less welcome in the common social venues of gay men in San Francisco. As a result, black men are three times more likely to have sexual partners that are also black, than would be expected by chance alone.
In the study authors’ view, the combination of attitudes on the part of nonblack gay men, friendships and social networks that are less likely to include blacks, and the environments found in gay venues serve to separate black gay men from other groups. Consequently, the sexual networks of blacks are pushed to be more highly interconnected than other groups, with the potential for a more rapid spread of HIV and a higher sustained prevalence of infection among black gay men.
Homophobia and racism between blacks and gays are problems that have hit a brick wall, as neither community trusts nor desires to engage the other. As the passage of Proposition 8 and the black AIDS epidemic show, both communities suffer for their mutual bigotry.
A man has lived in a van outside my home for 8 years
Making out in public – good or bad?
Obama Condoms in Union Square
New York City – water shots 3
RNC characterizes Republican base as ‘Reactionary’ and ‘Ego-Driven’
Celebrities and downtown denizens salute 25 years of Michael Musto
Is it okay to be fat? A response to Nightline
Submission, domination and pop culture
Also, to Julio & others: I know where you’re coming from (though Latin culture seems to have even worse skin prejudices than the U.S.)
Valuing yourself as a person of color can be a difficult thing to do in this U.S. of A., especially if you’re ambitious and want to break some glass ceilings. People WILL make you aware of your color, ethnicity, etc, sometimes seemingly at random. This can be annoying when you’re in “I’m tired and I just want to be a PERSON right now” mode. But I say, so what… Accept it. Toughen up. Recognize the reality. Whites are a majority in this society and basically structured society as we know it. Change happens gradually. Acknowledge the challenges and your own heroism in facing your challenges.
Recognize that you are human, and all human experiences belong to you. Even those of people that are not like you.
Also Julio & whoever else: if you’re that into white guys, go to France. They love some chocolate over there. French guys seem to come after me.
i thought i had issues. all i can say is i can really relate to Julio. good thing you’re not here in los angeles. you’d have it worse. Here you’d have a bunch of ignorant mexicans who cant understand that you can be black and hispanic at the same time and everytime you speak spanish in public people would be like starring at you in shock or pissed off at you. I speak spanish. I know . Trust me.
I never thought that blatant racism would exist in the gay community; however, from reading reports from some of the posts here, it’s quite obvious it does. A sad fact that, despite the pain from bigotry our community faces, we allow another to remain unchallenged and blossoming within our own.
As a white guy dating a black guy, the subject of race has come up several times. I find the best remedy for situations involving inter-racial relationships is to defer to your partner, ask for their opinion and advice, and realize the issues they themselves face-no matter the variation of culture, ethnicity, or race.
On the few times that we’ve been out together that bigotry-specifically racsim- has reared its ugly head-i have always taken greater offense, and confronted the attacker. As an African-American man, my boyfriend could be very easily offended by a lot of the comments he receives; however, he has matured and allowed issues like those to resolve on their own. I almost always go on the offense and respond in kind to offender in any case.
Any sort of racism, or bigotry-no matter what its kind- should always be vociferoulsy condemned within the gay community. It is our prerogative; as individuals who face constant discrimination- we should be one of the few places that offers a safe haven from the petty hatred of the world.
I don’t understand why this blog says that, while civil rights leaders are committed to equality for everyone, some of “their followers” are not. Just because some people happen to be black does not mean they are “followers” of civil rights leaders. Anyone who truly follows the philosophy of human rights taught by the world’s great civil rights leaders understands that it is not about “rights for me, me me,” but about equal rights for all human beings.