Black and Gay Black and Whe | The History Project

Contents:

• WHE GAY PRIVILEGE EXISTS ALL YEAR, BUT IS PARTICULARLY HURTFUL DURG PRI
• WHE GAY MEN ARE HRG OUR PROGRS AS A QUEER COMMUNY
• THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
• WHE NATNALIST GROUPS ARE SPLTG OVER GAY INCLN
• BLACK AND GAY BLACK AND WHE

WHE GAY PRIVILEGE EXISTS ALL YEAR, BUT IS PARTICULARLY HURTFUL DURG PRI

Jt as the movement for LGBTQ rights has been whewashed, so has Pri month often felt like a whe, gay-centered event — far removed om the lears of the Stonewall a recent article for BET, I discs how the Stonewall rts should be nsired an important part of Black history.

And yet Roland Emmerlich’s 2015 movie "Stonewall" shamelsly downplayed the role Black queer people played leadg the rts — gog so far as havg a whe gay man throw the first brick, stead of Marsha P. This actn was met wh anger om whe gay men who felt the flag reprented uny spe sk lor — a particularly tone-af fense given that Philalphia's gay bars had recently bee a hotbed for racism. ”It isn’t a cince that that same summer of 2017, 11 owners of queer spac Philalphia went through mandatory anti-discrimatn trag after several cints at var gay bars — cludg the disvery of a YouTube vio showg bar owner Darryl DePiano g racial slurs 2016, and other alleged cints volvg racial discrimatn.

WHE GAY MEN ARE HRG OUR PROGRS AS A QUEER COMMUNY

We have seen a whe gay man named Ed Buck pe acuntabily for the aths of two Black gay men found his home — a jarrg realy that shows jt how much power whe queers wield over queers of lor. ”No Jtice, No Pri and Black Liv Matter–affiliated groups reprised the prott ci across the untry throughout the Capal Pri nontatn and others like have laid bare a growg chasm wh the LGBTQ+ muny between olr activists and younger; between gay whe cisgenr men who feel like they n celebrate post-marriage equaly and those who fear for their liv unr a Tmp admistratn; between those whose biggt stumblg block life is beg gay and those who feel their eedom is ntgent not only on LGBTQ+ rights but also on issu like police reform, reproductive rights, and enomic equaly. ”But as dtups ed by groups like No Jtice, No Pri show — as well as other velopments, like the addn of a brown stripe to Philalphia’s LGBTQ pri flag; and scuffl over the cln of Israeli flags at monstratns — that not everyone is happy wh the LGBTQ+ movement’s foc on tersectnaly, which has foreground discsns of privilege, police btaly, sexism, racism, and anti-trans BeckSome gay whe cisgenr men are startg to tune out.

“You have gay whe men who are no longer volved activism or muny work bee they jt get shouted down by mory activists who want to racialize everythg, ” said Jamie Kirchick, a right-leang journalist and visg fellow at the Brookgs Instutn. Not only is ed as shorthand to talk about work between alns, has also e to embody the ia that, as wh the experience of inty, the sourc of opprsn — sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism — are ternnected. “I thk what [the foc on tersectnaly] do is brg everyone to rally around our victimhood, and that, fundamentally, is negative, ” said Jimmy LaSalvia, now a polil pennt who -found gay Republin group the Log Cab Republins.

THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED

”But Olson, who is gay and married, add that the ternal nflict the LGBTQ+ movement is currently experiencg — and the drop-off participatn om those at the top — was to be expected after marriage equaly. Uned by the Vietnam War, was an “credible era of dialogue” between social-jtice groups of starkly different Gay Liberatn Front marched wh the Black Panthers and participated antiwar monstratns. The movement was not only far more centralized than today, when several large LGBTQ+ advocy anizatns wh lots of money generally set the agenda; was stacked wh crics of palism, cludg munists like Harry Hay, who -found early homophile anizatn the Mattache Society.

WHE NATNALIST GROUPS ARE SPLTG OVER GAY INCLN

” He noted that AIDS activism the 1980s and 1990s — which gay men and their alli chaed themselv to ernment buildgs and performed die-s on the streets of major ci — was hardly pole.

Brian Sims said his experience as a gay whe cisgenr man — and the discrimatn he has faced on acunt of his sexual orientatn — has ma him more sympathetic to the plight of members of the muny who are more disenanchised than he is. ”Sims said seemed obv to him that sexism, racism, transphobia, ableism, and homophobia e om the same place, and said that the far-right polics of the Tmp admistratn have ma tersectnaly all the more important. To do this, gay whe cisgenr men have to not only let their guard down and listen but also acknowledge the relative power they wield and e to elevate those lower down who have been historilly margalized.

BLACK AND GAY BLACK AND WHE

” It is, after all, psychologilly taxg for a gay whe cisgenr man who got bullied high school for his sexual orientatn and n still be fired for 28 stat to hear about the privilege he has as a whe man. It may appear quat now, when we have TV seri like Hulu’s Love, Victor (about a Latx teen explorg sexual fluidy) or Netflix’s Bondg (about sex work and alternative sexualy), but the great gay panic set off by Ellen DeGener g out on her s 1997 was a bombshell that didn’t necsarily nvce the works that they’d open the gat to LGBTQ experienc.

Luckily Will & Grace buted 1998 and the groundbreakg NBC seri nvced many that gay people might not be so toxic (and wouldn’t sre off advertisers) — so much so that Vice Print Joe Bin later creded wh changg his md about same-sex marriage. Dpe the fact that lns of Amerins wnsed two men raise a happy and healthy dghter om the fort of their livg room sofas, took a fan mpaign to lobby Disney-owned ABC to fally allow Mchell (gay actor Jse Tyler Fergon) and Cameron (straight actor Eric Stontreet) to kiss ( fally happened 2010). From the Roy Cohn-flected Army-McCarthy heargs — which was the first time many people heard the word “homosexual” uttered on TV — through the “don’t ask, don’t tell” Neti, that clud The Goln Girls and Digng Women, to our current glter-and-glam era of RuPl’s Drag Race and almost-anythg-go pansexualy.