Monday, February 16, 2009

Ignorant Morehouse College column makes me wonder

I love my African-American heterosexual brothers and sisters but let's face some facts: the black community in general is highly ignorant when it comes to acknowledging and supporting gays and lesbians of color.

How else can one explain the words in this recent hot mess of a column by Morehouse University writer Gerren Gaynor:

It's not so much that "straight" men of Morehouse are uncomfortable with the gay lifestyle, but more so because it is constantly and quite robustly thrown in their face. Does being a gay man include adopting the traits of a woman? Because if that's the case, there's a more fitting school, and it's called Spelman College.

I'm all for being who you are. If you like women, go on and date women. If you like men, be my guest and date men. But if you are born a man, you should be just that--a man. If I have to look twice to tell if I'm looking at a man or woman on an all-male campus, then something is tragically wrong.

At this rate, Morehouse College may find itself in a difficult situation. What happens if and when one of our gay Morehouse brothers decides to go the next step and undergo a sex-change operation, and is then physically considered to be a woman? Does Morehouse have the right to ask that student to leave?

It's ironic that Mr. Gaynor claims to have support for gay men and then proceeds to throw out some of the most offensive stereotypes that could have only come from being locked up in a room for 24 hrs and forced to watch repeated clips from shows like In Living Color and movies like Soul Plane.

For the record, homosexuality and transgenderism are two different things entirely. Just because someone is openly gay doesn't necessarily mean will seek to have sexual reassignment surgery.

Mr. Gaynor's fickless bullshit is rooted in an unfortunate facet of the African-American community - this push to hypermasculinity.

You can see it in so many images on African-American oriented shows - it's not enough for a black man to be masculine. He must be hypermasculine. Everything about him must exude masculinity, even his gas.

But I really don't blame Mr. Gaynor for his ignorance regarding the gay community because it is prevalent in the black community.

Lgbts of color are nonexistent in the black community as far as our leaders, magazines, radio shows, and networks are concerned.

We are not people in the actual sense. We don't have lives or families. We are soulless props designed as warning stops to "real brothers and sisters." Or cariactures designed for laughter and amusement - clowns whose only functions are to induce laughter or pity.

We are constantly bombarded with either invisibility or negative stereotypes of weak feminine men or hypermasculine sexually aggressive men.

Yet this is the same community that cries about its high HIV rate in our community.

This is the same community who chuckles and says things like "we knew it all the time" when people like Pastor T.D. Jakes's son is arrested.

And we are the same community that gives birth to supposedly intelligent black men like Mr. Gaynor who will write ridiculous nonsensical filled columns.

So . . .

To Harry Jackson, Ken Hutcherson, Alveda King, and the rest of the black ministers and spokespeople who spout silly homilies like “don’t equate my skin with your sin” and help propagate the lie that the lgbt orientation and the African-American identity are mutually exclusive.

To all of the black ministers nationwide who knowingly have lgbt of color congregants but will not pursue private one-on-one nonjudgmental conversations with them

To Ebony, Essence, Jet, Emerge and other African-American oriented magazines who write very few articles regarding lgbts of color.

To all of the African-American social organizations who will not even mention lgbts of color.

To all of the African-American oriented television shows (such as House of Payne) who feature no lgbt of color characters.

To all of the African-American motion pictures who feature lgbt of color characters strictly as vehicles for the worst form of comedy.

To all of the civic minded African-American spokespeople and leaders who will not even address the fact that lgbts of color exist.

To all of those in the African-American community who reduce lgbt of color relationships to sexual innuendoes by their patronizing comments like "not caring about who someone sleeps with."

I lay Mr. Gaynor's ignorance as well as the ignorance of the entire black community at your feet.

What are you going to do about it?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Just remember them of Bayard Ruston. He was openly gay at the time of the Civil Rights movement in America. Thurmond even attacked Ruston over Ruston's homosexuality during that era. Of course Thurmond had a "public" secret in his life that has been confirmed.

Mel said...

People often scapegoat black communities for the homophobia that our larger society perpetuates. As another black gay person, I take offense to how you imply that black people are generally homophobic and that all black churches ignore or denounce their LGBTQ congregants. These sentiments ignore the positive work being done in black communities (and in black churches)addressing GLBTQ issues. I'm proud to say that I come from a black Baptist church that openly affirms its GLBTQ members, takes a role in supporting HIV/AIDS prevention, consistently supports GLBTQ civil rights, and acts as a leader in pushing the inclusion of GLBTQ people in the church to the forefront of inter-church dialogues. Please refrain from painting all black people with the same brush. We are not all "highly ignorant", thank you.

BlackTsunami said...

HOLD IT! I have never said that black folks are generally homophobic, but I stand by statement that the black community is GENERALLY AND HIGHLY ignorant when it comes to the issues and needs of lgbts in color. There is a difference.

I'm glad to hear about your church but I would like to point out that unfortunately many churches do not do this positive work. Or worse yet, when they do it, you never hear anything about it. Why is that?

And let's talk about lgbt issues in general in the black community. It's certainly nice to read statements by organizations like the NAACP and such about how they support equality for all but how often do black leaders and organizations deal with lgbt issues as black community issues. And how do they deal with them in a PUBLIC way? When you read about studies such as "the State of Black America" or when you read books pertaining to the black community (especially those about relationships), or when you hear speeches by our black leaders, why is it that lgbts of color aren't often included.

In my post, I listed a bunch of examples where the black community sidestep lgbt of color issues like they are dog dirt on the front lawn. Unfortunately those examples seem to be more prevalent than positive examples of your church.