Summary

The article discusses the marginalization of the Black LGBTQ community, highlighting the overshadowing of their unique struggles by both the broader Black community and the White LGBTQ community.

Abstract

The author reflects on the pervasive dismissal of the Black LGBTQ community's experiences, particularly in light of recent controversies surrounding comedian Dave Chappelle's comments. The piece underscores the societal expectation that Black LGBTQ individuals prioritize their racial identity over their sexuality or gender identity, despite facing discrimination and violence from within their own communities. It criticizes the selective solidarity that often excludes Black LGBTQ individuals from both racial and LGBTQ discourses, and challenges the notion that the advancements of White LGBTQ individuals equate to progress for all. The author calls for accountability and recognition of the multifaceted nature of Black LGBTQ identities, emphasizing the need for inclusive support and acknowledgment of their unique struggles.

Opinions

The author believes that the Black LGBTQ community is often erased, with their existence being invalidated by the broader society.
There is a critique of the idea that race should always take precedence over sexuality or gender identity within the Black community.
The article points out that harm against Black LGBTQ individuals often comes from within the Black community itself, including church expulsions and violence against Black trans women.
The author argues that it is disingenuous to demand unity with Black individuals who also perpetuate harm against the Black LGBTQ community.
There is a concern that the Black LGBTQ community's issues are sidelined in movements for Black liberation and within the LGBTQ community.
The piece suggests that the focus on celebrity figures like Caitlyn Jenner distorts the perception of LGBTQ progress, ignoring the struggles of the average Black LGBTQ individual.
The author emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the complexity of Black LGBTQ identities and the need for these individuals to not have to choose between aspects of their identity.
The article calls out the hypocrisy of celebrating

Dave Chappelle is Only the Tip of the Iceberg

One comedy special was all it took to remind me that people don’t take the Black LGBTQ community seriously.

I have looked into Pandora’s box known as the internet and it has once again spoken to me. The message? If you’re a Black person who happens to also be a member of the LGBTQ community, you don’t exist. If you’re a Black person, your race will always supersede your sexuality.

I could attribute this to the recent drama surrounding Dave Chappelle, but this narrative has been around much longer than him and his specials. He has allowed for people to propagate such thinking under the guise of defending his comedy. It’s pretty amazing what people will do and say for you when you’re a multi-millionaire who exists leagues outside their tax bracket.

I don’t wake up each day, putting on one shoe that’s for my Blackness and the other that’s for my queerness.

Maybe I’ve taken the validity of my existence for granted since I always try to surround myself with people of a similar experience. It’s only when I move outside my circles that I begin to see that there are many who not only fail, intentional or not, to understand intersectionality, but the very nature of being itself.

So believe me when I say you’re…

Being Dishonest

The general premise of saying that you must put your race before your sexuality/gender is dangerous. With a hyperfixation on the sins of White people, I’m led to wonder why this energy is never present when discussing the other group of people victimizing members of the Black LGBTQ community?

Who is kicking us out of their churches? Who is murdering Black Trans Women in the most gruesome and heinous of ways? Who are the people saying that we’re destabilizing the Black family unit and that cisgender, straight Black men are under constant threat of emasculation? Who is the person going after rapper Lil Nas X?

Boosie Badazz performs Aug. 15, 2020, in College Park, Ga.Paras Griffin / Getty Images file

The list goes on and on, but this makes sense when you remember that crime and harm tend to be intracommunal. We harm those who we’re in close proximity to, yet in this instance many people have opted to externalize all of these issues Black LGBTQ people face onto White folks.

To say that the White LGBTQ community does nothing for us is easy. It’s easy to blame Whiteness and racism for just about anything and everything. It’s also easy to assume every white LGBTQ person has the money, power, and resources of someone like Caitlyn Jenner. Of course you’ll believe LGBTQ people are doing better than Black people when all you focus on are celebrities. One could describe this as a pitfall of representation in media.

But to then turn around and say that we must fall in line with a group of people who are also harming us is sinister. Demanding that we stay on code while doing the same things you claim our White counterparts do to us? In this case tokenizing and treating us as afterthoughts in defense of, again, a multi-millionaire. It’s not staying on code, it’s staying silent.

How dare you.

At this point it isn’t even about Dave anymore, he just tossed a match on the powder keg. Where are Black LGBTQ people supposed to go and what are we supposed to do? Are we a perpetual flight-risk on the path to Black liberation? Must we face extreme levels of scrutiny not given to the cisgender, straight, and male members of our community? What gives?

I don’t say any of this as a means of throwing other Black people under the bus, but as a form of accountability. I see something similar in the way we’re expected to show up for (straight) Black male victims of police brutality, but it’s crickets when it comes to everyone else. It’s simple pattern recognition, but in this case the pattern is deadly and damaging.

So to…

Wrap this Up

I have been in organizing spaces where my mentioning the issue of race caused friction amongst other LGBTQ people. I have been pushed out and erased in the movement for Black Lives because I dared to exist in a complicated body informed by complicated experiences. In each group the concerns of people like me were treated as special interest topics, not relevant to the main struggle.

This is something I’ve been dealing with and thinking about for years. The backlash I got after writing the piece below has stuck with me to this day. Staying on code resulted in my being lambasted to kingdom come, since I was ruining the celebration for everyone. There’s no time for police brutality when it’s time to dance in the streets and celebrate the low-hanging fruit concession that was marriage equality.

Under The Rainbow -- Black, Queer And Not In The Mood For Pride

I just can't vibe with one aspect of my existence being uplifted while another piece is reminded of its inhumanity…

www.huffpost.com

Even if police brutality was one of the main reasons the fight for gay liberation started in the first place.

I don’t wake up each day, putting on one shoe that’s for my Blackness and the other that’s for my queerness. I don’t flip on an internal switch that lets me decide who and what I want to be each day. When I step out the door I already know what I’m about, it’s everyone else who has an issue with that and who mobilizes to slice me up like a wedding cake. It’s everyone else who will make half-hearted arguments about racial antagonism while erasing members of their own community.

Black LGBTQ people like me possess a plurality of experiences and identities, but as of late I’m mostly disappointed and exhausted. That is the one aspect of myself I’ll gladly let someone else take away if they so choose.