Stuff Gay People Like: Comparing Themselves to Black People

The world is probably confusing for a black person – everybody claims to be one. The Irish, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Italian-Americans, Sarah Palin, Eastern Europeans and even redheads have all claimed to be “the new black people” in America – we guess making black people “the old everybody else.”

But gay people are the most commonly-cited group to claim to fill in for black people. Affirmers note the following similarities: a history of oppression, a slow trajectory toward social equality despite ongoing discrimination, an identifiable culture, grassroots activism and a strong sense of animosity from Republicans.

There are important differences between gay issues and black issues in America. White gay people can hide in the closet and pass as the majority if they have to, white gay people are not concentrated into under-funded schools, white gay people are seen as aiding gentrification rather than urban decay, and white gay people aren’t constantly assumed to be carrying illegal guns and crack. Alternately, straight black people can join the military, straight black people can get married in any state and straight black people usually don’t face rejection from their own parents and siblings for their skin color when they reach puberty.

But if a white gay guy gets into a mutual fist-fight with a black man, lets be real and admit the cops are probably going to arrest the black guy first.

White gay people know all about the black experience because most of them have seen a documentary on Marin Luther King Jr. once and have waved at the black police officer or mailman, so yes, that makes them practically experts. They use black history to define their own experience, call homophobic people “racist” and also like to jokingly snap their fingers and intone their voices in their own exaggerated impressions of poor black women, assuming that black women would all be, like, flattered that gay men would show such camaraderie and attention.

So this whole comparison must be really complicated for a person who is black and gay. I guess if “gay is the new black,” a black gay man person would still be black – except now his black side is represented by his gay side, and his gay side is… white? It follows that white gay people are not white because they’re black, and straight black people are… oh…

Forget it. Everybody’s a zebra. There.

There are many similarities between being black and being gay; both groups are sometimes hated and are often under-privileged, and face fewer choices than people in the general population. Both groups have the same interest in promoting concepts of equal opportunity, fair representation and civil rights. A lot of civil rights leaders were pro-gay and a lot of gay rights leaders also worked on the civil rights movement.

Gay people are usually quick to point out that some black people are homophobic, and it’s true that some of them are. They should note that some gay people are racist, and when they hear anti-gay rhetoric from a black person it’s not “their whole community’s problem” any more than it is our whole community’s problem when queer people of color say they still feel marginalized in the LGBT community and when white gay guys constantly write “just not in to black guys” on their Manhunt profiles.

Stuff Gay People Like (SGPL: ABOUT) is a regular column. Visit the Facebook Page.