Football, Anti-Gayism & Racism (2/1/13)

From an article I read last night:

We get it. The NFL is a more homophobic arena than most. But suffice it to say, following on the whole Chris Culliver debacle, the 49ers need to keep their damn mouths shut and go get some diversity training or something. Yesterday, when fellow players Ahmad Brooks and Isaac Sopoaga were questioned about their 2012 appearance in the team’s much lauded “It Gets Better” video, both players denied appearing in the video, and it’s clear they either didn’t know that the It Gets Better Project had a significant LGBT focus, or they hadn’t made the connection between bullying and gay civil rights issues. OR they were paranoid that reporters were trying to suggest that they too, like ex-teammate Kwame Harris, were homosexual….. Find the full piece here

 My Response

Seeing as the article is about TWO players who said stupid things, one has to question why the author chose to post the picture of the black player instead of the other guy? Was it to further stoke the anger of non-black gays, that group of gay men who think anti-gay hate speech makes it ok for them to respond with racism or Islmaphobia?

It soooo typical for the majority of non-black gays to use ethnic bigotry as a way to respond to anti-gay speech. Every time someone black says something anti-gay it is made to seem as if most of us share those feelings as if we are a monolithic group. This doesn’t happen to non-blacks when they say things that offend, hurt & disrespect the gay community. Please explain to me how using racial slurs and hate speech toward blacks is suppose to combat and ultimately stop people from believing and saying things that are anti-gay?

While racism & anti-gayism are different, the sting of oppression and hate are not. As a person who is both black and gay, I can tell you that “nigger” & “faggot” have the exact SAME feeling and effect, neither hurts more or less than the other.

Some people think blacks have been slow to embrace LGBT issues because of the marriage equality debate, not realizing that most blacks gays tend to focus on other causes like HIV/AIDS, access to health care, jobs, and employment discrimination. Most black gays tend to fight for those issues that improve the quality of everyday life, the social issues are second tier for some of us. We’d rather focus on getting a good job and putting good food on the table before trying to get married. It is a privileged to be able to have a life that is only concerned with marriage equality, must mean all the other areas of your life are doing well. Have you ever heard of NBJC (National Black Justice Coalition), the nation’s leading Black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization? They help fight the good fight.

I can’t believe that the voices of a few loud-mouth black religious leaders have convinced an entire country that blacks have a harder time accepting gay equality than others. Everyone from General Colin Powell, a Republican, to Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, now seems to support gay marriage. The list includes members of the Congressional Black Caucus, big city mayors, civil rights leaders, black pastors, rappers, recording artists, comedians, athletes, public intellectuals, and many more, but some of you don’t notice any of this.

Maryland was able to legalize marriage equality due to the support of blacks. Prop 8 did NOT fail because of blacks: an analysis of precinct-level voting data on Prop. 8 from Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco counties, which are home to nearly two-thirds of California’s black voters, suggested that black support for Prop. 8 was more likely about 58% .

Of course we still face serious challenges with anti-gayism in the black community, but there’s never been any measurable evidence that it’s any worse in our community than in any other community. An ABC news poll from May of 2012 showed blacks support for same-sex marriage had suddenly risen to 59%, indicating that blacks have now become more supportive of marriage equality than whites are. “The black community historically has been politically progressive but socially conservative. So from a political perspective on civil rights issues, black people I think do get it with regard to gay and lesbian civil rights protection. From the morality perspective and with respect to homosexuality, we are probably way behind – we don’t get it.” (-Keith Boykin)

The truth is blacks have never been more homophobic than whites are. Although we are not perfect, we have always been a welcoming people. don’t use hate to combat ingorance.