Phil Reese, guest blogger on the Bilerico Project let it all hang out in pulling off the veil that has been surrounding the LGBT community for so long. It’s about time that a white gay man comes out and calls out white gay men as the racist that they are. This is a MUST read, especially in light of the controversy that is raging between the People of Color Coalition and the grassroots (read White gay men at the top) concerning 2010 v. 2012.
SoCal Voice learned at last night’s Q*POC Town Hall from Doreena Wong (co-chair of API Equality) that during the No on 8 Campaign, although the POC organizations (specifically API Equality) are listed as executive committee members of the Campaign, the decisions that the executive committee made was done without knowledge or input from the POC organizations, who were told of these decisions after the fact. That’s got to stop.
What was missing from last night’s Q*POC Town Hall were the White gay men that represent these grassroots organizations, such as Love Honor Cherish, Equal Roots Coalition, OUT West Coalition and many others. Love Honor Cherish were busy planning their Repeal Prop 8 in 2010 Campaign and would not come off of their ivory tower to join the rest of us Q*POC as we’re planning Next Steps for the POC community. This is very disrespectful. In light of these facts, it is now more important than ever that the elitist White men that run these grassroots organizations and well established organizations that are planning the next campaign listen to the POC. Otherwise, the POC community shouldn’t do shit for the next campaign. Our Editor-in-Chief, Nakhone Keodara, vows that he won’t do crap for the next campaign if these elitist white gay men continue to treat the POCs with dismissive disrespect and will not seriously take the concerns of these POC LGBT organizations into consideration. We simply are not ready and going back to the ballot in 2010 is not wise. Let’s see if the White people can win this fight without us. SoCal Voice is reaffirming its endorsement of the Prepare to Prevail statement.
See below for Phil Reese’s article:
It’s time to lay the cards on the table. White gay men pontificate about race as if race and sexuality were mutually exclusive–like black gay men don’t exist. I’m not talking about lesbians, in fact they seem a might more inclusive. This whole post is aimed at men. Sorry dudes.
White gays constantly exclude black gay men from everything from their social networks right up to organizational leadership–and especially from the discussion of the relationship between the gay and African American communities. Yet, straight black men also often ignore the existence of black gay men–or pigeonhole them with certain stereotypes. As such, to minority communities, the fight for LGBT Equality seems like a battle being waged by whiney white middle class suburban douche-bags.
The rift seems to grow as both groups loudly laments the perceived prejudice of the other–and each takes increasingly marginalizing verbal swipes.
The best example of this are the post Prop-8 wailing spewing from queer Caucasians, putting blanket blame on this generic specter of “The Black Community.”
To read more of this article, click here.
