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This issue of what it means to be Gay vs Black is largely an American discourse but has certainly evolved into a rather spirited debate in the last decade.

One school of thought suggests that being Gay and having to endure all the stigma and oppression is similar to being Black. Some even touts the “gay rights effort” as the “New Civil Rights Movement”.

There’s another school of thought that views that declaration as outright insulting and minimizing to the historical and current struggles of Blacks!

SOME PERSPECTIVE :

Ernest Owens, America’s Youngest Weekly Columnist had this to say:

“As a gay man, I can personally acknowledge my privilege and luxury in wanting specific laws to be knocked down and called out. But as a black man, I can’t even begin to start on how to re-shape laws that are already constitutionally sound, but are not being allocated properly in my community”. To put this more in context, picture this: if a white CIS-gendered gay male crosses the street and I pass him late at night and a police stops us… who will he most likely profile? No question it would be me and such laws such as NYPD’s Stop and Frisk supports that. At birth, I was identified as black before I was later recognized as gay”.. Huffington Post Feb/2016

SOME MORE PERSPECTIVE:

1. Homosexual men/women have never endured a Trans-Atlantic Slave trade for generations, forced to witness their ancestors dying by the numbers during a “Middle Passage”, being bought & sold

2. Blacks don’t get to take off their black and be in the closet for safety. They must face persecution & injustice head on!

3. Blacks in several parts of the world and throughout history  didn’t get to subscribe to a Religion or culture of their choosing; they were intentionally indoctrinated with Christianity and forced into Eurocentric practices  with the intent of internalizing white supremacy.

4. Blacks face Institutionalize Racism daily (unfair corporate practices).

5. Blacks have endured Criminalization & Mass Incarceration disproportionately in the West

6. Black Men are literally endangered species regularly executed without due diligence.

7. Modern day Genocide is another reality that Blacks around the world are subjected to.

8. Population Control through Encouraged abortions of black babies.

9. Homosexuals have never been or will ever be considered non-citizens by laws of the United States that rob them of inalienable rights because some gays are also white…AT

10. When Homosexuals began to march in protest they were heckled and harassed at mist – When Blacks began to March in protest they were hosed down, beaten and shot to death.

Long story short, all human rights are important and should be mandated at the utmost degree. However, recognize that they are not, nor ever will have, the same level of struggle or oppression that have plagued non-whites for centuries

The idea that the “Gay Rights efforts” is the New Civil rights movement seems voided by the fact that injustices against Blacks and other people of color have yet to be corrected. 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the fight continues with no end in sight.

The arguments laid out are by no means exhaustive; hundreds more books can be written and still fail to capture the gravity of the black experience. Neither is this Homophobia, we believe is justice no matter for whom but before to speak of a “New Civil Rights Movement”, conceptualize the struggles of both group.

VM

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