TransGriot - USA

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Why I Can't Stand The 'Gay Is The New Black' Slogan

When I hear or see that 'Gay is the New Black' slogan, it just irks
me, especially considering what I've observed over the last decade as
a African-American transgender activist.

When we hear people say that, I and other African-Americans, both GLBT
and non GLBT, see a movement comprised predominately with a leadership
of white moneyed gay men who wish to compare themselves to the Civil
Rights Movement but consistently ignore or fail to apply the
fundamental lessons of that movement.

What are those lessons? Coalition building, composing civil rights law
as broadly as possible to cover the most people, and doing so and
dealing with others in a morally ethical manner.

Unfortunately some of our gay white brothers and sisters do that only
when it is advantageous or critical for them to do so, like when an
anti gay referendum is on the ballot, then they come calling.

Any other time, except when they need melanin in a photo op, thy ignore us.

When I look at those documentaries, movies and photos of the Civil
Rights Movement, I see most of the signs carried by marchers have
something to do with jobs, equal rights, voting and stopping lynching,
not marriage issues.

To be honest, short of the obvious one involving the trans Atlantic
slave trade, the transgender community has more similarities with the
African-American struggle at its inception than the gay one does.

How you may ask? Before y'all start tripping like one gay person did
(so far) when I made this statement in a Bilerico comment thread <http://www.bilerico .com/2008/ 12/no_on_ gay_as_black. php> , let
me school y'all on some of the things I've observed, and if you
disagree, that's what the comment thread at the end of this post is
for.

*Once we transition, there's no hiding for us. We are reviled by some
members of the general public simply for being who we are.

*At the time the major push of the Civil Rights Movement started in
1954, African-Americans had no elected political representation at the
major city, county, and state government or legislative levels. There
were only two congressmen, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr (D-NY) and William
L. Dawson (D-IL) representing us at the federal level and zero
senators of African-American heritage.

Transpeople have ZERO representatives at the federal level, have only
one elected statewide rep in the person of Hawaii State Board of
Education member Kim Coco Iwamoto, no elected representatives in state
legislatures or state governments, no elected county commissioners and
no elected city council representatives in any major US city.

*We have an average of two people a month being killed simply for
being transgender, and that's the ones we know about.

*Amnesty International has documented the abuse of transgender
citizens <http://www.amnestyu sa.org/lgbt- human-rights/ stonewalled- a-report/ sexual-physical- and-verbal- abuse/page. do?id=1106607> at the hands of law enforcement.

*A transgender person's rights are still subject to judicial
interpretation in the judicial system, are not codified yet at the
federal level, and any attempts to do so at any governmental level are
met with resistance by the same hostile white fundamentalist
anti-civil rights coalition that dogged the Civil Rights Movement.
Infuriatingly enough, sometimes that resistance as demonstrated by
last year's ENDA debacle comes from our own erstwhile allies.

I agree with the assertion that all oppressions and 'isms' are linked.
However, while there are some similarities and some convergence at
certain points in our twin civil rights struggles as the life of
Bayard Rustin and the late Coretta Scott King so eloquently pointed
out, there are fundamental differences as well in how the two
movements evolved.

The African-American civil rights movement at its core was a church
based, church led one while the gay rights one at its core is secular
in nature.

But the major reason why the 'Gay is the new Black' slogan raises
African-American hackles is not because as some GLBT peeps have
surmised the homophobia within our community's midst.

Many GLBT African-Americans like myself can't stand it because we see
it as another example of our history being appropriated and
trivialized for your own purposes while excluding or erasing the gay
and straight African-Americans that helped make that history.

Labels: African-American, history, transgender issues

http://transgriot. blogspot. com/2008/ 12/why-i- cant-stand- gay-is-new- black.html