Tetris-Rock
one of those "they/thems"
I normally don't engage in discussions on here because my English isn't good enough for that. But what made me critical of the movement is when I spoke to a black gay patient I met a few weeks back. We as white people don't know what it's like to be gay in the black community. The hostility is off the scale. That's why I'm torn when campaigning for a community in which homophobia is so rampant. I'm missing this completely in the debate, at least over here. Doesn't anybody else find this difficult?
It's difficult to level with but I think the key point is that the human rights of black people don't deserve to be taken for granted, regardless of their beliefs. There are also plenty of non-homophobes and, as you mention, black people from the LGBT community who are particularly vulnerable.
This is potentially false equivalence but I kind of see it a bit like the true story that is the basis for the film "Pride" (BEAR WITH ME HERE ). Basically, as an LGBT activist, Mark Ashton empathised with the miners because he saw that they were getting different shit from the same people. Lesbians and Gays Support The Miners raised money to support the miners, and continued to do so despite initially being met with homophobic hostility from SOME of the miners. Later on, the National Union of Miners had our back and block voted to support the rights of gays and lesbians at work. I'm not saying that we need to WIN OVER homophobes in the black community but solidarity is a good thing that can bring people together.
Christ, I sound like OWEN JONES or something.