If gay means racist then this is literally us

As of this writing, Zoe Spears of the Washington, D.C., area was the 10th transgender person known to have been murdered in our country this year.

All of them have been women of color. These users would say things like, “This isn’t e-harmony, this is Grindr, get over it or block me.”

Since Grindr has a reputation as a hookup app, bluntness should be expected, according to users like this one – even when it veers into racism.

“Let’s see if they put their money where their mouth is.”

Asked specifically what the Human Rights Campaign should be doing, Johns referenced the 2019 Democratic presidential candidate town hall hosted by the organization, when a black transgender activist grabbed the microphone to make her voice heard.

“There was a black woman, Blossom C.

Brown, who was shut down, who had to literally take the mic from Don Lemon, and talk about the erasure of black trans women in a space that was designed for queer people,” Johns said.

Despite the fact that black gay men use condoms more often and have less sexual partners than their white peers, they are six times as likely to have an undiagnosed HIV infection and nearly 60% less likely to enroll in treatment because of barriers to good health care.

I have come to realize that many white gay people only care about equality inasmuch as it benefits them.

No more delays.”

Trump, who has faced criticism over Floyd’s death and for forcibly removing protesters in Lafayette Square to arrange a photo opportunity at St. John’s Church, has yet to articulate a vision for the national issue.

During an interview on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday morning, Trump said “police departments have to do better” when asked about distrust of police in the black community, but didn’t identify what that should be, according to CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang.

A dark side of the unrest is the violence, destruction of property and looting that have occurred throughout the country concurrently with the protests.

In D.C.

the headquarters for the AFL-CIO and the historic St. John’s Church were set on fire, and U.S. monuments and private property were damaged and defaced.

Looting continued in New York City on Tuesday night despite a curfew instituted by Mayor Bill de Blasio. As scholars such as Theo Green have unpacked elsewehere, people of color who identify as queer experience a great deal of marginalization.

When confronted, they simply became defensive.

“It was not my intent to cause distress,” another user explained. Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!

Perhaps the most obvious example of gay white privilege is the erasure of black and brown LGBTQ folks from the history books as well as the proverbial gay agenda.

Certainly direct racism is a part of what I and other black queer and trans individuals experience within the gay community, but perhaps the more appropriate terminology would be “gay white privilege.” That is, a gay culture and community that centralizes and priorities white queer and trans identities above those of non-white LGBTQ folks.

This happens when our community utilizes individuals, ideologies, practices and performances that appeal primarily or exclusively to white desires without regard for the needs or interests of queer people of color.

Since 2015 I’ve been studying LGBTQ culture and gay life, and much of that time has been spent trying to untangle and understand the tensions and prejudices within gay culture. You must also challenge the racist speech and attitudes of your friends like the kind that black folks frequently encounter in gay bars and nightclubs.

(During the 2020 #BLM protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, Grindr eliminated the ethnicity filter.)

Sociologists have long been interested in the concept of preferences, whether they’re favorite foods or people we’re attracted to. The problem is, you get back to your organization, you have to deal with your board of directors, who may not necessarily agree with the pace or the scope of the work that’s been agreed to.”

Johns questioned whether the joint statement from LGBTQ groups itself is a “problematic frame,” but said attention should be paid to organizations at LGBTQ groups. 

“It has been and will continue to be important for the white-led progressive LGBTQ movement to appreciate the ways in which politics, the lack of power-sharing, the dominance that exists in society more generally, and that is reserved for white people even when they’re gay isn’t better within the existing structure,” Johns said.

Without citing the Human Rights Campaign by name, Johns expressed some ideas for restructuring at the nation’s leading LGBTQ group.

“There are a few extremely white organizations, including one that now has a black president, who have a whole lot of power and hold on to the resources, and they don’t do as good a job of sharing as they should,” Johns said.

But the reality is that white privilege functions the same way in queer spaces just as it does elsewhere. “And so, I want to be clear in celebrating that which I have seen and encourage them to continue to do more.

The most common was to simply describe their behaviors as “preferences.” One participant I interviewed, when asked about why he stated his racial preferences, said, “I don’t know.

I say gay racism, but that’s not quite what I mean. I just don’t like Latinos or Black guys.”

That user went on to explain that he had even purchased a paid version of the app that allowed him to filter out Latinos and Black men. Among the signs they carried read, “Abolish Police,” “Defund the Police,” “Blue Lives Murder” and “White Silence is Violence.”

The death of Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis police officers by asphyxiation, is but one incident in the news generating anger over persistent problems with racism in the United States.

Others are the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia; the death of Breonna Taylor in a shooting with police in Louisville; a white woman in New York City calling the police on Christian Cooper, a black gay man who told her to obey the rules in Central Park and leash her dog.

David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, said recognizing the totality of the problem of racist acts is important.

“Well-intentioned white gay folks are learning how to say George Floyd’s name, fewer are saying the name of Breonna Taylor,” Johns said.

Johns also identified Tony McDade, a black trans man who was murdered by police in Tallahassee, Fla., as a victim of racist police violence.

McDade was killed on May 27 when a Tallahassee Police Department officer was responding to a deadly stabbing incident, according to a report by ABC News.

Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell is quoted as saying the police came across McDade, whom he said matched the description of the stabbing suspect.

Philadelphia recently required the owners and staff of 11 gay bars to undergo anti-bias training. Louisville has had its share of trans folks killed in recent years including Timmy Jo Blair in 2005, Nikki Williams in 2008, and Papi Edwards in 2015.