Rage Against the Gay Machine

Photo from HERE.

After publicly criticizing some of my peers for being so dismissive of LGBTQ people of color's desire to add brown and black stripes to the Pride flag, I've been making an extra effort to listen -- as I suggested others do -- to what concerns are being raised.

But after reading a handful of essays and countless social-media exchanges -- all of which sounded something like the one below -- I finally felt the need to weight in.

MR wrote on a friend's Facebook page:

I'm not saying I 100% agree with Getequal and nojustice no pride but I would like to point out it was born in some ways out of response to a lack of an inclusive movement. That if we had truly built a big tent focused on ending oppression for everyone or at least limiting the harms we might not be in this situation. Yes we've come a long way and had some major gains but those gains haven't been equal. And both groups need to own their part. The young ppl we need to know the history and appreciate some of the sacrifice that was made. But the under older crowd needs to acknowledge who they left behind on the margins in their march toward equality. That wasn't truly equal. It's going to take an intergenerational response to really move the needle. 

To which I replied:

I am very open to what you and others have to say about lack of inclusiveness (and inequality) within the LGBTQ community. So far, though, I have heard little in the way of evidence or examples of what you mean save for some overheard racist comments from a bartender that have little to do with the real issues here. 

The gains the "older generation" fought and died for are in fact extraordinarily inclusive as they apply to ALL of us -- marriage equality; hate-crimes legislation; the right to serve openly in the military; greater visibility in the media; workplace and housing protections, legal-document equality and Medicaid coverage for trans people (where we've been successful), as well as the cocktail to stop HIV from killing people in no time at all, just to name a few. (Not to mention the life-altering drug PrEP, which allows people to have sex without the constant fear of death, something every gay of a certain age never experienced during his 20s, 30s and 40s. Many still can't even today because of PTSD.) 

Where inequality and discrimination still exists -- and there's no shortage of it -- is overwhelmingly a societal issue that continues to see a gross disparity in wages, quality of education, access to health care and housing, police treatment as well as voter disenfranchisement. But very little of this is the LGBTQ community working against its own, brown or otherwise. We do not hold the levers of power to inflict this pain on anyone -- nor would we want to -- much less on members of our own tribe. 

It almost feels like these new activists are angry for the right reasons. (I'm pissed, too.) But they have chosen to attack so-called establishment gays -- who are so "privileged" to have come out at a time when it frequently cost us our family or livelihood, as well as giving us the "honor" to watch thousands of our best friends and lovers be wiped out by the plague (if we were so "lucky" to have survived) -- because we are low-hanging fruit that can be easily attacked and are more likely to be receptive to criticism, even if it's not entirely warranted. (For example, use your critical-thinking skills for a minute to try to figure out why having the police and corporations want to be part of Pride celebrations is a GOOD thing. A little hint: they used to shun us or physically assault us, and now they're courting us and giving their employees/officers LGBTQ sensitivity training. This is called progress, not a reason to protest OUR OWN parades.) 

None of this is to dismiss out of hand legitimate concerns that I am sure exist and would love to learn more about. But I think this new breed would be better served by fighting back against voter-suppression efforts, income inequality (corporations have been logging record profits since the Great Recession yet wages for the 99% have remained completely stagnant), police brutality and serious attempts to further cut access to health care instead of trying to pick a fight with those of us who have spent a lifetime trying to lift everyone up.

MR responded to me:

I mean let's look at the HIV the movement in general. The fact that black gay men have always been one of the most at risk and most hardest hit piece of unequal access to medications to insurance to access to basic services is a prime example. The money has never gotten too these men. Yet we try to claim progress in mass. And the fact that the most deaths in the trans community happen to trans ppl of color. The list goes on. It's hard to say we are building an inclusive movement when the outcomes are not equal across the board. If we truly care about moving a more progressive agenda for it then we have to realize that our community the LGBT population across all racial groups and ethnic minorities which means we have to care about the issues and treatment of other people. Justice can't be just us. And one more time I will say that I don't necessarily think what they're doing is the right strategy but I do think it calls into question some problems that do exist. It doesn't snow good to imagine a world that's better when it is only better for a select few in those select you end up being white. Have a really created better or we just the same representation of the problematic system that put us here in the first place

Me:

Horrifying statistics. But again, these are societal issues, not ones unique to or being perpetrated by the LGBTQ community. 

Read HERE.

Read HERE.

So much of the rhetoric I'm hearing from queer Gen Y activists -- of all backgrounds -- sounds hauntingly familiar to the 2016 presidential campaign, when so many wouldn't take yes for an answer. Now might be the right moment for some of you -- and some of you geezers, too -- to take responsibility for your decision to hand the White House to Donald Trump when you knew perfectly well that the Democratic nominee was committed to appointing judges who would lock in President Obama's LGBTQ legacy and expanding access to health care -- that includes HIV medications and coverage for queer people of color -- because you were so busy feeling self-righteous, railing against her for giving speeches to Goldman Sachs (with the money often going to charity!) and having once sat on the board at Wal-Mart, the backstory of which you probably know nothing.

I'm truly heartened that so many young people are angry. But ACT UP didn't accomplish what it did by being angry and sloppy. (The phrase "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" frequently comes to mind when I hear budding activists [mis]speak.) It's high time for all of us to be angry -- but angry at the right people for the right reasons.

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