The Failure of LGBT
29.08.2005Working on Self-Organizing Men has underscored for me even more the power language has to exclude or include. Are the words "gay" or "lesbian" or "transgender" inclusive of people of color? Is it enough to say "lgbt people of color welcome"?
James Earl Hardy (of B-Boy Blues fame) recently said
Gay comes with a lot of baggage that really has nothing to do with me as a black man. It doesn’t speak to me in anyway. Most people, even people of color, use it because it is convenient. I think same gender loving is very affirming.
So our failure is a failure of marketing in some ways. We remain unable to effectively communicate our message. "We are racially inclusive" gets lost in the mix.
We don’t listen. We simply monitor our meetings and caucuses, add "people of color" to lgbt, because we should do that. Then we clasp our hands in despair when everything remains the same.
Same gender loving folks are right not to come. But we’ve gotten what we really want. Everything looks different ("We reaaaachhh ouutttttt but they just don’t cooomeeee!") yet remains exactly the same.
White queers remain front and center of the queer universe all because we refused to concern ourselves with three words.
Same Gender Loving.