Dirty Laundry

Among the many, many unfortunate pieces of collateral damage coming out of the passage of anti-gay legislation in the recent election, I think most disturbing (although I confess, not really shocking) is the naked racism directed at Black LGBT people, regardless of whether they publicly campaigned against Prop Hate or not.

I started to see blatantly racist comments left on the blog posts at Queerty and then Towleroad right after Prop Hate passed. Since then they are de rigeur and easy to find on any blog covering the issue, including big-time bloggers Joe.My.God. and Dan Savage. And it pains me that neither the editors at Queerty nor Andy @ Towleroad seem to be taking any steps to publicly rebuke and denounce any of the racist vitriol appearing on their sites.

Now comes word (via Rod 2.0 and some of his readers) that Black gay supporters of No on Hate that have shown up at various California protests (because nobody does indignant outrage like The Gays), have been met with hostility, outrage and more ugly racism. Some were called Nigger. To wit:

It was like being at a klan rally except the klansmen were wearing Abercrombie polos and Birkenstocks. YOU NIGGER, one man shouted at men. If your people want to call me a FAGGOT, I will call you a nigger. Someone else said same thing to me on the next block near the temple...me and my friend were walking, he is also gay but Korean, and a young WeHo clone said after last night the niggers better not come to West Hollywood if they knew what was BEST for them.

Los Angeles resident and Rod 2.0 reader A. Ronald says he and his boyfriend, who are both black, were carrying NO ON PROP 8 signs and still subjected to racial abuse.

Three older men accosted my friend and shouted, "Black people did this, I hope you people are happy!" A young lesbian couple with mohawks and Obama buttons joined the shouting and said there were "very disappointed with black people" and "how could we" after the Obama victory. This was stupid for them to single us out because we were carrying those blue NO ON PROP 8 signs! I pointed that out and the one of the older men said it didn't matter because "most black people hated gays" and he was "wrong" to think we had compassion. That was the most insulting thing I had ever heard. I guess he never thought we were gay.

It is not the least bit surprising to me that an undercurrent of racism exists from well-to-do white gay men directed at their Black brethren. Anybody who has spent any time simply listening at enough dinner and cocktail parties is well aware it has always been simmering beneath the surface. It's always been one of our dirty little (not so well kept) secrets. But it is surprising that it has exploded to the forefront with such force, with Blacks regardless of their stated sexuality being singled out for blame on an issue where there is more than enough blame to spread around.

As soon as the shit hits the fan, the first thing we do is turn around, target and gobble up our own? I don't get it.