Racism in the LGBT Community

TheInsideLlama's picture

I was wondering if anyone has encountered racism in the LGBT community personally and how the feel about it and what they have done to handle this. This was brought up at a Citywide GSA meeting put together but an LGBT organization here in Philadelphia. Thanks in advance for your time.

jeff's picture

Hmm...

Coincidentally enough, I experienced it when i was back home in NE PA.

Now, they are already all crazy about the illegal immigration issue and all of the Mexicans coming to take all their good valet, waiter, and busboy jobs. But I figured it sort of stayed at that level.

So, I went to the gay bar there. Now that I'm "from" San Francisco, I tend to use that as an ice breaker, as far as "Is this a usual crowd for a Friday?" and stuff, then we get onto the San Francisco stuff. I'm at the bar, and we get onto San Francisco with some white guy, and he says what kind of club do you go to in SF. So, I mention that a few days ago I was at a club called Dragon, which is mainly a gay Asian thing. The guy gets a weird look on his face and says, "Oh... I don't like the slanty-eyed ones."

I was sort of shocked, and wasn't sure if the lack of gaysians in Wilkes-Barre has led to some cultural insensitivity due to lack of interaction, so I translate his ignorant comment to the more PC, "Oh... I'm not attracted to Asian guys." and move on.

Then, I sort of notice that there are these cute Latino boys off to the one corner, sort of having a good time, but clearly not interacting with the mainly white crowd, and none of the crowd is dealing with them. I start to wonder if it's the same sort of racist thing.

So, I go over to the Latino group and am immediately welcomes, introduced around, and had a great time. No other white person came over the whole night. At one point, I go to the bar, next to the "slanty-eyed" guy, and he gives me a disapproving look and says, "I see you're taking the long way back," which I interpret as meaning white is the goal, and I went from yellow to brown (seemingly, I'm going the other way given the racist color designations, no?).

So, yeah, that was my racism story. I didn't really *do* anything about it, just used the area's racism to help me make out with some Latino boy.

---

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apuffalogic's picture

Hum...

There's racism everywhere...

Sad, really. I'm not sure that being gay would help it a bit. It won't boost tolerance for anybody except gay/bi/possibily trans people. I suppose that it depends more on the individual person, and their actual physical community.

"Politely rude. Briskly vague. Firmly uninformative"

Leisa's picture

Some stuff for you to read pertaining to this subject :)

Emi Koyama- "Whose Feminism is it Anyway: The Unspoken Racism of the Trans Inclusion Debate"

Roderick Ferguson "Abberations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique"

Kenyon Farrow "Is Gay Marriage Anti Black?"

ENJOY! :)

apuffalogic's picture

Wikipedia article on the topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_LGBT_community

"Politely rude. Briskly vague. Firmly uninformative"