I’m a liberal and I believe in equal rights. Which is why I have a real problem with this article: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-cannick8-2008nov08,0,3295255.story?track=ntothtml The black lesbian who wrote this article states that black people have it worse than gays because they can’t hide the color of their skin. She says that she didn’t care a hoot about Prop 8 because she sees it as a white struggle. I’m annoyed at this because I think of all the white people, me included, who have given a hoot about blacks having equal rights over the last 45 years.
What this black lesbian doesn’t experience is racism in the workplace or in the bar and club or street because in this politically correct and forward thinking state of ours, no one is going to say any thing against a black person. In every office I have worked in in California I have experienced blatant homophobia from blacks and whites. While no one will dare to be racist in the office, the same does not apply to homophobia. I have experienced name calling and ridicule and contempt from straight workers towards gay workers and I have had straight people whisper to me their dislike of the gay in the office. Each time I’ve expressed my objection of their hate and threatened to report them, their smile would turn to dread and they would pretend that they were “only joking.”
This so called liberal state of ours has straight people shouting and threatening gays on the streets yet these same people wouldn’t dare do the same to black people. I was shocked at the blatant homophobia in offices in San Francisco, of all places, and especially from the black workers in the office. One guy actually came up to me and bent his wrist and joked about a gay guy in the office. This was two years ago in SF. When I told him I was going to report him, he practically had a baby. Not once did I hear any bad word against a black person because people are too scared. People aren’t scared of gay name calling because society still lets them get away with it. And this is still evident in the media.
So, miss black lesbian, I couldn’t care about your “struggle.” What struggle for you? You are a writer. As a black woman you can marry a man. As a lesbian you can not marry a woman. So who is the fool here? You don’t have equal rights, not because you are black, but because you are gay. Think about it, and yet you were knocking on doors, and after door after door, your equal rights as a lesbian slowly eroded away.
