Blog
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Community Separatism Generalized
I spoke to a reporter today who works for the Dallas Voice, the community newspaper for Gay & Lesbian Dallas, and he asked me a question that I feel required a certain response in order to be generalized.
“As an out gay woman, where do you hang out,” he said.
Now me being the person that I am, I thought about the question and wondered how I could relate that to race and religion, or creed and social class, or any other independent variable I could think of in order to promote a change in the dependent variable—that being an end to separatism.
And I said, honestly, I don’t believe in gay venues or straight venues, because they only further separate the GLBT community and decrease our visibility in a straight world.
I explained to him that in a time where we, we being women, men, gays, straights, blacks, whites or whatever, are all fighting for equal rights, the last thing I need to do is hide behind a venue that is designated for my group and my group only.
So across the board, I don’t go to gay only venues, I don’t go to an all black church and I am not a member of any female only organizations because across the board I am not a fan of separatism.
No matter where I go and no matter what organization I am a member of, I am a black gay woman. And despite my frustration with constant rejection, I firmly believe that when you are confident with whom you are and what you represent, you don’t need a designated venue to represent you and your communities because you can do that anywhere.
I also believe that when you separate yourself, especially in the process of asking for equal rights, you decrease any chances you have of ever being seen as just another person wanting the same things in life that everyone else wants. In my case some of those things would be the chance to have my marriage recognized, the chance to be offered the same wages as a male in the same position, the opportunity to tell my children that they can be whatever they want, even if it’s the president of the United States and the chance to continue to be able to do whatever I want with my body, without male consent.
Across the board, if I decided to go live in a state where gay marriage was legal just to avoid the lack of recognition in Texas, I’d be one less voice in the fight for equal marriage rights in Texas and other voters would be more inclined to vote against it.
Across the board, if I decided to go work for a company that was mostly run by women to avoid pay discrimination, then the glass ceiling could never be broken.
Across the board, if I decided to only support black owned businesses and attend predominately black institutions, or even move to Atlanta, Ga., where opportunities for blacks are endless, how much would I really be accomplishing as a minority in a minority sector?
To go against the status quo you have to engage in some conflict, and my conflict is being my proud gay black woman self, right where I am—on campus, at the mall, at work, at restaurants, in my campus organizations, etc.
As I have stated before, I am against separatism on every level and I think it would be best for all parties involved in the fight for equality, on every level, if we all just came out of whatever closet we are hiding in and made ourselves and our communities visible.
We as people have a tendency to create our own limbos and purgatories to make us feel better about remaining stagnant, because as long as we have taken two steps in either direction at some point, we feel accomplished. But staying in your community’s closet isn’t accomplishing anything. All it does is reinforce all the wrong reasons why things should remain the same.
So…because I believe that in order to bridge communities together, you must become a part of them, I have created a strong correlation between who I am, what I am, what I hope to accomplish for my communities and future generations, and where I hang out.
I hope I answered his question.
» New on Student Voices
|
Great post--especially at a time when so many fingers are being pointed divisively and usually erroneously at the African American and Latino communities for support of Prop 8.