I’m guessing if you looked at the title of this blog you think I’m continuing from my prior message regarding the movement at hand. And in some ways your correct, but not exactly how you think. Right now I’ve heard a lot of commentary on social media about when the appropriate time will be to discuss the fact that the heterosexual Black community doesn’t support the LGBTQ+ community when it comes to equal rights and the injustices that are done towards us in this community. There is a fair question that was posed during the height of the protests following Mr. Floyd’s murder. It was, if this was a Gay, Black man who was killed in cold blood like that, would the entire Black community and the country at large, would be behind this movement, supporting him.

This is a situation that I’m conflicting on, because I truly have two dueling thought processes about this right now and I’m not really sure which is right, but I tend to go with the more pessimistic view point, just based upon history. On the one hand, I would like to think that seeing that level of brazen disrespect for life of a human would transcend whether or not it was a gay or straight man, in this instance, the fact that there is video footage showing a cop murdering an unarmed man in cold blood would cause us to galvanize as a race of people and attack the large picture that we see being addressed currently in this country. My logic reasons that people aren’t that cynical that if the details were to come out that he was a gay man and had a lover, that we would have turned down the volume on the level of outrage and anger we’re feeling, because it would still be an unarmed black man slain at the hands of the law.

Then, there is the more realistic, less optimistic person that says somehow the details would matter in this case. The fact that the man was gay and not a straight man, would ward off some of the hardcore ‘Straight” black people and even some of the White community that aren’t comfortable throwing their support behind the Gay community. Somewhere in the conversation would definitely come up religion and how the interpretation of the bible that says being gay is a sin would somehow justify some of the religious community that wouldn’t be advocating as strongly as they are now for change. I can see a situation where some of the older black people, that were raised with The Church, would be conflicted on whether they could give full support to something that they feel is wrong and worth condemning someone to hell for. Similarly I can see a situation where some of the countries around the world that are protesting with us, maybe being more demur and mellow, because many countries still don’t accept homosexual people as equal members of society.

There would be so many layers underneath it all for people to sit and determine what side of history they want to be on. But I can see some of the football players and coaches and professional sports teams being reluctant to endorse in full throat the movement because the figure being used as a the figurehead isn’t “typical” enough to be used as a rallying cry. Yes, I know this requires a level of pessimism that some may say is dangerous, but as an openly gay, black man who lives in this country, this community, I really don’t have a hard time reaching this conclusion. For me I see it as completely logical because lets face it, the black community hasn’t exactly rallied around those Transgender women who’ve been murdered across the nation. They don’t seem to be quick to accept abuse to gay, black men if they are “bible toting Christians” because to them the sin of being gay is the primary cause of the situation.

It is very fair for us to wonder just how much support we would be receiving from the straight community if this were a gay man. I understand those who say lets wait until we have gotten sufficient action and change for the community at large before we address the more complex issue of the black, gay man. But, I would caution that that’s exactly what we say every time we have a tragic mass shooting that murders innocent people. It’s the same thing we had been saying about police brutality and policy changes. Sometimes the lets be patient and get one thing done before the other doesn’t work. It allows the heat to die down, the passion becomes subdued and now we aren’t willing to be as fervent tackling the issue. So I think that this is a conversation worth having right now and one that we need to address within our own community. Because like it or not, it is more likely than not that this will happen again, and next time it may be a black, gay man. And what are we going to do as a community? Are we going to support him as ferociously and demanding as we are with this current set of killings or are we going to be tepid, justifying our action or inaction based upon where we fall on the religious spectrum?

Lets discuss it