No Pride Today: Racism and Homophobia are Blood Cousins
By: James Finn
Tags: Racism, LGBTQ, Equality, Pride, BlackLivesMatter

Riots and racism in a small American city

Grand Rapids, Michigan turned into a battle ground Saturday night as cops fired flashbang grenades, lobbed teargas canisters, and suited up in riot gear to push “I can’t breathe” protesters out of the downtown area.

Never heard of Grand Rapids? That’s OK, it’s a very small city in the middle of nowhere. I only noticed because it’s the city closest to me. If I crave sushi or Lebanese food, Grand Rapids is where I drive.

Grand Rapids news broadcasters dedicated all their time to the riots Saturday night. Is riot the right word? I watched for hours and saw police exercising plenty of violence, although they seemed restrained in some ways. They didn’t arrest anyone. The only thing the “rioters” looked guilty of was refusing to leave.

Proud of America?

As events were winding down, my phone rang. I picked up to hear an old friend say, “I’m so proud! I finally have hope for America.”

Flash back almost four years as my friend and I sat in a campus bar in Detroit, ready to celebrate Hillary Clinton’s election. As results came in and Donald Trump’s unexpected victory looked assured, we sank into gloom and depression.

“Oh, my god,” my buddy said, “get your passport ready and get ready to use it.”

I scoffed, but he insisted. “Look! You’re gay and my skin is brown. You and I are the first targets. Don’t doubt this. We need to be ready.”

I soothed him. I told him he was wrong. “Look, this is America. I get you were raised in the Middle East but things are different here. We have cultural inertia. No one president can change who we are. Dude, you’re an American now. That’s all that counts. We’re both gonna be fine.”

What an ignorant, condescending speech I made. How wrong I was!

Only a few months passed before I began to realize how wrong. A few months in which my friend’s Arab family members were no longer welcome in the United States.

A few months in which transgender people became summarily unwelcome in the US armed forces.

A few months before the US president openly praised white supremacists while vilifying protesters objecting to white nationalist rallies.

Then came a rapid and systematic rollback of federal regulations designed to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in housing, employment, and even access to medical care.

Then came brown children caged like animals, separated from their parents, shockingly without sufficient records kept to reunite many families.

Racists and homophobes grew bold

The federal government isn’t the cause of systemic American racism and homophobia, the American people are, but President Trump has made open intolerance fashionable again as his followers emulate his violent speech and behavior.

Trump has denigrated and tried to stop peaceful protest against systemic racism, even protest as dignified and understated as athletes taking a knee during the National Anthem.

Black body after black body has fallen under the brutal blows of racist police oppression, and American leaders are doing nothing to stop it, not at the federal, state, or local level.

The public murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week was only the latest in a long string of police officers executing Black people, including Black people sleeping in their cars and apartments.

Fighting back is Pride

When my friend told me he was proud of America, he meant he was proud we were fighting back! As an immigrant citizen who loves his country but fears the violence inherent in systemic racism, he’s thrilled to see ordinary Americans shouting their outrage and demanding justice.

He’s proud to see his fellow Americans standing up for people like him.

Before he ended the call, he asked me something. “Where are your people? What are LGBT people doing to stand against intolerance?”

What are LGBTQ people doing to fight racism?

My friend said “intolerance,” but I’m sure he was being polite. He meant racism, I could hear it in his voice. He meant, what are privileged white folks like you, Mr. Finn, doing about oppression of brown people like me?

I wanted to remind my friend that we queer folk have our own marginalization problems, but as soon as I opened my mouth, I realized saying that would be as ignorant and condescending as when I denied we had a problem back in that Detroit bar.

What ARE middle class, relatively privileged queer folk doing? Some of us like Emily Swan are marching and protesting. Some of us like me are speaking up and trying to educate, but others of us, sadly, are denying America has a racism problem, or denying that marginalization is ALL of our business.

Stonewall was a riot

At the end of the summer of 1969, for three nights running, queer folks threw bricks and bottles as they battled cops in Greenwich Village. Those three nights symbolize the beginning of the LGBTQ equality movement.

In some places, people of color led those riots, which in the words of Martin Luther King were “a language of the unheard.” Without that language of despair and rage against the police who were throwing us in jail for daring to drink and dance together, where would we be today?

How long would we have waited for justice and equality?

We’ve learned much in the ensuing decades

LGBTQ equality is nowhere near achieved, but THINKING about equality of all sorts has advanced by lightyears. We understand today that marginalized people share common causes because the roots of their oppression lie with the abuse of power.

White supremacy and white nationalism are blood cousins to homophobia and transphobia. They’re a manifestation of a powerful elite, a ruling class, struggling to hold on to privilege — to set themselves apart.

Intersectionality is a buzzword, and a complex academic subject not well suited to this essay, but to boil it down, it means we’re all in this together.

Every unarmed black man shot by the cops …

Every gay man thrown in jail for cruising …

Every transgender woman beaten black and blue just for existing…

Every queer kid bullied until they commit suicide …

Every low wage worker who can’t afford to pay rent and eat …

We ALL share ONE thing in common. A ruling elite, a powerful minority of privileged people, marginalize us so they can retain their privilege.

Divided we fall!

I’ve been ashamed in recent days to watch many LGBTQ people in public forums embrace their white privilege as they condemn protesters and rioters. But how can we NOT be outraged by a constant stream of extrajudicial killings of Black people by police?

How can any marginalized person NOT stand with our brothers and sisters who cry, “I can’t breathe,” while a boot grinds into their neck? Together, we’re strong. Together, we can change the world.

The privileged, the elite, want to divide us. They want to keep us sparring and bickering and warring so they can pick us off in small groups one by one.

Today is June 1, the traditional opening of LGBTQ Pride month

I won’t be marking the opening day of Pride this year with a story or series of tweets like I usually do.

I can’t.

My Black brothers and sisters have boots in their necks, and it’s time to focus on that for a while.

It’s not time to celebrate, and it’s not time to revel in LGBTQ history. That time will come, and we WILL raise our voices, but today I can’t. Today my heart is in Minneapolis, Grand Rapids, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle and every other city where protestors are fighting for Black lives.

Today, my heart is with my Arab American friend who just wants to be proud of his country.

Today, Black Lives Matters is my fight, because today I know standing together isn’t just the right thing to do, isn’t just the loving thing to do, isn’t just the moral thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.

Divided we fall, but standing together we win!