Let’s start with something that should be obvious: There is racism in our community.
Anyone who even suggests otherwise has their head in the sand. That said, what to do about it? The first point is to clearly define the issue(s). That’s difficult due to the numerous issues that are on the table, but let’s make an honest attempt.
The most overt issue that we all seem to agree on is the horrendous statements from the owner of ICandy, whose racist rants went viral. There are charges that Gayborhood bars are operating dress-code and other policies that discriminate against people of color. Activists have also raised questions of discriminatory employment practices and programs at community organizations. And finally the role of city government.
First, let’s take ICandy, the for-profit business. As I see it, anyone who shows that kind of disdain and hate … I just can’t ever again respect or work with. For me, it’s the end of the question.
Here at PGN in our first few years, we wrote a story about a club named OZ, which was discriminating at its door. We did it again when it happened at a place called 247. We’ve done that same kind of story on numerous occasions. When I mention this to others, they say, “That’s the club culture” (dress codes, employment policies, etc.). Well if it is, it has no place in the community.
Now to those nonprofits. Those organizations serve the well-being of our community and in many cases are the only medical safeguard that some of the most endangered in our community have. But, for debate’s sake, let’s agree that the allegations are valid: Then what to do? How about discussion to reach an agreement or solution on how to move forward? That is, if activists really want to create real change. What are the other ways to create change: disrupt, demonstrate? Activists can do that but it alone does not change anything. Are they about real change or just the latest tweet of anger? I hope it’s change.
That said, let’s take a look at history. This is not a new issue in our community. In 1970, Gay Liberation Front formed a coalition with the Black Panthers that created a rift in New York’s LGBT community. I know this since I was one of those GLF people who marched to free Angela Davis from the House of Detention. I smile when I recall the chants: “Hay, hay. Ho, ho. House of D has to go” as we carried our Gay Liberation Front sign high. I mention that since the Black Panthers didn’t want us at first to march — they were homophobic — but through dialogue, we found common ground and Bobby Seal wrote his now-famous letter on gay rights. It takes talk.
Last point. Mayor Kenney was heckled last Sunday. Many of us in this community take offense at that. He’s the most LGBT-positive mayor in the nation, and while you might have a beef with members of his administration, Jim has always been a man who will find common ground, if you dialogue.
When I was 13, my grandmother took me to my first civil-rights march and I met a man named Cecil B. Moore. Many years later, when he was in his senior years and on City Council, I went to him to ask him to support our gay-rights legislation. He said some homophobic words, and then we talked. He supported the legislation. If you have no solutions in mind and don’t want to meet and dialogue and only want to protest, then it looks like you’re interested in ego, not in creating change.
Let’s move forward and start the work to unite this community. These are serious issues and there are others we as a community also need to address. People in this community want to unite, but to do so it takes communication, not screaming and disrupting. Hey, I know how to do that — I have the arrests to prove it — but in the end, it was talk that made the changes.