Giving a Face to Black Queer Identity
“….through the austerity of the black and white photograph, Muholi depicts her subjects as sublime overturning negative stereotypes of queer identity and embracing the identity of the dyke by making these subjects her muses. In doing so, she celebrates her subjects and so infuses them with an innate strength. They become moving in not only in their plight but also in their convictions. The simple act of being photographed is brave on the part the artist and also on the part of her subjects, and their willingness to be revealed is a testament to their steadfastness.”
It’s a time-honored tradition at Navy homecomings – one lucky sailor is chosen to be first off the ship for the long-awaited kiss with a loved one.
Today, for the first time, the happily reunited couple was gay.The dock landing ship Oak Hill has been gone for nearly three months, training with military allies in Central America.
As the homecoming drew near, the crew and ship’s family readiness group sold $1 raffle tickets for the first kiss. Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta bought 50 - which is actually fewer than many people buy, she said, so she was surprised Monday to find out she’d won.
Her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, was waiting when she crossed the brow.
They kissed. The crowd cheered. And with that, another vestige of the policy that forced gays to serve in secrecy vanished.
By Corinne Reilly
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 21, 2011
(via daniellescruggs)
Source: hamptonroads.com
Difficult Dialogues Around Marriage Equality
Since my (re)posting and celebrating the issues raised in Llanor Alleyne’s TheLoop21.com’s Some People of Color Aren’t Wedded to the Idea of Gay Marriage article onTumblr, Facebook, and Twitter, I’ve received several personal notes basically questioning my belief in Marriage Equality.
Personally, I’m in favor of marriage equality for anyone who wants to get married, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. I’m enraged that something so fundamental isn’t a federal law; and we have to do this state by state by state. It’s egregious and should be unacceptable. At the same time, I’m very aware that marriage equality doesn’t mean FREEDOM for LGBT people. As a Black feminist lesbian, I don’t want to have to get married to get health insurance. WTF?!?! That should be a right for all… And, I’m aware that health insurance isn’t the only benefit received in marriage. I’m only using that as an example because so many people point to it.
My issue and concern is the inherent racism in the mainstream LGBT movement(S)… I think we can and should celebrate the victories while also holding folks accountable for their ongoing racist marginalization in the name of ending oppression. I view Llanor’s article as one way (not the only way) to hold folks accountable… I’m appreciative of her presenting dissenting voices. No, her article doesn’t speak for everyone, but it does speak for many whose voices aren’t usually heard in this discussion, most especially in the mainstream media.
It reminds me of the (now) age-old discussion on the word feminist, an identity which I PROUDLY claim. At the same time, I know many Black, Latina, Asian, Arab, Indigenous women who wouldn’t be caught dead using that term and it’s not because they don’t believe in gender equality, or because their succumbing to patriarchy/sexism. It’s because of the herstorical and contemporary reality of racism in the mainstream (read, white) feminist movement. While I don’t agree with their assessment, I understand the place from which they stand.
If there aren’t spaces for us to have these sometimes painfully difficult dialogues, then we will not get anywhere… We need to have spaces for dialogue between dissenting voices with the goal of getting people to consider different opinions… The goal is not to be right, at least I strive for it not to be with me. The goal should be to change people’s behavior.
Source: afrolez
With Circumstance, Iranian-American director Maryam Keshavarz delves where no President of Iran suggests there’s reason to go: Into a love affair between two Iranian women. Her first feature film,Circumstance is making its Canadian debut at Inside Out after winning the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
Source: blacklooks
Through poetry, a gay Jamaican man, Dadland Maye, tells how he was almost shot dead as homophobes set his house on fire. (h/t @SonofBaldwin)
Move to tackle racism on the gay scene
An initiative happening in England. And predictably the comments are awful. ARGGH!!!
Basically some white queers think it’s OK to be racist because communities of colour are more homophobic than white people.
And also I’m so sick of white people from other oppressed groups saying well what about such and such group when there is an anti-racist initiative or when people of colour speak up about racism.
It assumes that all people from the other oppressed groups are white.
It assumes that all people of colour who are queer are not oppressed in other ways.
It just doesn’t give the space to tackle racism.
Thus whiteness is the universal. And saying well what about this oppression in the face of an anti-racist act allows the white person to be righteous on the basis of exclusions—but actually they don’t give a fuck about racism, THEY are the ones being excluding and not willing to engage with the issue at hand: racism—while people of colour are expected to measure up to a yardstick of perfect intersectionality.
It’s derailing under the guise of a superficial intersectionality.
I think lots of white people actual abuse what intersectionality stands for. And I’m over it.
(via brownpeople)
Source: leonineantiheroine
“I got married, I came out publicly. But I had to, you know? I mean it was like gays can get married, yay! Prop 8, I’m a second-class citizen, what the fuck?! As a black woman, I’m really low on the chain, but as a GAY black woman, I’m even lower! There are so many things I’ve had to do as a gay person that I don’t have to do as a black person. I didn’t have to come out black to my parents. Can you imagine that? ‘Mom, Dad, I need to talk to you about something. I just want to tell you, I’m black.’ ‘What?!’ ‘I’m black, that’s just the way it is.’ ‘Oh Lord, oh, anything but black! Give her cancer Lord! Anything but black! You know what, you’ve been hanging around black people too much. And they got you thinking you black.’ ‘No Ma, it’s just the way I am, I was born this way.’ ‘Oh, don’t give me that! The bible says Adam and Eve, not Adam and Mary J. Blige!’ ‘I’m sorry, It’s just how I am.’ ‘What did I do? What did I do? I let you watch Soul Train! Was it Soul Train?’ ‘No Ma, it wasn’t Soul Train…’
— Wanda Sykes
Source: nowmybutthurts
Cafe: 3 a.m.
Detectives from the vice squad
with weary sadistic eyes
spotting fairies.
Degenerates,
some folks say.
But God, Nature,
or somebody
made them that way.
Police lady or Lesbian
over there?
Where?by Langston Hughes (The poem is about a police raid on a black gay establishment)
Time to crack open my collected Langston Hughes and discover some more of his wonderfulness. So many unread poems. So little time.
Source: pdvmorris
Hidden in the Open: A Photographic Essay of Afro American Male Couples
Source: blackvintage
Writer • Editor • Artist • Culture Junkie
