A letter I sent to the editors of The Advocate after their recent “Gay Is the New Black” cover story.

Dear Editors

The cover of Issue 1021 while provocative had the effect of sprinkling salt into a wound that I had hoped was healing. I am a gay black male living in San Francisco. When I saw the white words “Gay is the New Black” against the black background of your magazine cover, the sick feeling in my gut that rose after the passage of Prop 8 but had since begun to settle, came back. If Gay is the NEW Black, then what are Black gay, lesbian, bisexuals and transgender folk — the NEW Gay? It was also distressing to see words I use to describe my identity twisted into a clever play on an old fashion cliché, thus minimizing the experiences of those who are black and gay–Me.

Michael Gross takes great pains in his article to caution readers who might want to draw comparisons between black civil rights and gay civil rights or who travel down the slippery slope of making direct comparisons between the oppression of black people verses gay and lesbian people. However, for all his eloquence he fails to illustrate the complexity of the two evils of racism and homophobia. I experience racism more frequently than homophobia but it does not make one worse than the other. Racism is a near daily experience for me, but these manifestations seldom ever carry the threat of the extreme violence that can sometimes accompany homophobia. Racism and homophobia take the same emotional toll but the painful experience of each is like describing the difference between bleeding to death from a thousand paper cuts verses a gunshot wound. Which would you prefer? Seeing the cover of your magazine was like receiving all those paper cuts and the gunshot wound all at once.

As we continue the conversations of how to reach out to other communities, let’s not forget that we have work to do within our own community. If we are still writing articles that unintentionally disappear LGBT people of color, how do we believe we can build effective coalitions with heterosexuals, particularly those from communities of color, faith communities and those who are economically disenfranchised? We might also want to avoid absolutes, such as the subtitle of your cover, “The Last Great Civil Rights Struggle”. Really, is it “the last”? I think some communities, among them transgender people, might have something to say about that. The passage of Prop 8 in Ca illuminated the work we must do within our community as well as across all communities. Let’s use this opportunity to enhance a more complicated and authentic dialogue across our differences.

Sincerely

Billy Curtis
San Francisco, CA