The Bridge: Gays, Fear & Ignorance

By Darryl James

Gays, just like any other group of people taunted by bigots, have always found a modicum of comfort and relative acceptance in the Black community.

While there are hateful people in the Black community, Blacks haven’t been running out to form angry mobs to chase down gay people and harm or kill them.

Even some of the most religious African Americans who are opposed to homosexuality as a lifestyle have gay friends.  And one has only to take a cursory look at the Black church to see that there is a strong gay presence, particularly in the choirs. There is a wink and a nod when the preacher speaks fire and brimstone against homosexuality, because there is rarely a hateful word against the homosexuals themselves as individuals.

When a Black person says “I don’t hate gay people, I have gay friends,” it’s not the same as a racist claiming the one token Black to deny his/her hatred of Blacks. Most African Americans actually do have gay friends and gay family members. And they would protect those loved ones with tooth and nail.

But that has little to do with gay politics, including the gay marriage movement.

While some African Americans are staunchly against gay marriage, many, like myself, simply don’t care.

I don’t care who marries whom.

But I do care that you pretend it is the same as slavery.

Damn you for that.

Blacks who oppose gay marriage are neither hateful nor ignorant and every time a gay person speaks such stupidity, such tactical hatred, there is far less tolerance and far less openness to gay politics.

I don’t know why the Gay Mafia (GLAAD) pretends not to understand this.

Their politics get so much blowback because they keep trying to force people to embrace politics and beliefs that are counter to the core beliefs of many African Americans, which is neither anti-gay, gay hatred nor ignorance. But if they keep up their gangster tactics, they will find more opposition to more of their positions.

For example, I was once friendly to gays and the gay rights movement, but now I’m angry. I am no longer friendly to their politics.

Do I hate gays?

No, but I hate people who claim that I do.

Do I condone violence against gays?

Hell no! But I want to beat the hell out of people who pretend that somehow, opposition to their politics is equivalent to hatred of the people.

I have loved ones who have lifestyles which could be defined as gay. But none of them has ever come up to me to tell me that they are gay or to discuss what they do as gay people. They simply live their lives as good, loving human beings, just as I do.

Honestly, for some, it’s not as simple as fear or ignorance.

For some, there is no opposition to or hatred of gay people.

And honestly, there is no real difficulty with gay rights.

The problem, which the Gay Mafia does not want to admit, is that some people are offended by the gangster politics of the movement and its supporters. We are told: “Support gay marriage or you hate gays. Support gay marriage or you are ignorant.”

How about this: Some of us just don’t care.

But when we see the gay marriage movement compared to slavery and when we see gays demand that Blacks support them (based on what?), and when we see that the gay community has no concern for the racism it seeps out, then we either say: “I don’t care, or I stand against your movement because your politics deeply offend me.”

I don’t hate gay people. I have no fear of gays or the gay lifestyle.

I am not anti-gay. I’m too busy being pro-me.

Darryl James is an award-winning author of the powerful new anthology “Notes From The Edge.”  James’ stage play, “Love In A Day,” opened in Los Angeles in 2001 and will become a feature film in 2012. View previous installments of this column at http://www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at djames@theblackgendergap.com.