I used to hate Gay people! Not the people themselves, but I hated the agenda that was being promoted. I hated how men had to be on guard to check and see if the woman they were interested in was really a woman. I hated how the flamboyant, often ostentatious manner in which gay men acted could cast doubt on another man's own sexuality if he did not exude the extreme hubris that must accompany any man. I hated how lesbians wished that all men would die and how women should rule the world the way the mythical woman of the island Amazonia did. I hated how these women did not want to be women and tried to mimic how men behave. I hated bisexuals as well because I felt they were untrustworthy and misleading. But most of all, I hated how many in the gay community compared their struggle and the discrimination that they faced with the struggles of the Black community! How dare you queers who chose to be this way compare your struggle in anyway to what my ancestors had to endure and what we as Blacks continue to battle to today. If you are Latino and comparing your situation to ours, that makes perfect sense. If you are a woman and making that comparison, I was doubly sympathetic because you had to deal with the added sexism that comes with being a woman. It really offended me that gay people tried to create a kinship with other oppressed minorities when we were born this way and did not choose to be this way. I was never outwardly homophobic, yet I was no less prejudice than any extreme bigot would be towards me because of the color of my skin. That all changed once I joined the Army!
While it may seem corny, I served with people of all races from all walks of life. I served with some closeted homosexuals as well as some that were very open about their sexuality. As I got to know them, I realized that how they lived their lives has no bearing on how I live mine. More importantly, serving with them shattered all preconceived stereotypes that I previously had about the LGBT community. The gay men enjoyed sports as much as I did and could get into arguments about who the best rapper was with the best of them; they just happen to be attracted to men. None of them were salivating like zombies to rape us heterosexual men at every opportunity, and many were in committed relationships. Lesbians didn't want to eradicate men from the planet and were not our biggest threat to our ability to pull women. They were hard-working, professional women who just happened to be attracted to women. It was not a fad to be gay or lesbian, it was who they were. The more I encountered this truth, the more my fears and apprehensions waned until they were non-existent. Gay people were not trying to earn a seat at the table at the expense of the other disenfranchised minority groups, they were a part of our disenfranchised group.
I am not the most religious person in the world nor do I claim to be. I believe in God and Jesus Christ our Savior. I realize that the Bible states that sleeping with someone of the same sex is an abomination and can lead to condemnation in hell, but I also feel that the Bible can be construed to fit a truth that can be counteractive to the true human spirit. Do racist whites not use the Bible as justification to abhor interracial dating? Do they not compare it to bestiality? Do they not sight scripture to state how interracial dating is a sin against God? If this is true, are we not all condemned to damnation since we are all of mixed DNA? It is not our right to judge those among us on Earth since we are far from omnipotent. We are all God's children and it is up to him to judge us when we reach our day reckoning. Even if you do not believe in Christianity or Islam, it is simple common decency that is germane to every religion we subscribe to that preaches the Golden Rule. "Do unto others as you would have other do unto you".
Michael Sam (NFL Draft prospect and College Football All-American) and Jason Collins (13 year NBA Veteran) helped to push this discussion forward this year in the world of sports. The reaction to these two men coming out as gay has been met with a mixture of apathy, support, and derision. It was striking to me to read some of the negative comments about Sam and Collins. In many ways, they were similar to the negative and racist posts that appear whenever race is the predominant issue in the news story. Why do you guys gotta push your agenda onto us? You're making it a bigger issue than it needs to be by talking about race/gay issues all of the time. You don't hear us (White people/homophobic people) talking about our issues they way you guys do? We don't have a BET/LOGO type channel that supports us! These comments hearkened me back to my original stance against gay people. These rude comments and others like them prove beyond a doubt that the LGBT struggle is indeed akin to the struggles we face in the Black, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Native Indian communities. This doesn't even include the sexism that women endure, the classism taking place all over the world, any religion that is not Christianity, or the discrimination against people with disabilities. I've heard the argument that the so-called Gay Agenda only serves to push the Black Agenda into the background and is a trick of the White man. This agenda is also a conspiracy to make all Black men gay (never mind that this same agenda is present for all to see); it is the same rhetoric use to explain the so-called Jewish plot to make all of us marry interracially. Alrighty then! Believe that if you want to but the fact remains that you are an uneducated, close-minded prejudice person. And to all the Black people that say the Gay Agenda is undermining our agenda, maybe if we rallied together in a more unified manner, we would be right up there with them. Or better yet, maybe we are right with them and instead of fighting them, the Latinos, Asians, etc., we can come together to truly become a world that truly would be in God's image.
This blog was inspired by my former high-school classmate's own blog post listed below.
http://jkwest.com/evolving-on-homosexuality/
