This one is hard to write. This one addresses my family members, friends and community. This one addresses my home. I've put this off for weeks, but it's about time I talk to you. It's about time that I acknowledge the injustice that we as Black people inflict upon the Black people who are LGBT+. If you don't know by from how I have probably argued with you about LGBT+, I am in full support LGBT+ rights and equality. The arguments usually stemmed from religion or representation of LGBT+ people in media. I guess I'll start with religion since that is where I've seen most of the discrimination.
Most of the time, Black people like to use their various religions to support their discrimination of people who don't have the sexuality or gender that they deem acceptable. Sorry, but you cannot use your religions as an excuse to cause visible lasting harm to people. People did that to us before. And before I get an angry mob of Black people telling me that I cannot compare the hardships of LGBT+ people to those of Black people, I'm not comparing the two. I'm comparing the tools of oppression that you choose to use. So yes, just like slave owners used the bible as an excuse to bend our Black bodies to their will Black homophobic, transphobic, religious people use the bible to shame LBGT+ people to performing the way they like. You cannot cherry pick bible verses that force shame on to others while you ignore the verses that point out your sins.
Of course, religious people aren't the only people in the Black community. It's many other people who justify their homophobia and transphobia solely because they believe in the traditional gender roles of the gender binaries. Meaning a Black woman should take her place behind a Black man, not beside another woman. The hyper-masculinity of the Black community causes affection between men to be demonized. This leads to the scenes shown in the movie Moonlight. It causes the deaths and suicides of gay men and transgender people. I've known multiple who had become the targets of violence. The excuse: "I'm not on that gay shit." As if that is enough of an excuse to be violent towards LGBT+ people. That is not an excuse to dehumanize who they are.
I've watched Black people fear coming back home for holidays and breaks because they aren't straight or they don't identify with their biological sex. I know people who stopped coming to school because of their sexual orientation. I've seen Black parents kick their children out of their homes. I've listened to sermons that say lesbians and gay men are the downfall of the Black community. No, the downfall of the Black community is sermons like that. The downfalls of the Black community are Black parents who force their children to conform to heterosexuality and their biological sex. The downfall of the Black community is exiling our LGBT+ people.
We need your support and acceptance. Yes, acceptance. You cannot look at us and act is if our existence isn't real and that our experiences aren't valid. We are your past, past, present and future. We are not your sins. We are Black and lesbian and gay and bisexual and transgender and intersex and asexual and non-binary. As Black people, we are already oppressed. Why is there the need to oppress others when you have felt that same alienation? You cannot chant Black Lives Matter while ignoring ours.
