Confessions of A Black Lesbian

Being black and a lesbian seems so contradictory in my community. There are people in my community who think I am "sick" and need to be cured. There are people in my community who think I'm "going through a phase". There are people in my community who think they can "pray the gay away". There are also people in my community who swear I've been raped and molested by a man which drove me to women, although none of their business, that myth is untrue.

I always see the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, but it seems like it's focused on those who are heterosexual. When it comes to people who identify as something other than straight, we aren't apart of that hashtag. In 2016, there have been 18 killings of black trans men and women. Black transgender people are BLACK, who also fight for racial oppression of black people. How are they any different? How are any of us different? Our differences in sexuality don't keep us separated from one another, our refusal to examine and educate ourselves about these differences is where divide comes into place.

I was scrolling on Twitter one day and I seen a tweet that basically said if you support black gay people you can't support the black lives matter movement. I see this all too often, the people in my very community serve as the barrier, working to prevent us from making progress. Actually, on the contrary, you can't scream BLACK LIVES MATTER if you're against black people who are apart of the LBGTQ community. It's a unique challenge residing at the intersection of movements for racial injustice and black LBGTQ equality. The intersection of black LBGTQ and racial struggles needs to co-exist because homophobia and racism are apart of the same mindset. If we're being honest, I don't understand how homophobia is real. If you dissect the word, "homo" means man or human and "phobia" means fear. So you have a fear of humans? Interesting, lets move forward.

Being black and being apart of the LGBTQ community isn't a new phenomenon like people believe. Audre Lorde, a black feminist, writer and civil rights activist spoke openly about being a lesbian. She was born in 1932, when it wasn't accepted at all, but that didn't stop her. Lorde believed that it's apart of womanism speaking openly about sexuality. People are reluctant to speak out homosexuality because they're always taught it's wrong and not to argue against what is wrong.

In my community, the black community that is, I also see a lot of heterosexual people who condemn parents who raise children in same sex households. "You're not giving the child the opportunity to live in a balanced household". "Your child is going to be gay". "Your child will grow up with mental issues". I did some research on people who grew up to be rapists, mass murderers, cannibals, terrorists, etc. Funny, their parents were all straight. So, as long as a kid doesn't turn out to be gay, anything else is acceptable, right? Wrong. AND if a child who is raised by a same sex couple will grow up to be gay, why aren't I straight? Also, there are 1 million children in the United States being raised by same sex couples.

Being gay, being transgender, being bisexual aren't holding our community back. It's actually the "homophobic" ones that are doing all of us a disservice. There's no difference between someone who is a racist and someone who is "homophobic". They're the same people, spreading hate to further divide us.

You don't have to like my lifestyle choices, because I'm sure there are things I don't like about yours. However, you don't see me protesting about it, making up words to show you how much I dislike it or creating my own book of scriptures condemning you to hell either.

Whether you're straight, lesbian, bisexual, gay or trans, we are ALL BLACK and we should ALL fight together on all the injustices that effect our community.