Does the Black Community Care When Its Gay Members are Killed?

Jarvis Deberry at the New Orleans Times-Picayune asks readers, "Does the Black Community Care Less When Its Gay Members are Killed?" The article picks up my reporting at EBONY on the Marco McMillian, Robert Champion and James C. Anderson murders.

An Ebony story about McMillian's death accuses its predominantly Black readership of not caring enough about the deaths of Black gay people. To make its point, the publication cites the case of James C. Anderson, a Black man in Jackson, Miss., who was killed in June 2011 by white teenager Deryl Dedmon. The 19-year-old, who eventually pleaded guilty to capital murder, had reportedly told his friends, "Let's go f--- with some n-----s." He ran Anderson over in his Ford F-250, then reportedly bragged, "I ran that n----- over." The Ebony website said, "After the New York Times reported Anderson's sexuality, reporting and interest nosedived across Black media."

Rod McCollum, who writes about McMillian for Ebony, suggests in another story on the site that anti-gay bias has kept black people from getting properly outraged at the November 2011 hazing death of Robert Champion, a drum major at Florida A&M University. He writes, "Champion's case had become a cause célèbre among the Black e-telligentsia, Black gossip blogs and news portals. After Champion's parents announced that their late son was gay? Not so much."

This has become one of the most commented articles at the Times-Picayune. Unfortunately many of the comments are very homophobic. #BabySteps

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced that it is "monitoring" the McMillian case—but "has not indicated that it has opened its own investigation."

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Has Black Media Ignored Sexuality of FAMU Victim?  [EBONY]
Murder in the Mississippi Delta [EBONY]

Comments

[Black Pegasus]

It's no wonder Tyler Perry never returned to his hometown of New Orleans.

There's just too much Pain and Ignorance there..

[elg]

"Does the black community care when its gay members are killed? The answer to that question is a definite no.

I have another question: Is it safe for a black gay man to be openly gay in the "black community"? Again, my answer is NO. If you are an openly gay, or "clockable", black man who wants to THRIVE you need to leave predominately black "communities" behind.

[Louis]

Let's be completely honest. The question, "does the Black community care when any of its members are killed" could be asked. Each year, hundreds of Black men and women, both heterosexual and homosexual are killed. Where is the collective outcall from the Black community? More Black people have been killed in Chicagoland alone than have been killed in the nation of Afghanistan (2003-2012).

[DFS]

and a related question. Does the gay community (white) care when its black members are killed?

[SexxyJamaican]

@DFS. AMEN.. I always have to smh when black gay people are so quick to throw the black community under the bus when it comes their bigotry but yet sit silent when it comes to the gay(white) community and their bigotry . If we are going to call them out then we need to call them ALL out.

[DFS]

Yes, I am equally tired of black people's homophobia and white gay blindness and apathy when it comes to racism and the experience of black gay folks

[kayman]

Being black, gay or bisexual, and male then you will be in a problematic demographic group to both the black folks and the general LGBT crowd. There is so many things wrong with the world we live in when you are seen as triple negative.

[elg]

White gay racism does exist. Most of us know this. White gay people (whatever their feelings about black people), however, are NOT the ones murdering black LGBT people.

"Black communities" mostly HATE black LGBT people, especially black gay men. A convergence of events over the last few years has brought this hostility, which was always there, to a boiling point. One of these events is JL King's 2004 book about the "down-low" (and his appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show that same year) which blamed the high HIV/AIDS infection rates among straight black women almost totally on black gay and BISEXUAL men. Another is the ascendancy of the LGBT movement which many straight black people bitterly resent. Many straight black people irrationally feel that President Obama is paying too much attention to "the gays" at their (blacks) expense.

If you want to live an honest life as an OPENLY gay black man, you will not be doing it in the "black community". Not if you want to be safe and have any peace.

Don't take my word for it. Look at the evidence as the body count of black LGBT people increases.

[kayman]

Hate for black LGBTs comes from all sides the mainstream (white) society, negligence and apathy from the mainstream (white) LGBT group, and disdain and apathy from heterosexual blacks.

[Honut Sinti]

The Washington Post ran a front page story today (March 9) on this tragedy.

[i hate lazy people]

Does the Black GAY community care when one of its members are killed?? Not really. Black LGBT's do nothing but throw shade and act catty to one another. No point in waiting for the White gays to come and save us from ourselve's, the Black gay community should learn to be more compassionate towards one another and get organized. Stop throwing chairs and spraying each other with mace!!! Too many Black LGBT people laying on their back, not enough leaders!

[Jewels]

Precious Lord Take my Hand "I Hate Lazy" you betta PREACH...why are we ALWAYS looking for everyone else to care about us when WE don't give a sh about us? I personally feel more comfortable being around straight black and white people with all the vicious, backstabbing, man stealing, snow queens, racists mandingo chasing, bitter and hateful gay men of ALL colors out there. We have lost an ENTIRE generation of Black Gay men in the 80s and there is a HUGE disconnect between the few of us who are still here born in the 60s and the young black gays of today. You are the only one who asked the REAL question out of all the responses. We don't march, we don't get laws passed and we don't protest but we will get our drink on and give you alcoholic. WE KNOW white gay men are racist, we know the black straight community doesn't care about black men of ANY sexual preference being killed the question is DO WE as Black Gay Men care???? I am done with this here pulpit, let me return to the pew.

[Black Pegasus]

"ELG" and "i hate lazy people"
You betta speak on it!! YES! YES!

[Chitown Kev]

well, neither community has a record to stand on...

but I will say this...

I never expected anything from white people, gay or straight, so the shadiness of white gay people is lamentable but never surprising...after all white gay people can be quite shady toward one another.

Every black community and esp. the black church is established with an unwritten room that they have a community and a home that will protect black people from racism specifically and generally from disrepect.

As it concerns black LGBT's, though, the black community and the black church (esp. since the civil rights movement...and it is important to note that prior the the CRM, things were a bit different) has not only failed in that unwritten promise; they black community and the black church has, in many ways, been the oppressor of black LGBTs just as much, if not more, as the majority white community.

[Diva1961]

The short answer is no. I don't think it is a matter of having someone else stand up for you. Are we as organized as white gay organizations? No. But do we have black gay organizations? Yes. Do they have the amount of participation from the black gay community as the white gay organizations have from the white gay community? No. Are there less black people in general than white people? Yes. Are there less black gay lgbt folks than white lgbt folks? Yes. Are there more out white lgbt gay folks than out black lgbt folks? Yes.
When there is an event, do you seem to see more black lgbt folks than usual? Yes. But if you were to ask how many of those black lgbt folks were out of the closet and were openly gay (and if they were to answer truthfully) it would be maybe half, if you were lucky, and depending on the event.
So when you only have a small population of OUT black lgbt folk, you can only have so many run so many organizations. Which is why NBJC is run by a straight black female.
It's more about us being able to, as Essex Hemphill(I think) said, "Come home as who we are". If there is no one to run the organizations, or lead the protests, or speak on camera because we are afraid of who we are, or afraid of our safety, then we must still find a way to stand for ourselves. I'm not looking for someone to stand for me. I'm an openly gay black man who is standing for myself. If enough of us stand for ourselves first, our rights, our freedom from oppression, our right to love each other as lovers and friends, then it will not be an issue about wanting other to care about us, because we will finally care for ourselves.
Last point. There are as many gossipy, backstabbing, trifling, non-trustworthy black straight men and women, who also pop up for happy hour only to get their drink on and not really support the black community in general, as there are black lgbts that do the same thing. So don't let sexuality put you in a trick bag. That shows how you think about or see yourself sometimes and lowers your own self-esteem and self-worth. Stand next to your black gay brother at the bar or event getting their drink on and not judge them. This may be their only opportunity to connect with the black gay community. Not everyone is supposed to be a leader and not all of us march in the parades. The guy drinking next to you may be sending in thousands of dollars to help support gay marriage, or slowly talking his family into supporting gay rights. We don't always know.