This idiots office phone no. is 1-941-708-8570

I’m not sure why this would come as a surprise to anyone at all. In ethnic communities where a very high price is put on supposed “machismo-esque” ways of acting and viewing the world, there is a tremendous amount of anti-gay sentiment (amusingly enough, when men from these backgrounds who are gay do come out, they seem to be among the most stereotypical and flamboyant of gays, which forces you to wonder if they are not rebelling against the strident way of living they were subjected to). Being from a classification of people who has been oppressed itself does not mean that you yourself do not oppress other people. Black Baptist ministers have a long history of being anti-gay. Irish catholic priests are often anti-gay (and pathetically, often gay themselves). I have never met a purely 100% straight Puerto-Rican in all my years living in NYC, yet they go to the ends of the Earth to insist upon their heterosexuality and often put down gays (all the while sucking d**k and getting f**ked round the clock behind their girlfriends backs). It’s called HYPOCRISY and it doesn’t matter if your black, white, latin or any other color/race. We can hope to expect that people who have experienced prejudice to be more tolerant of others, but the reality is, for many people -having someone whom they consider “further down the totem pole” than themselves and whom they can marginalize, is something they like.

Anyone’s race is to be respected and is of course totally irrelevant as to what motivates a person’s heart and mind. Race neither protects a person from being against GLBTs nor does it cause them to be for GBLTs either.

One thing the gay community needs to stop doing is always, always this constant name-calling. That does not become or dignify a grown adult however tempting it might be.

In my own personal experience the level of homophobia among black men is beyond measure.

I can’t see framed as an issue about race. Race has nothing to do with it. Mr. Rouson’s comments are homophobic. His ethincity is not at issue but his position that same sex couples, or same sex attractions are immoral are at best incorrect, mis-guided, ignorant perhaps. At worst they are mean, demeaning,and politically motivated, hate speech.

His comments could have been uttered by anyone, no matter the color of their skin. He is a black man. He didnt’ say anything I couldn’t imagine coming from a person of any other ethnic group or skin color. Still mean, ignorant, baseless hate speech.

Chris,

“I have never met a purely 100% straight Puerto-Rican in all my years living in NYC, yet they go to the ends of the Earth to insist upon their heterosexuality…”

Wow. Stereotype much?

Sincerely,

James

I’ll float some ideas on why Blacks, victims of America’s greatest crime, can themselves be prejudiced against others, especially gays.

1. During slavery and segregation, everything possible was done to deny the manhood of black males. They were called “boy”, which of course led to them calling themselves “man” as a reaction. For census purposes, slaves were 3/5th of a person.

2. Also, being poor, one of the few institutions they had was their church, and many churches for the poor are very conservative. They don’t see the opportunities, they see what little they have, and dare not take risks with it by associating with another group of victims of a phobia.

3. Black men were lynched in the south for a hundred years after the civil war. And another of those good christian white boys ‘tricks’ to send a message of fear to Black people when they lynched someone was to also castrate them. Again, denying their very manhood, as did the word ‘boy’.

4. Some gay people are obviously the ‘woman’ in the couple (be careful here - some gay people are real bruisers, while some str8 people are effiminate also). Tie this in with the denial if not destruction of the Black man’s manhood, and you can see the connection that can be feared, and exploited.

5. There has to be a lot of fear amongst black people that to be associated with gays is a risk that violence and discrimination against gays will be foisted off on them if they support gay people. So, to protect themselves, they become anti-civil rights for gays.

Hope I’ve added some light on the subject. The item about fear of association with another denigrated group comes from an article in a recent Washington Blade.

The sub for this article reads “Is it possible for a black man to have anti-gay prejudice in his heart?”

Um… yeah. Ask Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, or Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Randy, this is incorrect. He has apologized that some people were offended by his comments, not the actual words he spoke. He has flipped on adoption, but he has been mum on whether the law should discriminate against gay people in some instances, and he has not retracted his comment that children with gay parents will experience emotional and psychological damage.

Call him back and tell him to issue a public statement or say he is sorry for that in front of a microphone. He is sneaky and has issued a spoken, half-hearted statement which does not address the specific words he spoke. He still refuses to take a position on Amendment Two, the gay marriage amendment which would also strip unmarried Florida couples, many of whom are heterosexual senior citizens, of all partnership benefits.

Had enough? Rouson is on the ballot on August 26th against a candidate who is right on most of the issues and has been endorsed by Equality Florida and the Stonewall Democrats of Pinellas County. His name is Charles McKenzie and his web site is http://www.mckenzie2008.com if you want to contribute.

As stated, this was MY experience, I wasn’t attempting to speak for anyone else - if you want to call it “stereotyping” that’s your hang-up. YOu see to play the “passive victim” quite well. Thanks for the response though sweetie! Coming from someone who actually seems to think that the readers on here don’t see your own personal biases in most every column you write, I find that response to be particularly amusing.

Chris,

Okay baby. I guess anyone who doesn’t agree with you is playing the passive victim. It’s all good. The world is big enough to have folk who don’t see eye to eye.

Enjoy your week-end.

Sincerely,

James

Ah, James, what is so delicious about you is how utterly predicatble you can be. Not at all unlike your columns. Once again, you have the same formulaic response to my words. You “guess that anyone who doesn’t agree with (me) is a passive victim”. Really dear, you shouldn’t speak for “anyone” as that implies you speak for “everyone”. I wasn’t refering to “anyone” or “everyone” - I was referring to YOU - and certainly not in the context of just your one remark directed at me (and my original post wasn’t even directed to you at all). Clearly I was speaking about MY experience - not “anybody’s/everybody’s” as you seem to have a penchant for doing. Yes, the world is large enough for enough for people “who don’t see eye to eye” - but that’s kinda of a given, don’t you think? Since no two people have the same reality or set of experiences - but again, a thoroughly obvious/redundant point to make. Have a nice day!

On the surface, you’d expect many blacks to support gay rights, as it is a similar cause to their own. I, as black man, have always felt that exact way. Native Americans, gays, womens’ right advocates jews, muslims, latinos asians, are the black community’s natural allies. But like any other group, we are not monolithic, so there are homophobes. We can tell ourselves that we’re better than whites in accepting diversity, just as much we’d hope to see much less racism in gays, but alas that’s just not true.
Then again, to profess shock over this is a bit disingenuous. Black homophobia is not an unknown phenomenon. Just the same … racist white gays … always makes me a bit queasy and it feels more like betrayal than with whites in general. In a way, you don’t expect gays to be racist. Just like the writer didn’t expect homophobia, I guess. Oh well.

The homophobic (”murder music”) Straight Pride reggae march is still on for Brooklyn, NY, Aug. 31, too.

Nice approach to the issue. And while I tend to agree about identity politics, it’s inevitable that such attitudes will remain in force as long as certain segments of society feel under-represented, under siege, etc. I suppose that we, as gays, will know we’ve arrived when we back a straight candidate over a gay one. Interestingly, in the case of blacks, a white man in Tennessee defeated a black woman in a recent run-off election in a district which is pre-dominantly black.

One small step …