Saturday, June 15, 2019

Not Feeling Your Transphobia, Black Gay Men

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As if we didn't have enough transphobia coming from the federal government, the TERF's, evilgelicals,  elements of the white gay and lesbian community, and elements of the Black community, we also have Black gay men coming out of the closet with their toxic transphobia.

A few years ago I attended a drag show one steamy Saturday night in the Montrose gayborhood at a club now called Barcode.  I was bored, didn't see anyone I knew, and decided to head home and walk the few blocks back toward Westheimer Rd to the nearest bus stop and start the trip back home. 

I cut through the shared parking lot for JR's and the then open South Beach clubs in order to shorten the walk to Westheimer Rd.    While doing so I passed an interracial white and Black gay man who made the loud and wrong assumption I was a sex worker, with the Black one saying it loud enough for me to hear it.

I stopped, glared at both of them, read them for good measure and cussed them out one more time before I flipped them the finger before resuming my journey back to my bus stop.

In my 21 years of activism, I have had many Black gay men in my corner like Ashton Woods, Brandon Mack, Venton Hill-Jones, and Harrison Homer Guy just to name a few.  These men have unapologetically had my back and been major supporters in what I do activism wise.

These righteous gay Black men have also called their gay brothers out when they tried to aim transphobic shade or outright disrespect toward me and my trans sisters, and I love and appreciate them for defending our honor. 

Unfortunately, it seems that  righteous Black gay male accomplices are the exception lately and not the rule.  We have far too many of them letting their transphobic flag fly on social media, and Black trans women are beyond sick and tired of it.

Craig Brooks has gotten widespread acclaim for calmly handling a workplace racism situation in which he was called the n-word despite being majorly pissed off about it.

But Brooks couldn't be bothered to extend the same respect he demanded for himself when it came to Black  trans women.   It was discovered that his social media feed was a cesspool of transphobic hate.

And he's not the only one.   Far too often we see Black gay men making derogatory comments about trans women as the people in their feeds like and share them.

Even famous Black gay men like RuPaul have made repeated transphobic comments, and it's one of the major reasons why I refuse to support Drag Race.

I have to ask the question why some of you Black gay males engage in this behavior.  You jealous?  You mad and ashamed because you don't live unapologetically in your truth the way Black trans women do?   You trying to curry favor with the evilgelicals?   You just want to bully trans women? 

Let a trans sister know what the reason is so she can avoid your treacherous azz. 

You will get read for filth by us in the 2K19 if you're caught engaging in that nekulturny behavior because I will say it again, Black trans women are sick and tired of your crap. and being disrespected by people who are supposed to be our ride or die accomplices.

You throwing 'that's a man' shade at us from you spot in the SGL community will no longer be tolerated.  If you're mad because I called your azzes out on this problematic behavior, and are claiming you'll no longer be allies to the trans community because I did so, then sashay away because you were never trans allies to begin with.

That rainbow toxic transphobia contributes to the climate in the Black community that gets Black trans women killed.   You Black gay males who gleefully engaging in spreading that transphobia in our SGL community need to cease and desist with that.
 

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