STOP ERASING OUR BLACK LGBTQ SIBLINGS: THEY ARE NOT UNICORNS

There's a lot going on so I'm going to keep it short:

Stop talking like the "LGBTQ community" is all White.

Cause it ain't.

Stop talking like communities are monolithic.

Cause they ain't.

Stop talking like Black LGBTQ folk don't exist.

Cause they do.

I've literally lost track of the number of op-eds and think pieces where the author has jumped at the opportunity to discuss "The LGBTQ" and "The Black" communities as if they're two totally independent and monolithic behemoths locked in a zero-sum battle over the spoils of capitalism. This is an extraordinarily flattened vision of reality-- a world where each group is a seen as a huge block of homogeneity, and where the only variation that is of significance is between--and never within-- groups.

This is why, for instance, Black LGBTQ folk come up missing in these contorted representations of reality. They come up missing because, at least in many of the pieces, to be LGBTQ is to be White. Black gays, Black Lesbians, Black Trans, Black Bi get completely erased out of existence. Again, many of these recent pieces paint a truncated version of reality because they neglect this important fact: Social groups are rarely (if ever) homogenous and we all have multiple "belongings" and, therefore, live out our lives in the intersections.

In effect, when we talk about LGBTQ folk as if they're all White, we end up wiping the social slate clean of 1,210,000 U.S. adults who self-identify as both Black and LGBTQ. We end up treating or acting like over 1,000,000 of our people are unicorns. We become so fixated on White folk and the fiction that Black and LGBTQ are oxymoronic that we blind ourselves and others to the physical, mental, social, and economic suffering being experienced by people whose lives reside at the intersection of race, class, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER

Hard as it might be to hear, an erased people is a no-count people; a people who are scrubbed from any social canvas is a people whose existence is not worthy of full acknowledgment. The souls matter not, and the moral worth of their bodies is so miniscule that their names do not merit mentioning. They can get lost, they go can missing because, like it or not, we stay participating in the prioritization of human life. And the lives of Black LGBTQ persons have long been assigned minimal worth. That's one of the reasons why people can talk about the alleged "progress" of the LGBTQ community and not say a single thing--not a damn word-- about the wide array of risks, economic and otherwise, that continue to haunt many of those who are both Black and LGBTQ,

And make no mistake about it, those risks are real:

• 2021 is on pace to be the deadliest year in history for violence against Black transgender persons. Already more than 43 transgender or gender non-conforming individuals have had their lives snuffed out by either a gun or some other form of violent means, The majority of these snuffed out lives have been Black or Latino.

• Over 50% of Black LGBTQ individuals report having household incomes of less than $40,000.

• More than 4 out of every 10 Black LGBTQ youth report considering suicide within the last twelve months. That number rockets up to 59% for Black transgender and non-binary youth.

• Black LGBTQ adults are more likely than other groups to completely lack health insurance and, when they do have insurance, their more likely to dependent on Medicaid.

• LGBTQ youth are more likely than non-LGBTQ youth to be homeless, and are disproportionately represented amongst kids in the foster care system, with Black and Latino LQBTQ youths being especially at risk of both homelessness and residence in the foster care system.

More likely to get murdered.

More likely to be homeless.

More likely to be impoverished.

More likely to end up in foster care.

That's the reality for many LGBTQ folk, and it's especially the reality for large numbers of our Black and Latino LGBTQ siblings.

Of course, none of this means that anti-Black racism is absent from the heart and behavior of folk who identify as both White and LGBTQ. It does not mean that that racism should not be called out. But to do such without even bothering to acknowledge the existence of Black LGTQ persons says a ton about our attitude toward certain "kinds" of Black folk. We honor, remember, and raise the names of those whose lives matter to us. To go unnamed is to go unwanted.

We say a lot about ourselves when we pen pieces about the LGBTQ "community" and we don't even take the time to say such names as:

Tyianna "Davarea"Alexander

Bianca "Muffin" Bankz

Dominique Jackson

Fifty Bandz

Alexus Braxton

Chyna Carrillo

Aidelen Evans

Diamond Kyree Sanders

Jaida Peterson

Dominque Lucious

Iris Sanders

Tiffany Thomas

Keri Washington

Tierramarie Lewis

E J Boykin

IMAGINE THE OTHERWISE

Just the other day I saw a picture of a pastor--my pastor-- rockin' a pink cap. Those who know her know that she's partial to all things purple. Purple is a plus. At least for her. But it's not the color of the hat that's germane to this post. What's really relevant--and powerfully so-- is the words that were blazoned on that pink cap:

Imagine a world where Black Queer people thrive.

A world where Black LGBTQ folk are not consistently erased and treated, at most, as if they're just an afterthought.

A world where their dignity is protected and promoted, and their bodies are not lost in generalized discussions about the LGBTQ or even Black community.

A world where they are not unicorns.

Imagine that.