I often hear people likening being a nonwhite in America to being gay. Is that an accurate comparison?
2006-08-21 17:41:36 · 24 answers · asked by brittbenny08 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
Very much. If you look at the status of gays today, it's very similar to that of the black community 50 or 60 years ago, though better in some ways (no segregation yet) and worse in others (black people could get married). In the 1950s, hate crimes against blacks didn't exist legally in many states. Today, in most states, there's legally no such thing as hate crimes against gay people. People used to say that African Americans in combat was wrong. Today, there's the DADT policy. Interracial marriage used to be illegal. Today, gay marriage is. Black people were enslaved. Homosexuals were (and still are to some extent) locked up in mental institutions and tortured. Both groups have been oppressed due to things about themselves that they neither can nor want to change. I see them as very similar.
2006-08-21 19:23:05 · answer #1 · answered by me41987 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋
I think the comparison is not entirely fair, because you can be gay and pass for straight, but you can't really pass for white if you're black.
However, in terms of rights and discrimination, both communities have suffered their share. Sure, gays were not made to sit at the back of the bus, but they have been profiled negatively, and until the 1970s, being gay was considered a mental illness. Being closeted was the only way to have a career, etc.
2006-08-22 13:39:34 · answer #2 · answered by cmm 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No - For obvious reason yes there are gay black people, but being gay is not being black or vice versa. The reason people make the comparison is the social groups are all regarded as marginalised minorities. However the sort of people who 'generally' make those comparisons are the sort of people that want to come to easy solutions about a given question - they're not interested in complexities and differences within any social, cultural, ethnic or otherwise grouping.
2006-08-22 02:53:19 · answer #3 · answered by waggy 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Not really I don't think.. I think that the comparison is because of the way that society views us..that we have had to fight for common causes...but I don't really think that culturally there is necessarily anything in common..There is also a difference in the fact that as a white gay male...the gay can remain hidden..the colour of my skin can't..so I can be invisible if I want whereas a nonwhite obviously can't do this.
2006-08-22 00:52:56 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
As far as how gays have been oppressed and restricted from legal human rights, yes. There are distinct similarities which I believe is what is being compared.
Too many simply skoff at the comparission because of the obvious, but refuse to accept the real distrimination both communities face and have faced.
Blacks have been murdered just for being black.
Gays have been murdered just for being black.
Black men have been beated and brutalized for supposedly making "moves" toward white women.
Gay men have been beated and brutilized for supposedly makeing "moves" toward straight men.
Yes, the similarities are actually more real than the mainstream is willing to admit.
2006-08-22 01:47:51 · answer #5 · answered by DEATH 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
It is and it isn't. Black people suffered far worse in my opinion than we as gay people will, at least in these days. But it is a constant struggle because just like you have ignorant hicks who have a 2nd grade education and join the KKK and use the N word all the time we have quite a few straight people who are seriously misinformed about the gay community and they try to use their bible as their defense as to why we're wrong and they're right. Yet they fail to explain how it's wrong for someone who doesn't believe in god but that's a whole nother question.
2006-08-22 00:47:34 · answer #6 · answered by JR 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Yes there are similarities... i agree, but homosexuals have never had to endure slavery, which is one huge difference that automatically seperates us from african americans. Also there are the physical differences...of course which is unfortunately what most ppl look at first.. however there are homosexual black ppl, anyway, not all lesbians look like guys, and not all gay men look like girls.... homosexuals can get amazing jobs without anyone knowing they are homosexual (at least until its too late)... african americans get turned down for even the simplest and lowest paying of jobs, every day, because the color of their skin.... so no,it doesnt compair as far as the over-all struggle... but yes there are similarities as far as marriage and such rights and violations.... but it still doesnt compare to what african americans went through back in the day. i have never seen a riot or gathering of sorts, on TV, where the police where beating gay men and women to death in the streets and spraying them with fire hoses....
2006-08-22 02:41:48 · answer #7 · answered by Vixen 1 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I don't know about that. It's much easier to hide being gay or bi than it is being black, at least on the surface. I do think that prejudice affects both groups, and that all prejudice is interconnected. It just is done differently for different groups.
2006-08-22 00:53:42 · answer #8 · answered by GreenEyedLilo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As a person who is both gay and black, I must jump in here.
Many of the prejudices that are faced by the gay community are also faced by the black community. It is not the same, but it is currently comparable.
2006-08-22 00:57:53 · answer #9 · answered by magequill 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
the comparison people are trying to make is struggling with discrimination.
2006-08-22 09:46:50 · answer #10 · answered by redcatt63 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋