TALKING BACK ON LGBT RACE RELATIONS

Over the past several weeks, we have been studying the social dynamic of race relations among Atlanta's LGBT community so that we may be able to design an appropriate approach to improving multicultural relations and fostering interdependence in the face of our continued quest for equality in our state.

So far, a narrative is building which says:

• Most LGBT Atlantans feel as though our community has a race problem.
• Most feel it is slightly better than other cities. 
• Most feel that the General White Citizenry as a cultural sub community is mostly the primary cause and contributor to LGBT Atlanta's failings on race relations.

Now, we get to hear straight from some our respondents in their own words to the query, "Why and how is the group chosen above primarily responsible for LGBT Atlanta's Failings on race relations?"

"Because everything is separated and segregated. No one works together as a team. There is black gay pride and pride (white gay pride). Pride always gets the most attention yet it doesn't include most multicultural people at the planning stages."

"I'm not sure if any one racial group is responsible, because I know many white and black gays and Lesbians who embrace everyone. However, I also know many on both sides who don't. The big problem for me is that I feel that us gays should be the most welcoming of any group as we know how it feels to be discriminated against. We should be the most welcoming of all groups... but we aren't. In fact we are very segregated, and not just along racial lines, along male, female, and trans lines, among "masculine" and "feminine", rich and poor, hiv positive and negative... and the list goes on and on and on. It sickens me, but I don't know if it will change or how to even instigate change." 

"It really just mirrors the issue of race relations in the city in general. White paternalistic views that only use blacks for show and never have a real seat at the table and dismiss them and their concerns" 

"The city is filled with individuals who regardless of sexual orientation treat this as a playground. It is not where people move to for social change or political action"

"The dress code put up in Blake's is indicative of the racial tension in the Gay community."

"The white lgbt community tries to include the black lgbt community. However not recognizing the different culture experiences. The black lgbt community not willing to accept a compromise after the white lgbt community has extended and invitation."

"There are some racists on all sides. Other individuals are unfamiliar of the other races."

"These are oversimplified choices. But it is a question of privilege. Privilege mostly drives differences among different ethnic/racial groups. However, white straight males of a certain status drive most of the decisions that cause race relations problems"

"This is a very complex issue and I'm not sure if you can blame it on one group. This is not fair. I'm also not sure if both demographics are equally responsible since one may be more responsible than the other."

"White people in general are very hesitant or possibly indifferent to the Black culture completely. If Black people are not entertaining White people, there really isn't an interest from White people to understand who Black people are."

I thank all of these anonymous responders. Now if you wish, your participation in this narrative would be greatly appreciated. Follow the story, HERE  

      

Clouds In Our Rainbow

Last month, The Gentlemen's Foundation and Gentlemen's Ball co-founder, Gee Sessions-Smalls reported a dress code posted at Blake's On The Park in Midtown which detailed a laundry list of prohibited items suggestive of urban/hip hop attire. This caught the attention of The Georgia Voice which stirred a lively debate surrounding race discrimination at our favorite community venues.: Read full story here. The discussion continued on WABE.

Blake’s On The Park has since removed the sign and have moved on with business as usual, but not so with Atlanta's Black Gay citizens. Indignation is strong and leading toward a resolution of complete withdrawal of Black Gay fellowship and participation within the established overarching LGBT community structure in Atlanta. Bifurcating LGBT Atlanta along racial lines ahead of several important agendas led by Georgia Equality would be disastrous in addition to being charged with hypocrisy when it comes to challenging homophobic discrimination in RFRA Round 3 and disunity on our other shared interests. This would create an environment of racially charged animosity during what should be a high watermark Atlanta Pride season this year on the heels of the Marriage Equality victory. These are all very real possibilities if this is not handled wisely over the next few weeks before a certain reprisal of attention during Black Gay Pride, Labor Day Weekend. 

For this concern, there needs to be leadership taken up on all sides of this story to address the roots of the issue and develop practical solutions and action plans to facilitate the healing of cultural divisions within our community and galvanize a multicultural union in support of our shared interests. This is not something we hope to get solved in one meeting, but certainly we can begin this work with a series of quarterly meetings. The purpose of this meeting will be to begin planning and producing a community forum where we can engage our community in a sort of family therapy style dialogue on a community scale for the intentions of facilitating catharsis, awareness, understanding, and accountability for the problematic elements in our community in regards to race relations. This discussion can be steered toward think tanking solutions to implement for the particular problems discovered therein. Your answers to this questionnaire will serve as a reference point for those willing to engage in these efforts and the time you are willing to give to this will be greatly appreciated.

To access the survey click on this Link:
If you wish to be able to offer an informed opinion, I invite you to brief yourself and objectively consider the material given below.

Though LGBT Atlanta has probably the best potential at being one of the most powerful LGBT communities in the world, our interests are often ignored, dismissed and we are pushed around on the state level. Why is that?

Let's take stock of our potential power:
For good reasons, the LGBT Agenda falls under the umbrella of the Progressive Agenda which is about expanding rights, opportunities and equality to those often left out of the American Dream to no fault of their own. This draws the LGBT Agenda in force with Racial Equality, Gender Equality, Immigration Equality and Economic Justice, all factors which have some direct impact on the LGBT community, for we are everybody. So let's measure ourselves up with this.

• Atlanta population 6,162,195 in perspective to Georgia population 10,097,343. Atlanta holds 61% of the states population which should make our city a Super Power when it comes to state politics.

• Georgia is worth $403 billion. Atlanta is responsible for $304 billion of that, controlling 75% of the states purse strings. How are we stacking up as share holders?

• Atlanta is 54% Black, and has not had a White mayor in over 45 years which testifies to the local political strength of Black Atlanta. Not to be ignored. Atlanta was recorded as the nation's fourth largest majority Black City, and the city has long been known as a center of African American political power, education, and culture, often called a Black Mecca.

• There are more Black Millionaires in Atlanta per capita than anywhere else in the world.

• The state of Georgia is 30% Black, more than twice the national average and then a numerically powerful and significant minority.

• Being home to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Atlanta is often seen as the Crown Jewel of the African American Civil Rights Movement.

• Georgia has a foreign born population of 9.7% Almost 1 in 10 Georgians.

• Even though the LGBT community is much harder to track, An estimated 4.2 percent of metro Atlanta’s population identify themselves as gay or lesbian, placing the region in the top half of a list of 50 metropolitan areas, according to a Gallup analysis that percentagewise, metro Atlanta has a larger LGBT population than New York!

• For this reason, those who are Black and Gay and living in Atlanta, are sitting on the cross streets of two powerful yet oppressed communities, which gives them a unique role in Progressive Politics in the state in bringing these two communities into true alliance with one another. If we can solve our failings on race relations, this state is OURS for the taking! We can be a tremendous force to be reckoned with, such that if we don't, it's us to blame, not them. 

And now for some HONEST and RAW community feedback in relation to this issue: 

Lastly: A talkback by Miko Evans of Meak Productions Inc. on Facebook