How to Make Pride More Inclusive
“Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Earlier this summer, the city of Philadelphia came under criticism for adding a brown and black stripe to the pride flag, a symbol of the gay liberation movement since Gilbert Baker created it in 1978.
Since the first change was made to the flag in 1979, it has been rather common to find pride flags with different colors or designs meant to serve as a tool for advocacy and a symbol of resistance for different groups. Yet wanting to show intentionality in speaking to communities of color within the broader LGBTQ community was the straw that broke the camel’s back for some within the community.
For many people of color, including myself, the news out of Philadelphia wasn’t shocking at all, but the lack of diversity within the LGBTQ community and the dire need for inclusivity measures is worth talking about.
To save my lovely editor and my magazine’s social media from a barrage of, “Gay white people are oppressed too, though” messages, let me say that it is without argument that LGBTQ people of every color are more likely to be discriminated against in critical aspects of wellbeing including health care and employment, but that haunting fact makes it all the more punishing that we would then allow repressively violent racism, and bigotry overall, to sicken and undermine our entire community.
To be fair, evidence suggests that white people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender tend to be more sensitive to issues of race than their cis-straight counterparts. Indeed, the Washington Post reported that LGBTQ white people were more angry about the existence of racism than cis-straight white people, were vastly more likely to believe that white privilege existed, and were less likely to agree with the statement that racism exists only in rare, isolated incidents.
So, that’s not nothing, and in a world where the White House uses Black History Month as a political tool to mask the damage various departments are doing to the black community and then goes on to intentionally ignore Pride Month, the relative understanding of race within the LGBTQ community is deserving of words in this article.
However, it does not then absolve LGBTQ white people of the racism and bigotry within our own community. That LGBTQ white people are polled to be more sensitive on issues of race provides me no solace when I look at other publications and see no black people or voices, when I experience racism and feel no support from LGBTQ white people, or when I hear “I’m not into black guys,” or “I’m only looking for white guys,” in conversation.
In some final sense, we are all responsible for each other, whether we like it or not. I’d like to think we learned that lesson from Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. These two trans women of color kickstarted the modern queer liberation revolution following the Stonewall riots, yet their stories were subsequently whitewashed and cis-washed in various histories of the movement.
Fundamentally, and moreover, strategically, it makes no sense for people of color to be made to struggle to find a home within the queer community We live in a time when the Secretary of Education won’t commit to protecting civil rights in federally-funded schools, when the Census Bureau says that there’s no need to collect data on LGBTQ people, and when the Secretary of Health and Human Services seems at least complicit in plans to destabilize many of the Affordable Care Act provisions that help provide care to millions of people of color and LGBTQ individuals.
In 2017, the federal government that is meant to protect us is exploiting entrenched attitudes about marginalized communities to wedge us against one another and then attack us all. But we can peacefully strike out against that divisiveness by making our own communities more diverse and inclusive. A good place to start is Pridefest, an event we’ve heard critiques of for years over its lack of diversity.
Pridefest is a great opportunity for us to, as George Takei stated, “Live our lives in a state of inclusion and wonder at the diversity of humanity.”
Wouldn’t it be incredible, in the midst of increasingly ugly and dogmatic politics coming from Congress and the White House, for us to support Pridefests all over the country that truly represented the complete diversity of our community? It makes Pride more meaningful — and more fun — for everyone when we intentionally make it as inclusive and accepting as possible.
Here are a few easy steps we can take to make Pride more inclusive.
Invite LGBTQ Artists of Color To Perform
If I could read you James Baldwin or Bruce Nugent on a Pride stage, or at an associated event somewhere in town, there would be no doubt in your mind of how raw and intimate and emotional the Black experience is. That, unfortunately, doesn’t happen.
If active artists of color were invited to perform in predominantly white spaces, that impact would go even further in presenting black culture and black perspectives as the vibrant and complex voices that they are within our community. It’s a necessity, not an afterthought.
Schedule Pride Events in Predominantly Black Neighborhoods
If more events during Pride were held in predominantly Black neighborhoods, that would educate white people on what it means in society to be Black and what Black art and culture can speak to within us all.
It would also show LGBTQ people of color that those within the community who are fortunate enough to have resources and power care about creating safe spaces not just for themselves, but in our communities, too. To the cis-straight community, it would be a profound message of solidarity at a time when our political leaders can’t seem to grasp the meaning of the word.
More Black People Should be Involved in Organizing Pride
I don’t know the names and races of everyone involved in the massive undertaking of organizing Prides around the world, but I would bet having more black perspectives would make Pride events more inclusive, regardless of how many are involved now. It is insulting and not entirely unrelated to the “white savior” complex for black people to not be at the forefront of the table when discussing outreach to the Black community and inclusion of Black lives in Pride. The more Black perspectives that are involved, the better it is for the entire spectrum of diversity within the Black community, and the better it is for Pridefest overall.
Everyone Should Intentionally Resist the Idea that Black Culture is an Alternative to LGBTQ Culture
It is outdated and nonsensical to think that by being more inclusive of Black culture, we’re somehow adding something new to the LGBTQ landscape, because we’re not.
People of color in ancient Greece and Egypt had same-sex relationships, and the contributions of Black people to the LGBTQ community are as old and storied as the community itself. We should view the lack of diversity within the community as a shortcoming.
It is not the responsibility of Black people, or of other marginalized groups, to end discrimination within the community, and as soon as we realize that, we’ll have taken the first meaningful step toward making Pride as inclusive as possible..
