anti-oppression
Over the years, I have fondly, yet with a straight face, shared with my friends that I am writing a book called I have a Dream…and you’re not in it. No one really believes I will do it, but the impetus for me even saying it is something that I struggle with each day – when will we have a community with a coordinated dream where everyone is included?
As the struggles for racial and sexual equality continue today, we hope to honor past black LGBT leaders by telling their stories.
Katina Banks, George Gramer, Elizabeth Long and Phil Nash weigh in on this week’s question.
We have community leaders, thought leaders and folks on the street telling us how they plan to make 2013 their best year yet. We asked: What’s your New Year’s resolution, and what resolution should the LGBT community have as a whole?
Jen LaBarbera, George Gramer and Carlos Martinez reply to this week’s question.
Sometimes we think that because we as LGBT folks are a minority group, facing day-to-day factors that require us to face prejudice or “come out” all over again in every new setting, that we don’t carry our own prejudices – internalized homophobia, racism, sexism, or other unfair judgments toward ourselves and others. That we don’t have our own blind spots to social advantages we did not earn. We should know better, right?
Aligning with a broader anti-racist movement, many people of color in the LGBT community point out the trickiness of their work: Racism can be subtle, even invisible, to all but those who it’s directed at – and sometimes even to them. Racism can be in the attitudes of partners, acquaintances and friends. It can be in people of your own race. The challenge of drawing awareness to racism where it exists within the LGBT community itself is steep.
It’s no secret the gays and Latinos have been working closer together for about two years. In its first year, One Colorado signed on as a coalition partner and fought for the Colorado ASSET bill that would have established a new tuition level for children of undocumented immigrants who have graduated from a public high school. They fought for it again this year.
Bullying is what many of us intuitively perceive it as when we’re young: Reinforcement of a social hierarchy.
As Colorado embarks on it’s 25th AIDS Walk, we take a moment to recognize local citizens who have made immeasurable differences in the lives of Coloradans touched by HIV/AIDS. They’re the advocates and workers – HIV-positive and HIV-negative alike – who have given their careers, hours or efforts to slowing the virus’ spread and improving the lives of those afflicted.
