Gays can give as good as they get and confronting racism in the Castro

Picket outside of Badlands, a bar found guilty of discrimination in the Castro



Recently a white gay activist told me that if I wanted to work on "real" racism, I should go the Bayview. Needless to say, I have never seen him in the Bayview, but even if I had, what crap. Yes. We do need to root out racism everywhere. In the Castro, in the Bayview, and in the left. And yes, Virginia, this includes pretty much every organization on the left that I have seen. Including our more self-righteous leftie groups. And yes, Virginia, this is real racism.

A national discussion has begun about racism in the LGBT community. A conversation that is long overdue.

People outside the LGBT community are frequently surprised to discover that a community that faces discrimination would discriminate. Most in the LGBT community are not, including us white folks. Over the weekend, several white gay men approached me individually to talk to me about their experiences working at Badlands as white gay men and how horrible it was to watch the discrimination. They know how bad it was and how important this work is.

Someone I know said it is generational and that what is acceptable behavior and language is changing. I sometimes wonder though if it just doesn't become more subtle and more insidious. Harder to address and to prove, and yet still there.

As a transgender person, I would sometimes prefer to deal with someone whose bigotry is on their sleeve rather than those who "think" they are pro-transgender when it is really tokenistic expressions of support that ultimately undermines trans people and our issues.

We'll see what happens but at least the conversation has begun, the door has been opened, and maybe someday, it will be a Castro for All.