In almost every culture throughout history LGBTs have suffered discrimination, bullying and worse. As a result, the gay community today likes to think it is tolerant of all kinds of people. But is that really true? Are there not instances of casual racism within the LGBT world just as there is in the straight world?
By casual racism we mean a number of issues: anti-homophobia campaigns that fail to include LGBT people of colour, the fetishisation of black men by homosexual white men and the ways in which Asian men are stigmatised by gay men who belong to other ethnicities, to name but three.
We present some tips on how to keep LGBT places as open and tolerant as possible.
Two wrongs don’t make a right : Some LGBTs feel that, given the amount of discrimination they have suffered, they are somehow immune to acting in an intolerant way towards other groups. By taking that position it’s easy to devalue the experience of both gay people and people of colour.
Stay aware of the subtle differences : Just because you are LGBT and white it doesn’t mean you automatically understand what it’s like to be, say, LGBT and Latino or LGBT and Asian. We must all be aware that gay people who belong to ethnic minorities can suffer double discrimination.
Know casual racism when you spot it : There’s a difference between the full-scale racial hatred of a Hitler or a KKK member and the kind of subtle ignorance that we define as casual racism. LGBTs can be just as guilty as anyone else of exoticising “other” ethnicities, thinking that Asians work hard and believing in all kinds of other nonsensical stereotypes. Another form of casual racism is ‘trophy hunting’ in which white LGBTs deliberately try to date people from other cultures or creeds just to be able to say that they’ve done it. This, obviously, is deeply patronising.
