All Black Lives Matter: Queerphobia In The Black Community

From the intolerance parents show to queer kids to community mistreatment, to say that the LGBT community & the black community have a dysfunctional relationship would be a huge understatement.

Although every queer individual’s experiences are different, many statistics show that those of colour, especially those who are black, are more likely to experience discrimination & hate crimes than those who are white. What makes this even more disheartening is how little the black community brings this up due to its deep-rooted queerphobic mentality caused by religious fear-mongering, propaganda & internalised queerphobia. The latter in particular has mostly to do with 'down-low men' (closeted men who hook up with queer people) who are so fearful of their sexual discovery getting exposed that they’ll do whatever it takes to not get outed even if it resorts to violence or murder.

I’ve always been supportive of the overall messages & goals of movements like Black Lives Matter that focus on racism. However, I want to issue an apology for letting other people influence my views on them & other things. While I’ve seen an increase in people using said movements for malicious reasons (e.g. fuelling bigotry, promoting extremism, causing more division & hurting other minority communities), I should’ve known better than to let people who are privileged & rarely keep the same energy when it comes to people treating ethnic minorities like trash manipulate me into making such huge generalisations. It’s beyond unfair to take a certain group of people who are dangers to society and say that they represent entire communities. That’s the definition of bigotry. That all being said, I definitely believe movements like BLM need to do better when it comes to the conversation about intersectionality, holding those who go out of their way to fuel hatred in our communities (e.g. queerphobia) as well as targeting those who aren’t the minority accountable and making it clear to the rest of society that they don’t represent us. The fact that the queer community is the most vocal about the hate crimes towards queer people of colour, especially those who are black, is absolutely heartbreaking for me, especially as a bisexual woman of colour. While I’m lucky to have never been a victim of a hate crime, seeing my QPOC siblings who are victims not get the justice they deserve is both deeply depressing & infuriating.

The black community has a huge issue when it comes to queerphobia from its constant anti-LGBT indoctrination & queer erasure to the hate crimes & murders that are condoned & swept under the rug. One of the main reasons why I don't visit Jamaica despite the fact I’m of Jamaican descent is because of the horrific mistreatment of queer people. I find it incredibly disturbing how often the black community & organisations that focus on black issues turn a blind eye on the black queer discrimination, hate crime & murder statistics.

Black lives can’t matter until all black lives matter.