Video: Pastor’s Speech on Gay Rights has Interesting Ending

Thanks for sharing both your comment and your discomfort here Aminata B.

I think If we’re going to have honest movement toward truth telling and reconciliation in addressing issues of inequity, I don’t think we can be truly honest about dealing with inequity without addressing racism. I think If we look at any ism across our other social identities through the lens or race, the outcomes and experiences can be significantly more challenging, and as you’ve said, there’s a historical component to racism that plays a role as well.

Sometimes when comparisons come into play, those comparisons may cause us to feel as if our experiences are being invalidated.

For me, when thinking about comparing the plight of the LGBT community with that of Black people in America, I am unable to separate the fact that there are, and have been Black people in America who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender.

To me, looking at people in the LGBT community as being entirely separate in that comparison excludes the experiences of people of color in that community who have to learn to survive with racism, and deal with homophobia and other effects of heterosexism that can come from people who are white, and institutions run by people who are white, as well as from other people of color within their own communities.

One of the things that I appreciated about seeing this video personally, is the way the speaker highlighted how religion has been used historically to be oppressive to people of color, and how he was able to make another connection about how it has also been used to oppress people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.

I think a lack of awareness of this connection only serves to perpetuate the problem, and can put us in a position of oppressing others (or members of our own communities) as we’ve been oppressed if we’re not careful.