Black Like Us by Devon Carbado

Author:Devon Carbado [DEVON W. CARBADO, DWIGHT A. MCBRIDE, AND DONALD WEISE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cleis Press
Published: 2012-03-22T04:00:00+00:00

1980–2000

COMING OUT BLACK, LIKE US

“Now I speak and my burden is lightened…”

WRITING IN 1983, AUDRE LORDE, LIKE MANY AFRICAN AMERICAN lesbian, gay, and bisexual people who had come of age during the civil rights era, understood the limitations of liberation movements fraught with divisiveness. “[I]f there is one thing we can learn from the 60s it is how infinitely complex any move for liberation must be. For we must move against not only those forces which dehumanize us from outside, but also against those oppressive values which we have been forced to take into ourselves.”1 In spite of the political strides of the African American civil rights struggle of the 1960s and the gay rights movement of the 1970s, black lesbians and gay men faced an unfinished agenda in the 1980s—an agenda that challenged the ways in which Americans viewed black homosexuality as much as it revealed the ways in which black homosexuals viewed themselves and each other.

African Americans had employment and educational opportunities that were unencumbered by institutionalized segregation. While racial disparities persisted, and while the struggle for equality was far from over, blacks no longer were mandated to the lowest social caste. Race pride had trumped old stereotypes with empowering slogans such as the 1960s’ “Black is beautiful.” These strides had a cost, however.

The African American community was increasingly divided by income, leading to a renewed criminalization of the black underclass—sometimes with the complicity of other African Americans. With the rise of middle-income blacks also came calls for dismantling affirmative action programs, which, critics argued, were now unnecessary. Complicating matters further was the opinion held by some African Americans that advances among black women, as well as black gay men and lesbians, in the areas of jobs and social status threatened the stability of the black family.

A similar dynamic occurred among lesbians and gay men, with no less troubling consequences. Homosexuals were “coming out” in unprecedented numbers, discovering their political clout as an identifiably gay community. Openly homosexual candidates were being elected to political office, while lesbians and gay men—including black lesbians and gays—stepped forward in journalism, professional sports, music and the arts, and the armed forces to challenge debilitating sexual stereotypes. For the first time ever, the burgeoning gay rights movement had become a formidable force against antigay prejudice as well as a source of inspiration for lesbians and gay men everywhere. But as with African Americans, social progress had its drawbacks. Whereas pre-Stonewall homosexuals were persecuted by virtue of their “invisibility,” out gays of the post-Stonewall era were met by a relentless homophobic backlash. Cultural watchdogs on the right moved forward with antigay initiatives intended to curtail lesbian and gay civil rights, if not drive homosexuals back into the closet.

The enlarged presence of gay people in everyday life also brought the unavoidable issue of sex to the forefront of political and cultural debates. Gay men’s sexuality was thrust into news headlines with the first reports of AIDS in 1981. Surfacing as a mysterious illness among gay

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