An opinion that appeared in the Baltimore Sun

In this past Sunday edition of the Baltimore Sun, a teacher in the Baltimore City School district pinned his views of the distrubing behavior occuring with black youths towards the SGL/LGBT members in their ranks.  This is in response to the distrubing murder of Jason Mattison, Jr., after his body was found in an abandoned house near his aunt's home, whom he was staying with.  The author asked the simple question that I just asked last week:  Why are black folks so against black SGL males?

As a Baltimore City public school teacher, I hear about one homophobic slur an hour. Usually, this homophobia is reserved for gay men rather than lesbians, who are somewhat more accepted. Even intelligent, educated adults I meet will often surprise me with such prejudice, and this is especially true in the black community.

Usually this prejudice is justified by religious convictions, but slave owners used to go to church on Sundays and quote the Bible too. Gay people have always existed, in every culture and country in history, yet we are told their sexual orientation is unnatural and perverted. What is the threat that these people pose to the rest of us that they must be denied their full rights of citizenship? What disqualifies homosexuals from the principles of equality set forth in the Declaration of Independence as inalienable?

Further, the moral superiority that the intolerant award themselves on this issue offends me even more.

You would think that the leaders of the black community, a group that has experienced so much discrimination and prejudice over the course of American history, would be the last to turn around and stigmatize other people, but the opposite is true.

I asked myself the same question everytime I listen to certain black folks that have issues with SGL males when in reality there are so many of them amongst them just either deeply-closeted or creeping.  I can only speak for myself, that I am out to friends and a number of members of my family, so I don't have any qualms about my sexuality.  However, so many black folks frown upon the being open about yourself in the realm of acceptance or tolerance of SGL males.  Then you see the hypermusculine behavior of males even the SGLs to protect themselves from this stigma with whole faux stance of "swag", "homothugs", etc.  

Now, I don't agree with the urban myth that floats around that the heavy turnout of blacks in states like California and Florida are what mainly contributed to the passage of same-sex unionship bans on the ballot in November 2008, but black folks in general homophobic when it comes to black SGL males.  Black SGL women have much more acceptance and even fetishized by some black males over the lesbianic sexual contact, but the proof is in the pudding...