A Whiter Shade of Pale

Two good friends attended last week’s “Out For Equality” Inaugural Ball, hosted by the Human Rights Campaign.

When I asked one of them the day after what he thought of the event, I was expecting tales about noshing on shrimp with Melissa Etheridge and getting Thelma Houston to sing the hook of “Don’t Leave Me This Way.” Instead, they were kind of bummed because the Mayflower room hardly had any people of color. Apparently, it was whiter than the population of Maine.

Here we were, ushering in the nation’s first African-American president and the diversity didn’t extend to the gayest event in the city. I don’t blame organizers because, well, they con’t populate the hotel with a greater racial mix if that mix isn’t already in the gay power structure.

And that’s the bottom line. The Mayflower that night reflects a reality and a constant problem that the gay movement is still embarrassingly un-diverse. And it will continue to cost us.

Exhibit A: Prop. 8. The voter turnout – with a majority of African-Americans and Latinos voting for the anti-gay marriage measure – and the postmortem analysis by gay activists revealed a lack of outreach efforts by gays to minority groups on this issue. There was an arrogant assumption that one minority should always be in the corner of another minority.

What it also showed is that increasing diversity from the grassroots level to the big financial and political players is not a priority. Things may be a little better that ten years ago, but there is still a startling lack of people of color in gay activism. For example, can you name three non-white leaders or spokespeople of mainstream gay groups or interests? I’ll wait.

Now part of the problem may be a Catch-22. An organization or group that is vastly white may make an effort to recruit members of color. But gay minorities, suspicious there aren’t very many people like them, may demur because they are uncomfortable with the lack of diversity. So two well-meaning sides can’t meet in the middle.

The time has come to not assume every LGBT person is progressive and knows to be inclusive within our community. Look at how many gay DC residents willingly segregate themselves on racial terms when they socialize. Look at how some gays and lesbians scorn, or are uncomfortable with, transgendered people.

It only benefits the greater cause when the gay movement becomes more integrated, incorporates different points of view, and amasses a bigger collective of people that can change the world as much as President Obama likely will.

Sadly, the fact that we are discriminated against by heterosexuals doesn’t seem to lend itself to us being conscientious about our own prejudices.