The disconcerting thing is that the reaction to my statement was so knee-jerk, such an ingrained, guilty response to the perceived “prejudiced” thinking. But that’s typical white priviledge: you overcome (in your head) hundreds of years of racism by denying that anyone talk about difference between races. That’s just plain stupid, and if it hadn’t of been St. Paddy’s day after much intoxicants, I probably would have argued the point.

As the straight guy I find myself regularly engaged in discussions with friends about gay marriage, simply because it’s an issue that I’m kind of passionate about .

I find that, amongst my friends, there is a difference not in the measure of homophobia, but in the kind of homophobia.

As a white gay male diversity educator, I’ve noticed that when speaking to a diverse crowd, I have to acknowledge my white privilege over and over and over again before any person of color in my audience will listen to a word I say about heterosexism. If I don’t do the pre-work, they tune me out — presumably because I’m white and therefore have no problems.

Unfortunately, most visible gay people in America are white gay people — the diversity of the LGBT community hasn’t permeated the world of mass media — and I’m afraid that the African-American heterosexual community looks at gay people as “freaky white folks” and they resent the message that homophobia is a destructive force, especially since most of us don’t preface those remarks by acknowledging the pain that social ills such as racism and sexism cause heterosexuals every day.

I call this “the Oppression Olympics,” and there are a lot of white gay people who play the game too — insisting that the hatred they experience for being gay is worse than anything a black person has ever encountered. Some people can’t seem to see past their own pain to hear about the pain of others. And, in the end, the only ones who benefit are the rich white straight men — again.

I have experienced prejudice and racism in many forms, as a Black man, as a Gay man, and as a Black Gay man. What I have learned as Black man is that those who may not like me for who I am, have skillfully learned how to appear to be tolerant while still holding on to their fears and prejudices. They find it easier to not let me see that side of them, so they think. I believe that this came about as racial prejudice became looked upon negatively by our society and to outwardly display it, could mean being labeled negatively.

Having not had the same experience, Blacks tend to be more vocal about their prejudices, since hating “the man” is not so bad when you consider what he has done historically. Its easily excused. So now add another sub class, and we see the same outward expression of hatred and prejudice. With justification from the church, its a mix for our people feeling justified in their expression and actions.

Just my thoughts on the matter though. Again, this is based only on my personal experiences.

Moreover, I don’t think there’s really such thing as an argument from scripture that’s anything more than a purported argument from scripture. I’ve let someone post an anti gay point of view on my blog for discussion purposes but I’ll be countering it in probably my next post after moderating the present thread.