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‘The New Black’: Documentary looks at queer black lives in America

Sidney — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 15:00:50 +0000

BY EBONI RAFUS
AfterEllen

The title of Yoruba Richen’s award-winning documentary documenting the fight for marriage equality in Maryland, “The New Black,” has a double meaning. On the one hand, the title speaks to the idea that some believe that gay rights, and in particular, marriage equality is the civil rights issue of our time, ergo that being queer today is like being black in the 1960s. The idea that gay is the new black is offensive to many black people as it suggests that the struggles that black people face due to race are in the past (i.e. we live in a post-racial world) or that the fight racial justice can somehow be usurped or replaced by the fight for LGBTQ rights. On the other hand, Sharon Lettman-Hicks, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black lesbian, gay, bisexual,and transgender (LGBT) people, offers another meaning. Lettman-Hicks speaks passionately, striving to create a more inclusive black community. She believes sexuality is a taboo topic in the black community and would like to change that. She says, “With the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t tell for the military, we’re ready to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in the black community.”

Queer black women on coming out

Sidney — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 14:30:47 +0000

Wanda Sykes: Out and proud

BY EBONI RAFUS
AfterEllen

Though announcing that you are gay, lesbian or bisexual isn’t the career suicide it once was, add that label to the list of other qualifiers (female and black) and you can understand how it might not be helpful in terms of scoring acting roles and record deals. Being a woman in the entertainment industry is hard. Female actors have been complaining about the lack of good (and by “good” I mean when you are not relegated to being the main character’s lover or mother) roles for women. Being a black woman in the entertainment industry is even harder. That’s why Kerry Washington’s Emmy-nominated turn as Olivia Pope on “Scandal” is so important. So for some celebrities, being a black lesbian or bisexual woman in the entertainment industry is not a challenge they are willing to take on.

Race, queerness and success: The ‘Same-Love’ conundrum unpacked

Sidney — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 14:00:52 +0000

Macklemore

BY JILL GUCCINI
AfterEllen

No one person can be the perfect minority or ally, or write the perfect song, or know every single thing there is to know about the history of the world and being queer. I’m a big proponent of looking at things with a critical lens, but when it gets to the point where you feel like you literally can’t like anything without feeling like a bad queer, we need to think about the battles we choose. Because if people are trying to make the world better, why in the world would we get down on them about it? Why can’t we love Macklemore AND Mary Lambert? I do, and I feel grateful for both of them.