Racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
is a concern for many in the Western
lesbian,
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
,
bisexual and
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...
(
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
) communities, with members of racial, ethnic, and national minorities reporting having faced discrimination from other LGBT people.
[
]
In the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, ethnic minority
LGBT individuals may find themselves in a double minority, in which they are neither fully accepted nor understood by mainly white LGBT communities, nor are they fully accepted by their own ethnic group.
Many people experience racism in the dominant LGBT community in which racial stereotypes merge with gender stereotypes; for example, Asian-American LGBT people are often stereotyped by Westerners as more passive and feminine, while
African-American LGBT people are stereotyped as more aggressive. A number of culturally specific support networks for LGBT people are active in the United States, such as "Ô-Môi", a support network for
Vietnamese-American
Vietnamese Americans ( vi, Người Mỹ gốc Việt, lit=Viet-origin American people) are Americans of Vietnamese ancestry. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American ethnic group after Chinese ...
queer females.
Anti-Arab racism
A report titled ''We're Family Too'' studied what it calls same-sex-attracted people from
Arab backgrounds in Australia. The respondents were from both
Christian and
Muslim religious backgrounds. Many people in the Arab community spoke about ethnic stereotypes.
Some
Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews ( he, יהודי המִזְרָח), also known as ''Mizrahim'' () or ''Mizrachi'' () and alternatively referred to as Oriental Jews or ''Edot HaMizrach'' (, ), are a grouping of Jewish communities comprising those who remained ...
and
Arab Jews
Arab Jews ( ar, اليهود العرب '; he, יהודים ערבים ') is a term for Jews living in or originating from the Arab world. The term is politically contested, often by Zionists or by Jews with roots in the Arab world who prefer ...
report exclusion and discrimination by the
Ashkenazi LGBT community in Israel. Some LGBT Mizrahi Jews have alleged that aspects of Ashkenazi LGBT activism express "Ashkenazi hegemony" and leave "no legitimized cultural space for Mizrahi queers to express their Arab culture and heritage".
Anti-Asian and anti-Pacific Islander racism
In a study by the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
The National LGBTQ Task Force is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Also known as The Task Force, the organization supports ac ...
on LGBT
Asian Americans and
Pacific Islander Americans, 82% of the surveyed participants reported experiencing racism from white members of the LGBT community. Another challenge that many Asian Pacific Americans who are LGBTQ must face is racism, in society at large and within the LGBT community. Sometimes this is from overt discrimination, other times it is the lack of Asian Pacific Islander representation.
British Asian
British Asians (also referred to as Asian Britons) are British citizens of Asian descent. They constitute a significant and growing minority of the people living in the United Kingdom, with 6.9% of the population identifying as Asian/Asian Bri ...
gay men living in Yorkshire and elsewhere in northern England have reported increasing levels of racism and discrimination from white gay men. LGBT communities in ethnically diverse areas of the UK, such as Manchester and London, were found by the Naz Project to be more tolerant.
Many LGBT black people report experiencing racism from the white LGBT community, leading some to repudiate labels such as "gay" and connections to white LGBT culture. The term
same gender loving
Same-gender-loving, or SGL, a term coined for African American and African Diaspora use by activist Cleo Manago, is a description for homosexuals in the African American community. It emerged in the early 1990s as a culturally affirming African A ...
was coined by the activist
Cleo Manago
Cleo Manago (born September 21, 1960) is an African American activist and social architect who coined the term ''same gender loving''Editors: Aggleton, Peter; Parker, Richard''Routledge Handbook of Sexuality, Health and Rights'' Routledge, 2010, p ...
to describe people of African descent who are attracted to the same sex, as opposed to terms such as "gay/lesbian", "bisexual", or "
queer". This term was meant to actively express pride in one's racial heritage.
Efforts to push gay rights forward alongside the black rights movement brought out opinions on their presence. Quotes by
Frank Kameny include statements such as "Now that it is becoming unfashionable to discriminate against Negros, discrimination against homosexuals will be on the increase" and "no other Negros among the audience, but saw one
lack person
Lack may refer to:
Places
* Lack, County Fermanagh, a townland in Northern Ireland
* Lack, Poland
* Łąck, Poland
* Lack Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, US
Other uses
* Lack (surname)
* Lack (manque), a term in Lacan's psychoanalyti ...
disturbing
hepamphlets."
Some Black gay men report discrimination and harassment from white gay men in gay bars and clubs. In the past, some gay bars would display signs that said "No Blacks, Fems, or
Faggots", and similar phrases.
Some gay Black
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
n men have reported experiencing "grotesque racism" from white gay men during the time of
Apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
.
Chuck Knipp
Chuck Knipp (born 1961) is a Canadian comedian and nurse best known for his controversial vocal characterizations heard on radio – the "Mammy Welfare Queen", Shirley Q. Liquor and the tragic searcher for any kind of spirituality, Betty Butterfi ...
, a white gay male drag performer who is known for his
blackface act "Shirley Q. Liquor", has been accused of racism. Responding to Knipp's declaration that the Liquor character "was created in celebration of, not to downgrade, black women",
Jasmyne Cannick said in her blog: "... it is not possible for Charles Knipp, a white man, to help heal years of mistreatment and racism at the hands of his people by putting on a wig, speaking AAVE
, and in blackface ... There is nothing remotely uplifting about Knipp's act and I wish people would stop defending his character with the tired argument that he's trying to heal the nation. The only thing Knipp is trying to heal is the hole in his pocket by filling it with all of the money he makes off of degrading Black people."
Struggling between two communities
Clarence Ezra Brown III has researched ways gay black males feel in their black and gay communities. Gay black males are stuck between two communities they believe they do not fit into.
According to Keith Boykin, "The dirty little secret about the homosexual population is that white gay people are just as racist as white straight people". Those who do not see themselves as part of the LGBT community see it to be a white community with white experiences.
[Boykin, Keith (1996). One More River to Cross. Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Anchor Books.] Because gay black men face racism in the LGBT community it is translating into the wider black community, meaning the only "support structures that speak to their perspective" continue to alienate them.
Sexual stereotyping
Some authors, such as
Howard Stevenson Jr. and
Mary Dianne Plummer have written that much of the racism against LGBT black people is rooted in sexual racism and the linking of sex role stereotypes and racial stereotypes.
Black men who express a sexual preference for white men have been alleged to be suffering from "an insidious legacy of white racism" that causes
internalized racism
Internalized racism is a form of internalized oppression, defined by sociologist Karen D. Pyke as the "internalization of racial oppression by the racially subordinated." In her study ''The Psychology of Racism, '' Robin Nicole Johnson emphasizes ...
in black men. Some
Afrocentric gay men are opposed to inter-racial relationships, believing gay black men who prefer white men lack strong roots in the black community or are oblivious to racism. The anti-inter-racial Afrocentrists believe that instead of "hating their blackness", gay black men should only date other gay black men. A slogan that promotes black-on-black gay relationships is "black men loving black men", which was popularized by
Joseph F. Beam's anthology ''In the Life'' and the
Marlon Riggs
Marlon Troy Riggs (February 3, 1957 – April 5, 1994) was a Black gay filmmaker, educator, poet, and activist. He produced, wrote, and directed several documentary films, including '' Ethnic Notions'', ''Tongues Untied'', '' Color Adjustment'' ...
video ''
Tongues Untied''.
Conversely,
Rob Redding
Robert "Rob" Redding Jr. is an American podcaster, journalist, author and artist. From 2012 to 2013, he hosted the weekday syndicated ''Redding News Review'' on Sirius XM.
Personal life and education
Redding's father was a preacher. His mot ...
's book "The Professor: Witnessing White Power" uses
empiricism to surmises that sleeping with white men gave some of the most prominent black men of our time like
James Baldwin,
Jean-Michel Basquiat,
Marvin Gaye and
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...
a fearlessness when dealing with racist whites. He utilizes a mix of communication theory like
proxemics
Proxemics is the study of human use of space and the effects that population density has on behaviour, communication, and social interaction.
Proxemics is one among several subcategories in the study of nonverbal communication, including haptics ...
,
kinesics
Kinesics is the interpretation of body motion communication such as facial expressions and gestures, nonverbal behavior related to movement of any part of the body or the body as a whole. The equivalent popular culture term is body language, a t ...
and
haptics along with analysis of Jane Ward's book "
Not Gay: Sex between Straight White Men" as a case study to explore how interracial relationships between men can be transformative for the black community. He states: “Ward, who is a lesbian, writes about power exchanges between white men. The Professor explores how gay interracial relationships and encounters may have empirically had an impact on the black community.”
Anti-Hispanic and anti-Latino racism
Gay
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...
and
Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
men report experiencing racism both within and outside the gay community. Latino gay men with dark skin color and indigenous features reported the greatest level of discrimination, including from the white gay community. Gay bars, for example, were spaces where Latinos and other people of color would face discrimination. This motivated the creation of the first and only Latino gay bar in the San Francisco Mission District in 1979,
Esta Noche. Latina lesbians also report experiencing racism from the white LGBT community. Latin gays and lesbians have been engaged in autonomous organizing since the 1970s addressing issues of racism, sexism, and homophobia. The first Latina lesbian organization was founded in Los Angeles in the early 1980s and the National Latino/a Lesbian & Gay Organization (LLEGÓ) was founded in 1987, with Latino/an LGBT people choosing to organize separately due to both racism in the LGBT community and homophobia in the straight Latino community.
In 2006, Latino Americans staged a protest in
The Castro, San Francisco
The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...
, against anti-Latino racism in the LGBT community.
The organization ''La Casa'' in
East Los Angeles, California
East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010, when it was 126,496. For statistical purpo ...
, exists to serve the LGBT Latino community and create a safe space, free from homophobia and racism. Members have expressed their experiences with "blatant racism" from the white LGBT community, particularly in
West Hollywood
West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most prominent gay villages ...
.
However, it is important to remember that "queer latinidad is not a site with clearly defined boundaries" rather it varies in acceptance and mannerism based on where someone goes. There are Latino/an LGBT people who find support within their cultural communities and openly embrace their identities.
Tatiana de la tierra
Tatiana de la tierra (May 14, 1961 – July 31, 2012) was a Columbian writer, poet and activist. She was the author of the first international Latina lesbian magazine '' Esto no tiene nombre.''
Early life
Tatiana de la tierra was born in Villavic ...
was a lesbian Latina writer who was shameless about her sexuality, and a lot of her work provided support and encouragement for other Latina lesbians to be shameless and proud like her. She co-founded the magazine ''
Esto no tiene nombre'' which was meant to combat the patterns of stigmatization, exclusion, and invisibility of queer Latinas by creating a platform for free discussion and expression of sexuality.
Anti-Indigenous racism
Aboriginal Canadians
In Canada, lesbian
Indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
women report feeling marginalized from mainstream and LGBT cultures, and from Indigenous communities and other communities of color. Gay aboriginal men, many of whom also identify as
two-spirit
Two-spirit (also two spirit, 2S or, occasionally, twospirited) is a modern, , umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional third-gender (or other gender-variant) ...
ed, often face homophobia within Indigenous communities and racism within the LGBT community.
Aboriginal Australians
Gay Australian
Aboriginal men have reported a lack of inclusion and representation in the white-dominated LGBT community. When aboriginal men have been included in LGBT organizing efforts, it has often been in a
tokenizing
In computer science, lexical analysis, lexing or tokenization is the process of converting a sequence of characters (such as in a computer program or web page) into a sequence of ''lexical tokens'' ( strings with an assigned and thus identified ...
way.
Māori people in New Zealand
Takatāpui identity is a way for many LGBT
Māori people
The Māori (, ) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several c ...
to express their dual identities as both Māori and
non-heterosexual
Non-heterosexual is a word for a sexual orientation or sexual identity that is not heterosexual. The term helps define the "concept of what is the norm and how a particular group is different from that norm". ''Non-heterosexual'' is used in fem ...
. While the term fell into disuse for many years, it has recently been reclaimed as an expression of pride. Some Māori people have questioned the focus on
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
in the
Pākehā
Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non- Māori New Z ...
(European New Zealand) LGBT community. In traditional Māori culture it was common for either straight or gay couples to be unmarried. The LGBT Māori people who critique the overemphasis on same-sex marriage believe focusing too narrowly on marital rights is harmful and reduces diversity in the LGBT community. They believe the focus on marriage is a product of "whiteness".
Native Americans
Some Native American lesbians report feeling disenchanted with White people—including white lesbians—and have established separatist communities exclusively for Native American women or for women of color. Native American lesbians have established communes in the
American Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
and
Northern California, in an attempt to repudiate white culture, live self-sufficiently, and return to the traditions of their tribal ancestors.
Anti-Italian sentiments
Some LGBT
Italian Americans report experiencing
anti-Italian discrimination from within the LGBT community. Italian American gay men, particularly darker-skinned men such as those of Sicilian descent, report experiencing
sexual objectification
Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire. Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object without regard to their personality or dignity. Objectification is mo ...
from lighter-skinned and white men. In a manner similar to the way black, Asian, and Latino men are sometimes portrayed, Italian men are portrayed at times as "the object of desire of the white man"
as well as being considered "exotic and well-endowed, oversexed and extremely passionate".
These sexual stereotypes of Italian and Sicilian gay men also appear frequently in gay pornography, but are not exclusive to the gay community.
Antisemitism
According to Warren Hoffman in writing for the ''
Huffington Post'',
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
is experienced by Jewish LGBT people on both racial and religious grounds, as well as racism against gay
people of color
The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...
,
misogyny
Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practice ...
and
transphobia
Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger to ...
.
Lesbian antisemitism
According to the ''Encyclopedia of Lesbian Histories and Cultures'',
lesbian feminist
Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective that encourages women to focus their efforts, attentions, relationships, and activities towards their fellow women rather than men, and often advocates lesbianism as the logic ...
organizations do not discuss antisemitism when discussing the fighting of oppression because they believe it no longer exists or is not as important as racism or homophobia. Some lesbian feminists have accused Jews of being "killers of the Goddess"
because they believe the god of Israel is male or androgynous. Jews are also often blamed for patriarchy. Some sexual roleplays done by gays and lesbians play out Nazi/Jew fetishes in a sado-masochistic fashion and Jewish lesbians are often invisible in the lesbian community. Some lesbians wear swastikas both during and outside their sex lives in attempts to transform the symbol or ignore the impact it has on the Jewish community.
In 2017, three Jewish lesbians were
expelled from Chicago's Dyke March because of their Stars of David/"Pride" flags. After multiple articles were published criticizing of the actions of the Chicago Dyke March Collective, the group decided to fund a "healing retreat" for its members.
Nikolay Alexeyev
Nikolay Alexeyev
Nikolay Alexandrovich Alexeyev (also spelled as Alekseyev, Alekseev, or Alexeev (russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Алексе́ев) born on 23 December 1977) is a Russian LGBT rights activist, lawyer and journalist.
O ...
, a prominent LGBT rights activist in Russia, made antisemitic statements on his Facebook and Twitter accounts in 2014, targeting
Michael Lucas with antisemitic slurs and claiming that a "Jewish mafia" ruled America and was "trying to overtake the world."
Anti-Turkish racism
LGBT people of
Turkish descent in Germany often report experiencing "triple discrimination"; racism and
Islamophobia
Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism.
The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...
from the non-Turkish German community and homophobia from the heterosexual Turkish and German communities. While Turkish-Germans "still face racism in the
ayscene", the level of racism has declined in the past 20 years. Murat Bahşi, a former board member of the organization Gays and Lesbians of Turkish Backgrounds (GLADT), has said racism and racial stereotypes from ethnic German men often contributed to the disintegration of inter-ethnic relationships between Turkish and German men.
Antiziganism
Romani people in Romania
Romani people (Roma; Romi, traditionally '' Țigani'', (often called "Gypsies" though this term is considered a slur) constitute one of Romania's largest minorities. According to the 2011 census, their number was 621.573 people or 3.3% of the ...
, including homosexual Romani, face
antiziganism
Anti-Romani sentiment (also antigypsyism, anti-Romanyism, Romaphobia, or Antiziganism) is hostility, prejudice, discrimination or racism which is specifically directed at Romani people (Roma, Sinti, Iberian Kale, Welsh Kale, Finnish Kale, H ...
from the non-Romani
LBGT community in the country. When American singer
Madonna publicly condemned homophobia and antiziganism in
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
during her 2008
Sticky & Sweet Tour
The Sticky & Sweet Tour was the eighth concert tour by American singer Madonna, to promote her eleventh studio album, ''Hard Candy (Madonna album), Hard Candy'' (2008). It was Madonna's first major venture under a new ten-year 360 deal with Liv ...
, several members of the Romanian LGBT community criticized her online for linking homophobia to antiziganism. In their rebuttals to Madonna's statements, several Romanian commentators referred to LGBT people as "decent civilised people" while characterizing the Romani as "thieves" and "criminals" who are incompatible with "civilised society". On
LGBT dating sites in Romania, many Romani report seeing "no gypsies please" on user profiles, while some LGBT Romani have stated that a lack of adequate representation in Romanian media leads to antiziganist perceptions among non-Romani Romanians. In addition, many LGBT Romani face homophobia from their own communities as well, typically from
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
families. A 2017 study by the
Romanian National Council Against Discrimination found that LGBT and Romani people in Romania are among the most discriminated groups in the country.
Gay neo-Nazism
The
National Socialist League
The National Socialist League (NSL) was a short-lived Nazi political movement in the United Kingdom immediately prior to the Second World War.
Formation
The NSL was formed in 1937 by William Joyce, John Beckett (politician), John Beckett and ...
in the United States limited its membership to gay
Aryans
Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ...
. The documentary ''
Men Heroes and Gay Nazis'' addressed the phenomenon of gay neo-Nazis in Germany.
[Porter & Prince, ]
Guide to Gay and Lesbian Film
', p. 254 Michael Kühnen[Rand C. Lewis, ''The Neo-Nazis and German Unification'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, p. 37] and
Nicky Crane
Nicola Vincenzo "Nicky" Crane (21 May 1958 – 7 December 1993) was an English neo-Nazi activist. He came out as gay before dying from an AIDS-related illness in 1993.
Neo-Nazism
Nicky Crane joined the British Movement (BM) in the late 1970s ...
were gay neo-Nazis.
Sexual racism against East and Southeast Asians
Asian American men are often represented in media, both mainstream and LGBT, as being feminized and desexualized. LGBT Asian men often report "sexual racism" from white LGBT men. The gay Asian-Canadian author
Richard Fung has written that while black men are portrayed as hypersexualized, gay Asian men are portrayed as being undersexed. Fung also wrote about feminizing depictions of Asian men in gay pornography, which often focuses on gay Asian men's submission to the pleasure of white men. According to Fung, gay Asian men tend to ignore or display displeasure with other races, but seemingly give sexual acceptance and approval to gay white men. Building off the work of Fung, Gilbert Caluya argues of the media creating a "symbolic castration" among them. He also notes in his research, which interviewed gay men of Southeast Asian descent that they were more likely to face covert racism from men of Anglo descent.
In inter-racial gay male pornography, Asian men are usually portrayed as submissive "
bottoms". The gay Asian male's penis is hidden and the focus tends to be on the curves of the body, which is a filming technique traditionally used for women.
Racist stereotypes about gay Asian men, that include images of all gay Asian men as effeminate, having small penises, and as passive partners in terms of anal sex (bottoms) contribute to the anti-Asian racism within the gay male community.
Gay Asian men frequently experience racism on gay dating websites, where it is common for profiles to state a sexual preference for men of certain races, using phrases such as "No Asians", or "No fats, no femmes, no Asians". Some Asian gay men report being "relegated to the bottom of the attractiveness spectrum" due to "racial lookism", a combination of racism and
lookism. White gay men are more likely than other racial groups to indicate "No Asians" when seeking partners. In many English-speaking countries, there is a strict racial hierarchy where white men are at the top and Asian men are somewhere far beneath.
Senthorum Raj argues that "whiteness...becomes a privileged form desiring capital, enabling bodies that 'pass' as 'White', while marking out bodies which do not. Racial 'others' become produced in this economy of desire as fetishes or repugnant objects," and that Whiteness becomes the standard by which desirability is measured.
In a descriptive study conducted by Damien Riggs in Australia, he pulled samples of profiles from a gay dating site and analyzed the profiles for anti-Asian sentiment. His findings showed that anti-Asian racism takes on four different forms: "1. The construction of racism as 'personal preference'; 2. The construction of Asian gay men as not 'real men'; 3. The construction of Asian gay men as a 'type'; and 4. The assumption that saying 'sorry' renders anti-Asian sentiment somehow acceptable."
Riggs explains that it is problematic to conflate racialized desire with personal preference, as "it constructs 'preference' and identity categories as equitable, which ignores the fact that gay Asian men do not choose their Asian identity". This also reduces gay Asian men to the category of an object or "kink" that can be adopted or cast aside at will.
An example of Riggs' third form of anti-Asian racism can take the form of fetishization of gay Asian men, and thus their objectification. White gay men who fetishize gay Asian men are given the label "
rice queen
In gay slang, queen is a term used to refer to a flamboyant or effeminate gay man. The term can either be pejorative or celebrated as a type of self-identification.
Related terms
Drag queen
A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses ...
". Rice queens view gay Asian men as the only possible objects of erotic interest and reduce gay Asian men to a category of an object.
Asian women are stereotyped as "passive but exotic", and lesbian Asian women report being stereotyped as "exotic" or viewed as not lesbian due to being Asian.
"
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...
" is also cited as a concern among some Asian-American lesbians, along with sexual objectification.
Lesbian Asian Americans also face conflict in the intersectionality of their identities as lesbians and Asian Americans.
Asian women, particularly
femme
''Femme'' (; , literally meaning "woman") is a term traditionally used to describe a lesbian who exhibits a feminine identity or gender presentation. Alternate meanings of the word also exist with some non-lesbian individuals using the word, ...
women, are perceived as "easy target
for harassment by men due to their stereotype as feminine, docile, submissive, passive, and weak. Similarly, stereotypes of an Asian woman's appearance, typically femme, in contrast with a stereotypical lesbian's appearance—typically
butch—exclude femme lesbian and bisexual Asian women.
Gay Asian American men in media
Gay Asian American men have a stereotype of being feminine, as depicted in media such as the ''
Grey's Anatomy
''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series that premiered on March 27, 2005, on ABC as a mid-season replacement. The series focuses on the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they develop into s ...
'' episode "
Where the Boys Are
''Where the Boys Are'' is a 1960 American CinemaScope comedy film directed by Henry Levin and starring Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Paula Prentiss, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Hutton, and Frank Gorshin. It was written by George ...
", which depicts an Asian American man as merely the spouse rather than his White partner, who is a soldier. Chong-Suk Han, one of the leading researchers of queer
Asian Pacific American men, says that such images contribute to a cultural devaluation of gay Asian male sexuality. According to GLAAD, 86 percent of the LGBT characters shown during the U.S. 2008–2009 television season were white; 19 percent were of Asian descent—mostly minor roles. LGBT media articles, like Out Magazine's "How to Gab in Gaysian" published in February 2005, are seen as perpetuating a perception of Asian gayness as foreign and outside the norm.
Lesbian East and Southeast Asian women in media
Lesbian East and Southeast Asian women are presented in more largely stereotyped, feminized roles:
Dragon Lady
Dragon Lady is usually a stereotype of certain East Asian and occasionally South Asian and/or Southeast Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering, mysterious, and often sexually alluring. Inspired by the characters played by actress Anna Ma ...
or
China doll.
Some support groups to combat these negative perceptions have been formed, like Yellow Kitties, an Australian-based LGBT organization.
Asian lesbian and bisexual women report a sense of invisibility in both LGBT community and U.S. culture as a whole, which is supplemented by a lack of representation of lesbian and bisexual Asian American women in mainstream media.
See also
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Homophobia in ethnic minority communities
Homophobia in ethnic minority communities is any negative prejudice or form of discrimination in ethnic minority communities worldwide towards people who identify as–or are perceived as being–lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), k ...
*
Racial fetishism
*
Romantic racism
Romantic racism is a form of racism in which members of a dominant group project their fantasies onto members of oppressed groups. Feminist scholars have accused Norman Mailer,Breines, Wini (1992). ''Young, White, and Miserable: Growing up Female ...
Further reading
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*
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* Plummer, M. D. (2007). Sexual racism in gay communities: Negotiating the ethnosexual marketplace (Doctoral dissertation).
References
External links
Racism Issues in Predominantly White Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Communities digital archive compiled by the
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...
{{Racism topics
LGBT and multiculturalism
LGBT-related controversies
Lgbt
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...