Kerry Washington Calls Out Black Homophobes - and Others

Charley Gallay/Getty Images for GLAAD

One thing that has continued to strike me since coming out is how blacks - a demographic that has faced horrific discrimination simply because of who they were - are all too likely to be homophobic.  Worse yet, at least here in Virginia, they allow them selves to be duped and used as water carriers for whites who would prefer to see a return to the Jim Crow era and the disenfranchisement of blacks.  An example?  The black pastors who continually allow themselves to be manipulated by The Family Foundation which is viciously anti-gay and which supports all the the Virginia GOP's voter ID laws and other efforts to disenfranchise blacks and whose officials are routinely caught telling racist "jokes."  Are these black pastors total cretins?  This past Saturday, as she accepted the Vangrard Award at the GLAAD Media Awards, Scandal star Kerry Washington let loose on black homophobes and others who remain anti-gay and who, in my view have a moral sickness that allows them to feel good about them selves only when denigrating and marginalizing others.  Here are highlights of Washington's remarks via The Daily Beast:

Scandal star Kerry Washington announced that she was going to use the occasion, in this case the GLAAD Media Awards and her acceptance of The Vanguard award Saturday night, to address issues that were both pertinent to the award and dear to her heart. The actress, who’s played LGBT characters in films such as She Hate Me and Life Is Hot In Cracktown, spoke about the ongoing marginalization of the LGBT community and others in Hollywood that sit outside of the standard white, straight, Christian, male narrative. “Women, poor people, people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, trans people, intersex people…have been pitted against each other and made to feel like there are limited seats at the table for those of us who fall into the category of other,” the Emmy-nominated star stated, to rounds of applause.

But she also spoke directly to her own community, specifically. Washington addressed the hypocrisy she sees in black people who don’t support marriage equality. “So when black people today tell me that they don't believe in gay marriage… So, the first thing that I say is, ‘Please don't let anybody try to get you to vote against your own best interest by feeding you messages of hate.’ And then I say, ‘You know people used to stay that stuff about you and your love and if we let the government start to legislate love in our lifetime, who do you think is next?’”

Washington’s words seem to echo sentiments expressed by Lee Daniels, Oscar-nominated director and creator of FOX’s hit series Empire. . . . “Homophobia is rampant in the African American community, and men are on the DL,” he said. “They don’t come out, because your priest says, your pastor says, mama says, your next-door neighbor says, your homie says, your brother says, your boss says [that homosexuality is wrong]. And they are killing African American women. They are killing our women. So I wanted to blow the lid off more on homophobia in my community.”

Black homophobia is real and has to be rooted out if we are going to move forward as a society and as a people. We can’t champion the rights of only straight black people as if they are all that matter or are the only voice that should be given a platform. Either all of us are free or none of us are free. But in addressing that homophobia, those who consider themselves opponents of homophobia and racism should be mindful of how easily one can be used to galvanize the other, and it’s not in the best interest of progress to allow a room full of entitled white liberals to believe that the only bigots are the ones who don’t look like them.  Ignorance and hate are not black-exclusive.