Wednesday, October 29, 2008

No Melting Pot in this LGBT Community


Today, I ran into this article which gave me more insight about the diversity of Cali-Cal's LGBT community.

According to Los Angeles based multicultural market research company New American Dimensions, Blacks and Hispanic gays and lesbians completely consider themselves to be members of at least two minority groups: one defined by sexual orientation and the other defined by race or ethnicity. Lesbians face discrimination on an additional front, as women. To which group do they really belong? Many respondents suggested that they feel comfortable in no traditional group at all.

Both Black and Hispanic gays and lesbians confessed they felt at odds with the "gay community," which many said is very Caucasian in its focus.As a result, these gays and lesbians of color often prefer to develop their own small, personal, multicultural communities.

I haven't explored this community as much as I like to. It is very different than New York or Georgia, but hella better than Arizona. However, I would like to get to the deeper root of the issue. I'm sure money is a factor; West Hollywood is fun, if you have the money to waste. But I also believe morals play a part as well.

For most Blacks and Latinos, morals and religion are strongholds. The LGBT community loves some sexual taboo-exploration things, so I'm sure that conflicts with a lot of personal beliefs. I remember some of my friends being afraid to hang with white gays because they believed that they were...nasty. Silly belief? Yes. Do people believe that? Yes.

But I'll follow up on this article. I would like to learn more about this diversity problem and why in a large cultural rich place like L.A., continues to struggle with this issue.

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