Pamela Lightsey Making Black History For Gay Rights Summary

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Just like the African American community, the LGBTQ community has suffered from inequality. Both communities are parallel with the amount of injustice they have had to deal with. In the article, Making Black History for Gay Rights, author Pamela Lightsey argues how considering President Obama’s 2012 presidential bid, African American and LGBTQ communities united instead of divided despite of religious leaders trying to tear them apart. This immersion commitment between the two communities showcases how united they stand and how understanding they are of one another. Lightsey assertion is significant because today post Obama era racism and bigotry has been more prominent then it has been in decades. Now more than ever, minorities need to band together and bring each other up rather than tear each other down. To begin, Lightsey commands her opening statement with her argument that conservative groups are wrong to think that …show more content…

She continues to state that this continuing support for the LGBTQ community is seen widely in black youth. Lightsey states, “Our work was emboldened by the support of younger African Americans articulating a growing agitation against the irrelevance, bigotry and what I call bhomophobia (black homophobia highly influenced by the desire to be seen as acceptable citizens by white Americans).” By stating this Lightsey asserts how black youth have seen being prejudice as inappropriate. The youth of today being far more accepting than the youth decades ago. By adding this phrase bhomophobia, she expresses how before black Americans would try conform to white society however, now black Americans have had a different approach.