Dual jeopardy

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by Patrick Lejtenyi

Identity is a tricky matter. In the gender, ethnic and sexual orientation political minefield, transgender, homo- and bisexual people of colour have to face discrimination twice or even three times over, says Keith Boykin, a gay black civil rights campaigner, author and former special advisor to former U.S. president Bill Clinton.

"Based on my experience and that of many other people I've spoken to, there is racism in the gay community just as there is homophobia in ethnic communities," says Boykin, who will address this issue and many others this weekend as keynote speaker at the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) luncheon and roundtable on gays and lesbians of colour.

"I've noticed racial issues in gay communities in the States," says the New-York-based Boykin. "The leadership of many LGBT communities is overwhelmingly white. The images of the LGBT community in the media is white and male." On a more personal level, he has also noticed gays and lesbians of colour having to produce more identification at clubs and other subtler forms of discrimination.

Nor is one group any more--or less--prone to anti-gay discrimination. "We are all born and reared in the same sexist, racist, homophobic, classist society, and to think that we escaped that because we were born into one specific group is foolhardy."

For more information on either the luncheon or the roundtable, contact CRARR at 939-3342.