San Diego Gay and Lesbian News

America continues to struggle with its battle against white racism.  However, what’s not addressed is the internalized racism people of color struggle with too - consciously and unconsciously. And, it’s called “colorism” or  “intraracism."

My father, a devout Catholic man from Mexico, and my mother, a Jewish woman raised by Orthodox parents whose family left Russia and Austria respectively to escape persecution and death, each explained to me as a young person the discrimination I would face because my life encompassed these inherited identities.

Morehouse College- the jewel of black academia and male leadership- will admit transgender male students in 2020.  

However, UMC’s vote at General Conference last month to uphold- 53% to 47%-  its Traditionalist Plan, which is to oppose same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy. Now the church has the potential for a schism with its global delegation outweighing the U.S. 

It wasn’t due to peer pressure, and I wasn’t aware that the tobacco industry aggressively targets the LGBTQ+ community. I was struggling with severe depression, suicidal ideation and coming to terms with my sexual orientation. At the time, I didn’t even know what transgender was, but I was presenting as female and wanted to date other females.

In real life, Smollett is an African American gay male. Smollett has been charged with concocting an elaborate racist and homophobic assault against him. Smollett’s fan base, needless to say, is flummoxed. So, too, are many Americans trying to push through this deeply polarized moment.

What should have been an enriching classroom engagement turned instead into a public outrage that's now prompting an outside investigation. 

Too often, however, because of physical and sexual assaults, and being housed in facilities according to their birth sex and not their gender identity, these inmates are not only serving time for their crimes, but they are also trying to survive their time while imprisoned. 

With a conservative Supreme Court-  Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh - it  comes as no surprise that a 5-4 vote has revived Trump’s discriminatory policy on transgender service members, while the merits of the cases will continue to be challenged in lower courts.

While I will continue to argue that the African American community doesn’t have a patent on homophobia, it does, however, have a problem with it. 

And comedian Kevin Hart is another glaring example of the malady.