Why the Queer Community Needs to Support #BlackLivesMatter

There are too many queer people who love to act like they're part of the mainstream, as if the historical oppression we faced somehow wholly melted away at some point. While LGBT people at large are still treated as lesser than by society, some queer people love doing the system's dirty work by carrying their racist rhetoric on their backs.

Let's get one thing clear: THERE ARE BLACK LIVES IN OUR COMMUNITY. Being queer doesn't take precedent over one's racial identity. You are both identities at the same time. You say you want equality for us, then please explain what separates #BlackLivesMatter from our movement? And if you don't want equality, then why are you talking? To diminish other people and validate your own beliefs because hearing what other people believe challenges you to think...and you don't like that?

The thing that's really infuriating is that the people who need to be reading this stuff almost never do. They'll probably just read the headline of this article and react off that premise alone. These are the same people who get all their news solely from television, but swear they know everything.

What's even more infuriating is that if a black person says anything homophobic, transphobic, etc. the queer community immediately comes for them, the mentality usually being "how could they oppress us when they've been oppressed?!" But we as a larger community are rarely seen in the moments that they need us the most. People use black oppression to validate queer oppression, but rarely seek to dismantle the systems in place that harm them and us alike.

Of course, this isn't a condemnation of all queer people because, of course, there are many powerful queer activists and advocates working on behalf of #BlackLivesMatter. They are shining examples that we should all follow, whether we are POC or not, because if we watch other communities being marginalized and attacked, we have no right to ask for help from our allies when the spotlight of hate turns our way. And it always comes back around.

The queer community at large just isn't doing enough, plain and simple. Too often we get stuck in our own identities, fighting for justice for those alone, while we halfheartedly play the role of an ally for others without actually getting involved or going beyond surface level, social media sharing, which doesn't do much in the long run.

In case my answer to why queer people should support #BlackLivesMatter hasn't been clear, let me recap: there are black people in our community, and systematic bigotry, on all levels for all communities, needs to be stopped. We collectively need to fight for everyone, especially seeing as our community encompasses so many of the groups in question (POC, women, poor, non-Christians, so on and so forth).

It's heartbreaking that I still have to write stuff like this; that people still don't have enough proof that this country is deeply hateful and disgusting. We have people who still don't even understand what #BlackLivesMatter means and prefer to warp it into some "racist" movement that suggests that ONLY black lives matter and everyone else can go to hell.

I don't understand the queer community of now, but I do know that the LGBT community I want to be a part of fights for equity for everyone. Being queer is about so much more than sexuality. We're a community built upon activism and fighting back, but now queens can't be bothered to do much because we won marriage and that's great. It's honestly just sad. Sad that this is the queer community of today. If I don't feel part of this community, where else am I supposed to go?