Here’s a fascinating story, indicating the inherently fucked up nature of the company known as Facebook…

So, a few days ago I posted the below commentary on my Facebook friends page and Facebook fan page. It was a relatively sober-minded defense of the struggle for LGBT liberation, and a critique of those who have sought to minimize the importance of that struggle, in comparison to the struggle against racism. For some reason, some idiot complained to Facebook like a little 3-year old, apparently offended by my comments, and claiming that they violated Facebook’s community standards, even though they did not. But some precious little soul can’t stand having their homophobic worldview challenged so they decided to report me to Facebook…sadly, rather than actually reading the “offending” post, FB just believed the word of the precious little pathetic nobody who complained and as a result my ability to post on Facebook was suspended for 24 hours, with no chance for appeal; and my prior post was removed. Here is the post. Judge for yourself how any remotely rational person could believe this post violated any standard of decency.
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Here we go, and I’ma lose some folks over this. And I can hardly find even two shits to give…

Lately, I’ve come across many folks on FB and elsewhere, whose race politics are largely impeccable, but whose views on sexism/patriarchy and straight supremacy/heterosexism are retrograde nonsense. They play “oppression olympics” insisting that those fighting for LGBT equality are fighting for lesser important causes, or that until people of color are fully liberated from white supremacy (well, at least black men–not necessarily black women) all others should wait (including, presumably LGBT people of color!) or that since LGBT folks can supposedly “conceal” their identity, they are not really oppressed the way POC are. All of this is puerile, ignorant bullshit, not quite as bad as the views of some that homosexuality is just something foisted upon black people by whites as a way to destroy black men–a view believed by some otherwise educated people despite the fact that homosexuality has been observed in literally hundreds of species, not likely influenced by whitey–but not much better. To this, I have the following to say. Too short for an essay, but perhaps appropriate here. Make of it what you will. I am not interested in debating it, by the way, so don’t bother. I won’t be trolled on this. Trust. Just like I won’t listen to stupidity from white LGBT folk who say things like “Gay is the New Black,” and for the same reasons: ignorance deserves to get smacked down from whatever source.
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To those who insist there are fundamental differences between the oppression of people of color, as people of color, under white supremacy and the oppression of LGBT folks, as LGBT folks, under heterosexism/straight supremacy/cis-supremacy, take note: just because two things are not precisely the same does not mean they are not similar enough to both warrant concern and protection. And the claim that LGBT folks can “conceal” their identity and thus have one up on people of color who cannot is putrid: poor people can “cover up” their poverty but they are oppressed under capitalism and deserve to be protected from oppression on that basis. Jews can lie about being Jewish — and many have, through history, so as to protect ourselves from anti-semitism — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important to challenge that form of bias and prevent it…light skinned black folks could conceal their blackness and “pass” but having to do so was soul murder, and if found out…well, we know what happened. Those who claim that LGBT folks can conceal who they are — and who likely wish they would do this for reasons having to do with the claimants’ own sexual insecurities more than anything else — are engaged in a ridiculous and oppressive conceit, just as monstrous as telling light skinned POC that they could or should conceal their identities. No one should ever have to lie about who they are to make YOU comfortable or to gain full and equal treatment. And if they do anyway, this should not be seen as a privilege or advantage, but a testament to the evil of the society in which they live. The closet is no Get Out of Jail Free card. The closet IS a form of jail, mental if not physical. And yes, it kills. And if you don’t know, now ya know…

Freedom and liberty are all or nothing deals. Anything else is bigotry and cannot be dressed up as anything else. And the dichotomy of “people of color OR LGBT folks” as victims of mistreatment reinforces the notion that LGBT folks are all white, thereby ignoring the dual reality of LGBT folks of color who live with BOTH oppressions, and likely don’t appreciate the idea that their reality can be ranked in terms of some oppression olympics. It’s moments like this in which I wish James Baldwin or Audre Lorde or Bayard Rustin could come back and kick some folks full-on in the ass. Such comparisons are unproductive, and would allow indigenous people to tell black folks to stop complaining, I suppose — which would also be unjust — simply because 98% of the indigenous were wiped out in the Americas, which is a far higher body count than that imposed upon African Americans. But if that argument would offend you (and it certainly offends me) then so too must these comparisons between anti-LGBT oppression and anti-POC oppression be seen as offensive. Oppression must be resisted because it is wrong, and for all reasons and against all persons. Notions of comparative suffering are inherently ridiculous: they would allow segregationists during early Jim Crow to say stupid shit like, “well black folks, count your lucky stars that you aren’t in the Belgian Congo, where King Leopold is killing 10 million blacks–God Bless America,” or telling Japanese Americans to stop complaining about internment camps because they could have been in Tokyo when we firebombed it, or Hiroshima or Nagasaki when we dropped atomic bombs…it’s all just nonsense meant to avoid the fact that the person who says shit like this is seeking to rationalize oppression…

That is all. But it matters.