queerness is not a white thing: why we need to talk about the intersections of colonization & homophobia @maxgetscurious
why intersectionality matters
as queer/trans+ BIPOC, we often face a double jeopardy of discrimination:
-racial trauma (ie fetishization, racism, & xenophobia) from fellow queer folks
-queer trauma (ie rejection, violence, & shame) from our ethnic communities
though we aren't taught about it, racism & colonialism are at the heart of much of the LGBTQA-phobia we face!
this is intersectionality*: when we hold multiple disadvantaged identities, the oppression we face is interconnected.
*intersectionality was first coined by Black feminist scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in 1989
the myth that queer = white
in some BIPOC cultures, being LGBTQA+ is seen as a western invention, a foreign import, or (as President Mugabe of Zimbabwe called it)... "a white disease."
for instance, after I came out as bisexual, a fellow Chinese American asked me, "where did you learn this? do you want to be like white people?"🤡
yet the ultimate irony is that historically speaking, in many of our cultures, LGBTQA+ ways of living aren't the Western import; homophobia is!
for thousands of years, male emperors, commoners, poets, and gods loved and married other men
Xie Zhaozhe (1567-1624) wrote that "from Jiangnan and Zhejiang to Beijing and Shanxi, there is none that does not know of this fondness."
it was Western influence that sparked a new era of homophobia in China. from the Westernization Movement of the late 1800s to the Cultural Revolution, China adopted Western philosophy, psychiatry, & science - cementing new attitudes that gay love was antiquated or sick. the term homosexuality illness was only removed from China's DSM in 2001.
reading rec: Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China, Brett Hinsch, 1992
for millennia, Indian sexuality and gender were flexible and steeped in divinity. the Kama Sutra dedicated whole chapters to same-sex relations and a third gender, while hijras (who live beyond the male/female binary) held high status in society.
all that changed in 1861 when the British Empire imposed section 377, a ban on same-sex relations that soon spread through all colonies. in 1871, they labeled hijras (who are seen as demigods), a new "criminal tribe" to be controlled and erased.
India's ban on homosexual sex was only overturned in 2018, while hijras still face violence, stigma, & police brutality.
watch: "What is a Hijra?" (YouTube), Women in the World interview w/ Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, 2017
for much of history, many African societies didn't assign gender to anatomy. in Uganda, several peoples recognized third & cross-gender social roles, while King Mwanga || was openly gay.
when missionaries arrived in the 1600s, they used fluidity as an excuse to "save" Africa. imposed Christian laws & beliefs helped cement the idea that being LGBTQA+ isn't culturally African, but homophobia is. to this day, American Evangelicals support virulent homophobic faith & laws in Uganda.
in 2018, Uganda was one of 31 countries that still had anti-LGBTQ laws originating from the British Empire's section 377.
read: "We've Always Been Here: African Sexuality & the Legacy of Imported Homophobia" Stonewall.org
for more, compare these maps of the former British Empire...
source: "The Homophobic Legacy of the British Empire" Ben Westcott for CNN.com, 2018
we need to remember where our LGBTQA-phobia came from.
the greatest irony of all is that BIPOC countries with homophobic attitudes are now decried by Western leaders as backwards - THE SAME RHETORIC their predecessors used to criminalize our millennia-old queer realities in the first place.
in 2019, when Brunei passed a death by stoning law for people who have gay sex, former New Zealand PM Helen Clark tweeted, "hard to comprehend what could be driving such a barbaric move which stands in stark opposition to fundamental human rights principles."
yeah, that sh*t is hard to comprehend.
colonization & imperialism are just part of the picture
when we talk about the intersections of colonization/imperialism & LGBTQA-phobia, we do need to recognize that while Western LGBTQA-phobia used to be foreign to out cultures, today, it is often deeply enmeshed with our cultural values.
for instance, for many Chinese LGBTQA+ today, the pressure to stay closeted doesn't only come from the homophobia of Christianity & Western psychiatry...
Confucian values also play a major role by putting huge pressure on us to "keep it private, protect the family reputation, and have kids to carry on our lineages."
so what does this mean for us?
intersectionality matters. our oppression as queer people is rooted in histories of imperialism & white Christian supremacy.
in truth, being queer IS African, Asian, Indigenous, Pasifika, Latinx, SWANA, and more. queerness is natural, ancient, human, and good. it is of us.
so when we show up in the fullness of who we are; when we tell our stories; when we heal...
we are honoring the uncountable queer ancestors that came before us, and ensuring that those to come after us can live a little more free.