Homophobia or Racism? Pick your poison
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I agree with Johnson’s notion of preserving an alliance with family/community members, even if they are homophobic. As much as “queerness” is a community in-itself, I believe that the cultural and racial community that a person is raised within and primarily associated with should be prioritized and preserved. As “quare” people of color, no matter how queer you are, the world sees you as a person of color first and will treat you as that. The queer identity and community cannot protect you, and the presumed whiteness of it will leave you behind. Homophobia is a real and dangerous issue in some communities of color, yet its weaponization by white people against the communities creates a challenge. Zine describes this notion in regards to the intersection of Islam and Feminism: “the challenge for Muslim feminists: when we begin to interrogate issues of sexism within our communities our efforts becomes subject to the sensationalised racism outside of the community which feeds off such revelations.” As Johnson suggests; “quare” folks cannot afford to exclude even their homophobic family members from their alliances because the primary struggle is against oppression and for most “quare” folk that dominating oppression is from a colonial/racist power. When looking through “Queering the Map” in Gaza, one pin really stuck out to me in relation to this notion: “as a queer Palestinian, the only time I felt angry and broken about seeing a pride flag was when I saw it flying on grandparents house, on my stolen land.” Like Black quare individuals, quare Palestinians must struggle alongside their community regardless of homophobic family members because there is a larger systematic threat: colonialism/racism. Because of the rise of media propaganda and tools such as pinkwashing, we are seeing a rise in stereotypes such as “the beaten, burnt, oppressed, foreign woman of color” that Zine talks about. Another quote from “Queering the Map” in Haifa explains the emotions behind this: “I get jealous when I see people that don't deserve to live there enjoying their lives, having pride parades, while turning ours into hell…but this actually made me realize I can handle someone being homophobic to me but I can't handle someone supporting settler colonialism.” We must create an alliance within cultural communities, even if it means putting cultural identity above queer identity at times because the perception of racialized identities and the struggles that accompany these identities pose a more immediate threat.