Comparing the south-asian immigrant community in America & the LGBTQA community

I wrote this as a response to a racialicious article that was actually not half bad and got me thinking.

"Interesting, because I've been hanging with a black friend lately who is pretty homophobic and likes to talk about how its part of the "black community standards." Like you, though, I haven't found it to be the rule, more the exception, and homophobic black folk who use the old line of, "don't worry, my beliefs are supported by my peers, this is just part of the experience of 'being black' ", and of course "by not being black, you just couldn't possibly understand," definately one of the most closed minded and outright wrong things a person can think.



There are no limitations to the human mind.



But yes; I live in a very gay-prevelant city. We're touted (amongst our own residents) as the second largest gay-city in the country. There's alot of open clashes between the LGBTQA community and the "others". I've seen "bigoted" straight people, but bigoted gay folk as well. Ultimately its not the sexual preference that's predisposing people to have a certain mindset, but merely their own humanity showing through inevitably.



I'm not a bigot, I feel like folk should be able to do as they please, so long as they aren't putting at risk: life, limb or property. With that said, my own preferences are clear, and I have strong convictions behind those preferences, but as a guy who interacts with LGBTQA on a daily basis, you have to learn how to play nice. While I might object to an entire community gathering together merely because they share a sexual preference, I understand the reality of the shared experience of another nature: discrimination; unpleasantness of all flavors because of a rift between society and subculture.



Then again, I'm also the kindof guy who hates using the word: Black. I'd rather just call them by name; I'm of South-Asian decent, but British nationality. I routinely tell people, "I'm British," when they ask where I'm from [I live in the Midwest, so it's a clusterfuck of explaining, and I'm a socially-lazy bastard, which I feel is perfectly alright.]



As a comedian, I find gay-jokes are reacted to [by sensitive gay folk] in the way jesus jokes would be reacted to by extremely conservative pious christians.



Both will burn you at the stake.



Ultimately, there are those who will get sucked into the "sub-culture", or perhaps even the myth of the subculture. Some people will feel more justified outright attacking one another because they feel it's OK, since they're just doing what is the "norm". They're just being a good ______ [insert deliniation here]. It's the enlightened-few that no longer bother with trying to appease some ideal which ironically and ultimately more-resembles a stereotype than a life-goal or genuinely-worthwhile-ideal to endevour to inhabit.



And then there's a bit of resentment.



As an immigrant, I have nothing like what the LGBTQA community has in my city, and in my country. In my lifetime, I will never have the support amongst people with my immigrant experience [within my specific era of immigration, my specific locale of origin]. And there's bitterness in that, because examining the LGBTQA community, one of the formulative experiences that draws everyone together is the "coming out story." It's weird, because it's such a universal that it extends far beyond sexuality. Anyone whose ever had a clash of relgious belief, or really any belief whatsoever, between themselves and strongly-believing parents... It's these people which will relish the chance to relate to others who've been through THAT formulative and PAINFUL experience.



So it's great that such things exist for the LGBTQA community.



I just wished we'd have it for the South-Asian wave of American immigrants as well. "