What is ‘white gay privilege’?
It is a sad reality that being part of a marginalised societal group exposes you to hate, discrimination and unequal treatment.
This fact is well known by people in the LGBTQ+ community, who experience this kind of hostility based on their gender and/or their sexuality.
However, for people whose identities intersect multiple marginalised groups – there are more things to consider. For LGBTQ+ people of colour, racism also impacts how they are perceived and treated by wider society. So, people from the LGBTQ+ community who do not have to also worry about racism, possess ‘white gay privilege’.
‘I think I knew what white gay privilege was before we had that name for it,’ Lady Phyll, one of the founders of UK Black Pride, tells Metro.co.uk.
‘When I started UK Black Pride, it was partly in response to mainstream pride celebrations being so overwhelmingly white gay men and women. It was quite clearly for people who looked like them, listened to the same music and celebrated the same cultural milestones.
‘When you’re an LGBTQI+ person of colour and you walk into a white space, you know. The same thing happens with many Prides, for many of us.’
White gay privilege does not mean that white LGBTQ+ people cannot experience discrimination themselves. Rather, it means they do not have the additional experience of being racialised and treated differently because of the colour of their skin.
Why it’s vital to be aware of ‘white gay privilege’
It’s important to acknowledge the existence of white privilege in LGBTQ+ spaces, because a failure to do so can lead to people of colour feeling excluded, and even perpetuate the existence of racism in these communities.Research in this area is scant, but a study by Stonewall previously found that over half of Black, Asian and ethnic minority people have experienced racism in the LGBTQ+ community. And according to FS magazine, 80% of Black men, 79% of Asian men and 75% of south Asian men have faced racism on the gay scene.
These statistics are the reason why queer people of colour have felt the need to create their own safe spaces.
‘For a long time, mainstream Pride celebrations weren’t really questioned in the same way they are now,’ says Lady Phyll.
‘People are beginning to see what others have seen for a while: these Pride celebrations don’t reflect the communities people are encountering in the real world.
‘While celebrations like UK Black Pride will always be necessary, I am hopeful that we’ll see more pride celebrations reflective of our vast and varied communities. The more spaces we have to celebrate, the better.’
Speaking previously to Metro.co.uk, mixed-race, genderqueer medical student Anushka shared how they believed there is an insidious problem with race in traditional queer safe spaces.
‘I’ve definitely found that, especially with middle class white LGBTQ+ people, they think that they can’t be racist because they experienced homophobia and queerphobia,’ they say. ‘Some of the people I have met will crown themselves as “woke” or “liberal”, and will argue their way out of a racist conversation with me until I back down.’
How does white gay privilege work?
Like all forms of privilege, white gay privilege operates in a way that is often invisible and difficult to unpick – and it works to create a hierarchy in which white people are at the top.‘What makes it particularly pernicious is that we’re talking about people who are marginalised in one aspect of who they are – i.e. being gay or queer – still being able to perpetuate discrimination and prejudice against another minority group, despite the fact that they themselves are marginalised,’ says writer and LGBTQ+ rights and anti-racism campaigner Alexander Leon.
‘I think that is what differentiates white gay privilege from white privilege. It is being marginalised and still discriminated against people that are different from you.’
Alexander says that white gay privilege means walking into a queer space knowing that it has been created with you in mind. He says so much of queer culture and LGBTQ+ spaces have been based around a blueprint of white gay man.
‘Most mainstream, gay nightlife or social spaces have been built historically with white people in mind,’ says Alexander. ‘It is getting better now, but certainly back in the day, these environments were created by white gay men for white gay men.
‘The invisible rules that dictate those environments are rules created by white gay men that largely align with what it means to be a white gay man.’
As a result, Alexander says, those who don’t fit this specific and narrow image of queerness are left out. One solution, he suggests, is for LGBTQ+ people of colour to create their own spaces to exist comfortably as their full selves – but progress can’t stop there.
‘We don’t live in a perfect world where every single space is made for everyone. We want to live in that world, and perhaps we will eventually. But right now, it’s a privilege and a pleasure to be in a space and know that it was made specifically with you in mind, where you don’t have to recontextualise anything in order to fit in.
‘One of the answers is to give queer people of color spaces where they caninhabit every single aspect of themselves. But concurrently we have to try to encourage other spaces – including in the corporate world as another example – to ensure that they’re creating environments that don’t feel like they’re built purely on whiteness.’
Why can it be difficult to call out white gay privilege?
Calling out privilege is famously uncomfortable.People don’t typically like to admit any kind of privilege that they may have had, and this discomfort may be even more pronounced for people who experience both privilege and discrimination simultaneously.
Writer Mishti Ali has first-hand experience of moving through queer spaces as a woman of colour, and believes everyone needs to be better at acknowledging the problem.
‘White people within the LGBTQ+ community often forget that the troubles they face as a result of being queer don’t negate the fact that, at the end of the day, they benefit from whiteness,’ Mishti tells Metro.co.uk. ‘Their experiences aren’t the same as those of people of colour, whether queer or not.’
Mishti says it can be difficult to call out white gay privilege because LGBTQ+ spaces are often overwhelmingly white. This can lead to a fear of being cast out if you do speak up.
‘When you’ve spent so long trying to find a space to express your sexual and gender identities, it can be hard to say something which could potentially lead to you being ostracised from those spaces and left on your own,’ she explains.
‘Again, lots of white gay people do often forget that the fact of them also being marginalised in some capacity isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to the responsibility they need to take in how they interact with LGBTQ+ people of colour.
‘Responding to being called out with white tears and white guilt leads to people of colour feeling like they never really fit in anywhere.’
Alexander concedes that it can also be easy to miss other forms of inequality when you are busy fighting your own battles – people aren’t always aware of the compounded impact of having multiple marinalised identities.
‘When you are from a marginalised background yourself, you are often understandably, and necessarily, very caught up in your own marginalisation – because it is the thing that is reflected back to you by society all the time,’ says Alexander.
‘This can mean that it is possible to be fairly ignorant to other acts of marginalisation that exist around you, within your community.
‘There is a tendency to think the thing that unites us all is that we’re queer, so we all fighting the same fight. And we are all fighting the same fight to an extent, but we are actually all fighting different iterations of that fight at the same time.’
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Mishti Ali being a hypocritical cunt in showing off her privilege.
The "beard".
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