Badlands is an unfortunate yet appropriate name for a gay bar in San Francisco that is being cited for racial discrimination. It is alleged that the owner required African American patrons to show multiple forms of i.d. before being allowed entry, as well as having a dress code and employment policies that were equally prejudiced. The Board of Supervisors have voted unanimously to take action against Les Natali, the owner of Badlands and it is likely that the bar’s liquor license will be revoked.
Even in politically aware San Francisco, racism exists, which is sad and sucky, because it is one of those places people flock to in order to escape hatred, prejudice, ignorance. But what bugs me so much isn’t just that it happened in San Francisco, but that it is a gay establishment with a racist policy. If anyone can understand exclusion, it should be the gay community. With the Bush Administration using the platform of denying gay and lesbian couples the right to equal status in marriage as a way to win the election, homosexuality is constantly under fire. How does anyone survive it and continue to fight for change? If you do manage to survive it, how do you then manage to lack empathy for all other oppressed minorities?
Whenever I encounter racism within the gay community, I am immediately embarrassed, and I want to erase the incident from my mind as soon as possible. I don’t want to think about it, I don’t want to make it into an anecdote, I want to forget that I saw it and absorb it whole into my psyche as if I could prevent it from spreading further into the world. We have enough to deal with battling the ignorance that still threatens our community and allows the government to treat us like second class citizens without having to examine the grave faultiness that exists within our own ranks.
When I see homophobia expressed within other communities, ones I believe should know better, I am equally embarrassed and inclined to suck the incident inside myself – breathe in the suffering and breathe out compassion, but it’s hard. A conservative African American minister was quoted at a recent anti-gay marriage rally, warning the gay community not to confuse gay marriage with civil rights. “Don’t make your sin about our skin!” That sickens me, because I honor the struggle of African Americans in this country. I know their freedom was hard won and the bitterness and pain it took to win it is too fresh in our collective memory to be taken lightly. Yet to compare it to the struggle of gay and lesbian Americans to share in equal rights and seek acceptance in this country does not in any way lessen the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement. Looking to our history and forming bonds between those who have overcome oppression and those who face it head on now is important and needed if we wish to evolve into a nation of understanding.
Don’t we want to be a good land, as opposed to a bad one?