Introduction
On May 17, 1993, The New Yorker ran a short essay by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. entitled “Backlash?: All
prejudices are not equal. But that doesn’t mean there’s no comparison between the predicaments of gays and
blacks.” Coming in the wake of the April 25, 1993 “March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights
and Liberation,” and amid a political debate about whether or not to allow openly gay people to serve in the US
Military, Gates’ article addressed perceived tension between gay rights activists and black community and military
leaders over the way that both the march and the military debate were being framed in reference to black struggles
for equality during the civil rights era. According to Gates, the objection was primarily “a matter of stolen prestige,”
as “some veterans of the civil-rights era,” felt the 1963 March on Washington and the civil rights movement were
being “misappropriated” by the gay rights March on Washington and the gay rights movement more broadly (1993:
22). Moreover, he explained, the problem with the analogy is threefold; first, he quotes a civil rights era activist
noting that the nature of discrimination against gays is not comparable to that against blacks during segregation. As
a group, gays have not experienced systematic discrimination and disenfranchisement the way that African
Americans did; as a movement, the gay rights movement has not experienced anywhere near the amount of violence
perpetrated against protestors during the civil rights movement. “ ‘Gays are not subject to water hoses or police
dogs, denied access to lunch counters or prevented from voting’ the Reverend Mr. Kuby asserted” (22). Secondly,
Gates points out that gays, being “evenly distributed among classes and races” do not have a common history or
legacy of discrimination, while “much black suffering stems from historical racism” and the accumulation of
disadvantage through intergenerational transmission of poverty (23). Finally, Gates identifies choice and visibility
as important differences in anti-black and anti-gay discrimination. More explicitly, race is (usually) obvious while
sexuality is something that people choose to disclose (the assertion that people not only choose to disclose their
sexual orientation but also the nature thereof is also hinted at by some of Gates’ interviewees, although never stated
outright).
In an article for a local gay press around the same time, long-time black lesbian activist Barbara Smith
criticized gay leaders for “cavalierly” comparing the gay rights movement to the 1960’s black civil rights
movement, but notes with satisfaction that because of this move, “For the first time the relationship between the
African American and lesbian and gay communities is being widely debated” (reprinted in Brandt, 1999: 15). In the
12 years since “lesbians and gays launched a major volley in the battle to reclaim the civil rights mantle” with the
1993 gay march on Washington, the debate over the relationship between gay politics and black politics has
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Convention