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| GSA Washington Prep HS |
By Sikivu Hutchinson
As the world continues to condemn and mourn the
terrorist murders of queer folk of color in Orlando what messages are being
sent to queer youth of color about their dignity, worth and agency? The Orlando shooter has been characterized as
self-hating and closeted, his rampage allegedly driven by internalized
homophobia. While the massacre has rightfully become a mobilizing force for queer
communities, it has also been exploited as a convenient symbol of pc solidarity
for straight hypocrites on all sides of the religious spectrum. In the week
since the tragedy, Christian fundamentalists have repeatedly marginalized the
unrelenting violence that queer, trans and gender non-conforming people in the
U.S. face. Notorious
homophobe-transphobes like Christian fascist Ted Cruz self-righteously slam
“radical Islam” for demonizing LGBTQ folk, yet traffick in their own anti-gay
venom. Cruz (aka “at least we don’t
throw our gays off of buildings like the radical Islamists”) and his ilk are
the most visible purveyors of heterosexist violence. Yet, after mainstream outrage about Orlando
recedes, how many who’ve railed against the intersection of domestic terrorism
and homophobic violence will actually step up on systemic discrimination against
LGBTQ youth of color?
State violence against queer youth of color is reflected
in the disproportionate rates of harsh school discipline and incarceration that
they experience. According
to Aisha Moodie-Mills and Jerome Hunt of the Center for American Progress, of the
“approximately 300,000 gay and transgender youth who are arrested and/or
detained each year (more) than 60 percent are black or Latino.” Further, “Many
gay and transgender youth leave their homes of their own accord to escape the
conflict and emotional or physical abuse that can ensue—26 percent report
leaving their homes at some point—but more often, they are pushed out and into
the juvenile justice system by their own families.”
Because there are so few supportive resources for
queer black youth, a significant
number wind up homeless and on the streets. In L.A. County, the homeless capital of the
nation, queer youth comprise
forty percent of the homeless youth population—a majority of which are African
American. These gaps in social welfare
mean that homeless and foster care youth are more
likely to become incarcerated. In a
weekly young women’s leadership class that I co-teach with my colleague Josh
Parr of The Beat Within at
Camp Scott and Scudder juvenile camp in Santa Clarita, virtually all of our
students identify as lesbian, bi, trans and gender non-conforming. Many speak of navigating the intolerance of ultra-religious
families, dealing with physical and sexual abuse and harsh discipline as they
cycled through multiple schools.
Nationwide, queer youth of color are more likely to
be targeted by school staff and faculty for gender non-conformity. They are more likely to be suspended,
expelled and pushed out of school because of biased notions about how they
should behave relative to their perceived gender and sexual orientation. In
over-policed schools in which “acceptable” feminine behavior constitutes being
more ladylike, docile and compliant, black girls are targeted more harshly than
Latina and white girls, while black boys are hampered by racist stereotypes
about black hypermasculinity. In her
work on the criminalization of black girls in schools, educator Monique Morris argues
that the burden of conforming to heteronormative behaviors has especially dire
consequences for black girls. According
to Morris: “There is an important point of departure between the conditions
affecting Black females and males with respect to the role of discipline and
educational attainment in the ‘pipeline’ between schools and carceral
institutions…the behaviors for which Black females routinely experience
disciplinary response are related to their nonconformity with notions of white
middle class femininity, for example, by their dress, their profanity, or
having tantrums in the classroom.”
Bucking white hetero-norms, black girls are often penalized for not
being sufficiently “ladylike” or deferential to authority, a dynamic that is especially
traumatic when they’re victimized by physical and sexual abuse.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, these insidious
expectations and gender norms played a big role in the bullying-related suicides of boys
of color like Carl Walker Hoover and Jahem Herrera. Hoover’s 2010 suicide—as well as that of Herrera,
a Latino boy who was also harassed at school because he was suspected of being
gay— both went under the national radar.
Conversely, bullying-related suicides involving white gay youth are more
widely publicized and seized on as national calls to action. These cases were highlighted in magazines and
on cable TV and network news. Town halls
were convened, experts were tapped, and bullying prevention became the mantra
in public schools. Yet the mainstream
view that youth of color aren’t deserving victims prevents them from getting
the mental health intervention and social reinforcement that they need.
The dearth of culturally responsive curricula and
instruction that addresses the social history of queer communities also leads
to prison pipelining. Despite the passage of California’s SB48,
a bill requiring textbooks and high school history courses to include the
contributions of gays and lesbians, school districts across this “liberal” blue
state have made few investments in training and professional development for school
staff and faculty. The bill was passed with much fanfare on the promise that it
would provide greater visibility for LGBTQ communities of color and the
struggle for social justice. Yet, in
most high school curricula, cultural inclusion of prominent gays and lesbians
of color rarely goes beyond tokenized/sanitized portrayals of Langston Hughes
or James Baldwin.
In the shadow of Orlando, pushing for transformative
schools and culturally responsive education is still a matter of life and
death, both for queer and straight youth of color. In families, classrooms and schoolyards, homophobia,
transphobia and the toxic,
criminalizing straight privilege that they represent, continue to kill.
