Celebrating Queer People of Color

February is Black History Month. This was established by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) as a way to create and disseminate knowledge about Black History (asalh.org). As the LGBTQ Center on campus, we would like to take this month to focus on the intersecting identities of Queer People of Color (QPOC).

We all know that there are many specific challenges faced by members of the queer community. These range from lack of family acceptance, to legal discrimination at the state and federal level, and everything in between. These issues are often further complicated for QPOC because of on-going racism, and various cultural aspects of communities of color they might belong to. For example, in many communities of color heterosexist gender role expectations are often stronger and more of a cultural focus than in white communities. In Asian (and other) cultures, sex/sexuality itself can be a very taboo topic, which can make coming out to family even more challenging. Additionally, religious institutions often play a large role in communities of color, which sometimes give clear heterosexist/homophobic messages.

Aside from the heterosexist/homophobic issues within communities of color, QPOC also face racism and cultural insensitivities from the prodominately white queer community. I would like to think of the queer community as the most inclusive of all minority groups, since queer people come from all different background, but unfortunately that is not always the case. In fact, the term "queer" itself is sometimes referred to as "white term" that many people of color do not identify with. Most mainstream representations of queer people (stereotypes, media images, etc.) focus on white queer people and do not take into consideration cultural differences among communities of color.

This is a very brief overview of just some possible issues involved in the intersecting identities of QPOC. Throughout the month of February, we hope to use this blog as a way to focus on this theme, and celebrate QPOC. If you self-identify as a queer person of color, and would like to contribute to this blog, please e-mail me a post and I will publish it for you (as always, just let me know in the e-mail if you prefer to remain annonymous). We will also be planning programs for the Vassar Community that focus on QPOC during this month, so stay tuned for more information!