Shaneel Lal: whiteness has staked a copyright claim to queerness

After fighting the oppression of the non-queer world, non-white queer people are facing another fight, writes Shaneel Lal. Photo / 123rf

OPINION

Adhikaar Aotearoa, a charity that advocates for queer South Asians, conducted the largest study on queer South Asians yet and found that 84 per cent have faced discrimination and, of that group, most faced racism from within the queer community. In my opinion, racism is not frowned upon in the queer community. It seems for some, it is a prerequisite.

South Asians facing racism in the queer community is no surprise. All you have to do is open Grindr, a queer hook-up app, to be met with countless profiles with a “no Asian policy” stated on their profile. It sounds bizarre, but multiple white queer people on dating and hook-up apps explicitly state that they will not date or hook up with Asians because they are Asian.

I can live without dating and hooking up with racists. I avoid them. But whiteness has staked a copyright claim to queerness. The white queer community has become synonymous with the queer community, and people of colour need permission from the white queers before we can access the community and its resources.

Some white Auckland gays are notorious for hosting only-white, gay RuPaul’s Drag Race viewing parties, Saturday night parties and Sunday morning brunches. Occasionally, there is a token Māori, Pacific person or Asian in the mix to fill the diversity quota.

These events are so common that my friends and I play a game called “spot the brown person”. We often spot the brown person standing at the back, holding a tray with drinks on them to serve the white gays. I call these gatherings the modern-day convention of white supremacists. These men are clever. They disguise themselves as radical lefties and anti-racists and call everyone “e hoa”. It’s mind-boggling that some white queer people who attend these events proudly post about the 50 shades of white in attendance to their Instagram.

Brown queer people cannot just ignore the racist white gays. Some have monopolised funding for queer organisations and the roles in those organisations. Some use their power to uplift other white gays, appoint themselves the exclusive spokespersons for the queer community and ensure that people of colour do not come anywhere near decision-making powers in the queer community.

We see injustice manifest in institutional ways that hurt queer people of colour. Most queer organisations are dominated by white people. Their boards and staff are predominantly white. While all of these organisations may not be racist, the way the queer community is structured allows white people or people who are perceived as white to access opportunities with more ease than people of colour.

Queer people of colour do not have a choice but to engage with white queer people. Some white queers often make queer people of colour feel alone and like outsiders. Some are angry at the world. For some, their whiteness guaranteed them absolute privilege over all other races, but their power has been curtailed by anti-queer hatred. They cannot exercise the fullness of their privilege in the non-queer world. The only place they can exercise the fullness of their white privilege and power is in the queer community. The queer community is one of the only places white queer people often hold all the institutional power, and the reality is they do.

The queer community wants to live free from discrimination from the non-queer world, but it is yet to learn to stop discriminating against queer people of colour. Queer people of colour have been underserved and disregarded by some in the queer community for a long time. If white gays can understand homophobia as a form of oppression, then we must ask why some of them cannot understand racism as a form of oppression. It is time for some white queer people to look at themselves and question whether they treat queer people of colour the way they demand to be treated by the non-queer world.

Shaneel Shavneel Lal (they/them) was instrumental in the bill to ban conversion therapy in New Zealand. They are a law and psychology student, model and influencer.