ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how white gay men are often given a pass, in the media, from white male privilege. This pass comes not only by way of their sexual minority status but also through the symbolic annihilation of people at the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. White gay men then stand in as a representation for all queer people despite race and/or gender identity, which works to further privilege white men and subordinate people of color. The chapter provides a brief discussion of white male privilege and explores the literature on race and sexuality and symbolic annihilation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer (LGBTQ) people of color. It provides a contemporary example of the representations of race and sexuality that illustrates these concepts. Gay rights activists, as a result of coopting black civil rights rhetoric, exclude LGBTQ people of color from the gay rights narrative.
