ABSTRACT
Although gay white people often argue that racism is not a major problem in gay communities, significant numbers of gay men and women report feeling more racial hostility in gay communities than in the larger society. This chapter explores the different ways that LGBTQ+ people of color experience racism in gay communities and identifies both structural and interpersonal ways that racism operates to limit the ability of LGBTQ+ people of color to fully participate in gay life. In exposing racism in gay communities, the chapter particularly examines the ways that the possessive investment in whiteness among gay white men and women leads to a situation where LGBTQ+ people of color are marginalized and/or excluded from gay institutions and neighborhoods and erased in gay media. The chapter also explores the idea of sexual racism, the ways that gay men of color are sexually marginalized or fetishized by gay white men and discusses the ways that gay media’s focus on white men leads to sexual marginalization.
