Gay The New Black?

Tyra Banks Invites Homophobes to Ridicule Themselves on National TV

Is gay the new black? We’ve discussed it endlessly on this website. And we’ll be doing more of it! But now Tyra Banks’ producers managed to book enough guests to package the debate into a 60-minute show. We’ve heard from what seems like every side: a civil right struggle is a civil right struggle is a civil right struggle; saying the two are the same minimizes the importance of the black struggle; debating the difference and arguing one is more significant than the other harms both fights; what about people who are gay and black?; shouldn’t blacks support the gay civil rights issue because not only blacks demanded equal rights for people of color?; and of course, Can’t we all just get along?

For the record, we think NAACP Chairman Julian Bond said it best.

You’ll have to skip to halfway into the third segment below to actually see where the “race” element comes into play on this episode, though the most worthwhile part of this otherwise tame show appears in Clip 4.

It’s just too bad the guest Tyra booked to argue “gay is not the new black” was Sandy Rios, president of the Culture Campaign (which “exists to help church and para-church organizations reenlist believers into the culture war one believer at a time“), who prefaces her argument with “you can stop being gay, you cannot stop being black” and goes on to recommend celibacy over having gay sex. (Cue 2:30.) Because the entire “is gay the new black” debate falls apart RIGHT THERE. At least base your argument on the differences in the struggles, and whether gays today are as persecuted as blacks during Jim Crow.

Just cue to 6:15 to watch an audience member school Ms. Rios: “How dare you just hate me like that? You are not a Christian.”

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