Even though Wanda Sykes may be the the first woman who comes to mind when you think of black lesbians, there are plenty of talented black lesbian filmmakers, musicians, activists, and educators to learn from and enjoy. Alvin McEwen tracked down 50 of them on YouTube—you may be surprised which ones you already know.
You can also watch part two of the video here.
Marty
I didn’t know Angela Davis was a gay woman!
christopher di spirito
Alicia Banks? Are you fucking kidding me?
She’s a total lunatic. Putting her in the same category of Angela Davis and all the other accomplished women in the video is insulting.
For the uninitiated, Alicia Banks is the African-American, female version of fringe dweller, Alex Jones. In fact, 95% of her insane rants have been lifted from InfoWars.com and Prison Planet.
Interesting
More of this at your site please!
Agree with another person who points out that you should do more coverage of people of color like this.
By the way, as a niche, there are not many gay mainstream sites anywhere doing deep coverage of gay people of color. There are many sites out there. I am surprised you don’t see this as a business opportunity.
Cinesnatch
The music is way better in Part II.
No mea culpa for that last Clementi post title, Daniel? It’s okay to admit you made a mistake.
I decided to stick around to see if you will, before I officially decide to stop visting Queerty.
Chad
Angela Davis is annoying, gives all lesbians and GLBT people a bad name, and she should be in jail or prison or have run away to Cuba like other black wannabe revolutionaries like Asata Shakur who either killed people or conspired with other people to have them killed like Angela Davis did.
TanyaHyde
Absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much……
James
Nice I’ve never seen Queerty to good stories about black people.
Kasnar
There was a companion video claiming there was a double standard of criticizing black men for dating/marrying outside of their race — primarily to white women– and no similar criticism towards black lesbians for their dating white women or outside of their race. Wanda Sykes and her white partner were shown as an example of this double standard. ( There was also this anti-Nazi symbol which I found confusing.) Black women’s resentment for black men dating outside of their race has more to do, I suspect, with a perceived lack of availability of eligible black men. I do believe there are more eligible black women than eligible black men. I believe there are simply more black women out there than black men. So for many black women, any black man dating outside of their race is perceived as a loss or shrinking of the pool. Considering that many eligible black women may have little to no prospects of lifelong partnering with a man of their race – if trends continue — widening their pool of eligible partners might be the only chance many have. So from that point of view, I don’t think there’s a double standard. A black man in America stands a far better chance of getting married than a black woman – even if they marry only within their race.
Now the narrator’s adding the gay factor made it a whole other ballgame. One might say dating lives/prospects for gay and straight people is like comparing apples and oranges. It’s actually more like comparing a pond to an ocean. It’s far lonelier to be gay — and seems to get even lonelier when you add black to the equation. (The jury might be out for comparing dating prospects for gay black men and gay black women.) It’s hard enough for gay people — far less gay black people — just finding potential partners to think of limiting themselves only to their own ethnic group. I don’t have the impression most gay black men even think about this issue far less struggle with it — dating exclusively within their race. Not dating women is the big social hurdle they have to surmount. So if the narrator thinks straight black men receive excessive or unfair criticism for dating outside of their race, imagine what gay black men face for not even dating women. Both issues are often perceived as losses for straight black women. Naturally, we’re all entitled to our own points of view. I do believe, however, we have to make the choices that work for our individual selves and good luck to all of us.
Spoken By A Black and Proud Gay Man.
ewe
Irene Monroe’s writing is always spot on.
robert
wow.. thank you for this..so nice to see a great post about all these wonderful black lesbians.. thank you!!!!
ewe
@Kasnar: I would prefer to think of myself as a river that flows in and out of the ocean instead of a pond. That would mean the ocean flows in and out of me as well.
ewe
@Kasnar:How about gay people being the main artery to the heart? That works for me too.
the crustybastard
The Honorable Deborah A. Batts, the United States’ first openly gay federal judge, commissioned in 1994.
Freeman
This is really cool and atypical for this site. A welcomed diversion.
Ginasf
A welcome change of content for Queerty!
ke
I love Angela Davis.
Andy
Angela Davis is a coward of the highest degree. She spent the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s getting comfie with the comrades in communist Europe (while they were busy jailing gays and dissidents), but only came out as a lesbian in the imperialist West in 1997 long after she realized the teets she was sucking dried up “back in the USSR”. Not a role model at all, just a parasite.
jason
Angela Davis is fantastic.
alicia
amen!
we are global warriors!
see many more:
alicia banks
eloquent fury
alicia banks
wow
ditto!
thanks!!!
alicia banks
eloquent fury