I’m sure there are those who would ask, “Why is it so important for a person to identify?” My response would be simply: because people, young and old, are dying as a result of this internal bigotry and self-hatred.

The hope that young people would cease attempts at suicide for “being different” continues to dimly glow amid the ever-increasing anti-gay sentiment. Recent strides forward for Gay Rights and Equality has only made more visible the anti-gay movement that continues to treat us as non-citizens. The past presidential election saw Gay Marriage turned into a major distraction from a failing and unnecessary war in Iraq. The number of primetime gay characters in comedies and dramas has decreased and the most recent show to be centered around a gay character on major network television, while winning several Emmies, is no longer on the air. Several school districts are rethinking protective rights for gay and lesbian students and in some cases support for gay and lesbian student programs has diminished or even disappeared.

The number of student anti-gay violence seems to rise though it goes uncovered in mainstream media. America celebrated the life of Matthew Shepard, a white gay man who was brutally attacked and later died as a result of extreme violence and abuse because of his sexuality. Yet not long after nationwide coverage of his death two more individuals, a trans-gendered Navaho teen and black New Jersey lesbian were both brutally attacked and killed. There was little press, there were no award-winning plays or TV movies, no nationwide candlelight vigils with cover after cover on national periodicals, both lesbian and gay as well as mainstream, which continued throughout the years that followed. If we as a gay and lesbian community cannot value our own people of color in crisis, how do we expect us as a black community to overcome years of subterfuge and subliminal anti-gay programming and reverse these awful and damaging messages to honor and properly grieve those who were taken too soon for something beyond their control?