What?! Blacks Can Be Black…AND GAY?!

I’ve been sitting on this one for a few days and was going to include it in yesterday’s Saturday Sanity, but I decided there was more I wanted to say about it, i.e. scratch out a few more mental health notes about it, than Saturday Sanity would allow.

Black gays have fewer mental disorders

That’s the source, and while you’ll find the title doesn’t do the research findings justice, it’s attention-grabbing nonetheless, hmm?

So, let’s get up to speed before I proceed, shall we?

African-American lesbians, gay men and bisexuals have significantly fewer mental disorders than their white counterparts, a U.S. study found.

In short, researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York thought that because black gays, lesbians, and bisexuals already deal with prejudice related to their skin color, they’d have more mental health issues than white gays, lesbians, and bisexuals due to a whole new slew of prejudice based on their sexual orientation.

What they actually found, however, was that “these groups may have effective ways to cope with prejudice related to racism and homophobia.”

Let’s close the door on professionalism here for a minute to say…um, HEEEEELLLLLLOOOOOOOO?

Is it really a surprise that someone who’s had to deal with one kind of prejudice for his entire life (in this case, racism) isn’t mentally buckling just because another kind of prejudice (in this case, homophobia) creeps in?

I don’t think sooooooo. No wonder the article was so short.

Big Fat Disclaimer: Note that if you read beyond this point, you aren’t reading anything that’s racist or homophobic, nor are you reading anything that’s written by a racist or homophobe. I frankly couldn’t care less if you’re purple and sleep with yourself. I’m simply breaking down Columbia’s research and findings to the level that, well, they’re on.

So, we have Black Man. Black Man is born into a world full of racism. World. Not country. World. Black Man eventually realizes that no matter how many civil rights marches march on, no matter how many Seal’s and Heidi Klum’s get married, and no matter how many Barack Obama’s run for president, the world he lives in will always have some form of racism floating around.

So, Black Man learns to cope.

He learns that his worth as a human being is not based on his skin color. He learns that he can hone his intelligence, skills, and emotions as a human being and not as a skin color. He learns that any battles he faces with those who oppose his skin color will be won now that he knows he’s not a skin color.

He’s a man, who happens to be black.

How he learns all of this is up to Black Man. We all approach life lessons differently.

But, then – BOOM! Black Man becomes Black Gay Man. He doesn’t care if Heidi Klum is up for grabs or not; he’s more interested in Marc Jacobs. (I swear, I’m not making some kind of play on gay folks and fashion – was just looking for a white model/fashion-related white male to throw in there and replace Ms. Klum with.)

A whole new world of prejudice opens up to Black Gay Man. It’s called homophobia.

How does Black Gay Man deal with homophobia? My educated guess would be in the same way the article reports. My no-brainer two-cents would be that Black Gay Man probably already has “effective ways to cope with [...] homophobia.”

Seriously. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a person who overcomes one “social barrier” is able to overcome a second – especially if he uses the coping skills and strategies he used to successfully jump the first hurdle.

The fact that he still had some wits about him and a healthy mental state to boot is just icing on the cake; albeit, a lot of icing.

To wrap up what has become a typical Mental Health Notes obloquy (perhaps, rather, an Alicia Sparks obloquy), I’m not knocking the folks at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York who conducted this research. Certainly an interesting topic.

Just a bit…well, duh. The people at Columbia would have used this time more wisely had they took efforts to stop the sickening animal torture that happens on their watch every day.

So let’s end on a lighter, more praising note and say “YAY!” to the gay, lesbian, and bisexual African-Americans out there who have made it not only through this ignorantly racism-riddled world, but who have also made it through this disgustingly homophobic-ridden world – and done it all without seriously mentally breaking down.