The LGBT Diaspora, by Louis Brown

The prompt “family” reminds me of Hillary Clinton having once proclaimed that “It takes a village to raise a child.” Of course, there is some truth in that. It is a reference to what many sociologists refer to as the “extended family.” If we take this broadening view of the “family”, we may think in terms of an extended, extended family or Diaspora, or world-wide family. Webster’s dictionary defines “diaspora” as “(1) (a) the dispersion of the Jews after the Babylonian exile; (b) the Jews thus dispersed; (c) the places where they settled [and by extension] (2) any scattering of people with a common origin, background, beliefs, etc.”

In this etc. I would definitely include “sexual orientation”. Lesbian and gay people are everywhere in the world. If our community could only harness the power, it would mean a better world for us, a better world for everyone.

In the 1950’s, Senator Joseph McCarthy, if you recall, went on an anti-communist witch-hunt and an anti-gay witch-hunt, claiming there were communists and homosexuals in the U. S. State Department that were trying to subvert and even overthrow the government. For a while Senator McCarthy was taken seriously. He referred to the international communist conspiracy as the “comintern,” that is, the international communist movement and the international gay community as the “homintern,” presumably meaning the homosexual international.

Many liberals would claim there is no such thing as the “homintern”. That was just Senator McCarthy’s overactive imagination. Au contraire, of course there is a “homintern” although I would call it the gay and lesbian diaspora. We do not necessarily want to overthrow governments, but we do want liberation. Our diaspora implies that our struggle for liberation is the most analogous to that of the Jews. All of which we should embrace exuberantly rather than shy off for fear of enraging homophobes.

If we take a bird’s eye view of our diaspora, we note, for instance, that the Muslim world population is one billion one hundred million. That means that there are one hundred and ten million lesbian and gay Muslims. Have there been any attempts to organize these one hundred and ten million people? Yes, but so far the results are miniscule. In New York City there is one out-of-the-closet gay male Imam. In time there will be millions like him. The MCC church of New York City provides a weekly meeting place for lesbian and gay Muslims in that city.

In 1995 a group of lesbian and gay Muslims held a “congress” in London, England. It would be good if our Denver lesbian and gay community had an expert historian who could describe exactly what happened at that congress. More information please?

Recently when I was back in Jackson Heights, Queens County, NYC, I attended a lesbian and gay spiritual meeting, at which the topic was gay spirituality in the history of Islam. The leader asked each of us in attendance what spiritual remark we would like to make. The leader did mention Rumi*, of course. I said I think we should remember how many people we are talking about: 1/10 of one billion one hundred million was 110 million. The leader responded to my comment by first saying that that was not exactly a spiritual observation and made other comments indicating that he could not even begin to understand what I was talking about.

I did not reply to his evasive reaction. I felt like saying “I cannot begin to understand how you do not understand”. We have to raise the consciousness of millions of “lesgay” people everywhere.

Consider also the efforts of lesbian and gay Russians to organize to resist oppression in Russia. Their best chance is to organize in Russian colonies abroad located in more liberal countries, such as Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, NY.

Consider also there was even a study of gay and lesbian people in the indigenous Maori tribes of Australia and New Zealand. Let us celebrate our ubiquity, or omnipresence rather than fear to acknowledge the simple truth.

*Rumi

© 1 Sep 2016 

About the Author 

I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City, Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA's. I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.