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We’ve discussed racism in the white dominated mainstream LGBT community for years on Cypher Avenue. I feel in the last two years this discussion is gaining some ground. Nonetheless; I don’t feel real inclusion of LGBT people of color will be fully represented any time soon in mainstream publications, organizations and conversations due to them not only having a lack of understanding but also not seeing an existing problem.

Roland Martin discusses these issues on the heels of Michael Sam’s interview with Attitude magazine. There Sam brings up racism, homophobia and exclusion as it relates to the gay and Black communities. The discussion panel included Cleo Manago of the Black Men’s Exchange.

Notable quotes:

Roland Martin: “When GLAAD came after me in 2012 for some stuff I tweeted out that had nothing to do with gay folks, I had white gay folks calling me nigger.”

Cleo Manago: “We have a lot of Black people who are trying to cling onto that movement (LGBT) and trying to be queers and everything else white people have come up with and we have not built a community for ourselves.”