What is ‘white gay privilege’?
racism also impacts how they are perceived and treated by wider society. So, people from the LGBTQ+ community who do not have to also worry about racism, possess ‘white gay privilege’. ‘I think I knew what white gay privilege was before we had that name for it,’ Lady Phyll, one of the founders of UK Black Pride, tells Metro.co.uk.‘When I started UK Black Pride, it was partly in response to mainstream pride celebrations being so overwhelmingly white gay men and women.
It was quite clearly for people who looked like them, listened to the same music and celebrated the same cultural milestones. ‘When you’re an LGBTQI+ person of colour and you walk into a white space, you know.
The same thing happens with many Prides, for many of us.’ White gay privilege does not mean that white LGBTQ+ people cannot experience discrimination themselves.
Rather, it means they do not have the additional experience of being racialised and treated differently because of the colour of their skin.It’s important to acknowledge the existence of white privilege in LGBTQ+ spaces, because a failure to do so can lead to people of colour feeling excluded, and even perpetuate the existence of racism in these communities.Research in this area is scant, but a study by Stonewall previously found that over half of Black, Asian and ethnic minority people have experienced racism in the LGBTQ+ community.
