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Gay Will Never Be the New Black: What James Baldwin Taught Me About My White Privilege →

Todd Clayton’s thoughtful essay addresses white privilege in the mainstream LGBT cultural narrative. Invoking gay author James Baldwin, Clayton writes:

Baldwin, more than anyone else, taught me that although I am gay, I am white, and that being white always involves persistent privilege that must be recognized and accounted for. Baldwin explains that white LGBTQ men and women feel slighted precisely because they know that had they been straight, they would have been heirs to incomparable privilege.