New group focuses on black GLBT students

In May of 2003 Sakia Gunn, a 15-year-old black lesbian was stabbed to death while she waited for the bus in Newark, N.J. While five years earlier the murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old white gay male, in Laramie, Wy. triggered a media storm nationwide, Gunn's murder received little attention from the mainstream press or gay publications. \nThat discrepancy bothered grad student Tahirah Akbar-Williams and hit home the different and unique realities black gays and lesbians face. \n"Something needs to be done because people are just not talking about this," Akbar-Williams said. "That helped me to understand we're operating in two separate communities." \nNot one to wait for others to do something, Akbar-Williams began to seek out other black gay and lesbians with an eye to forming a group in Bloomington to discuss issues unique to their community. This summer her work began to pay off when Blacks Like Us held its first meeting in June. \nThe group met again earlier this month and plans to hold another meeting Oct. 2. According to its mission statement, Blacks Like Us is open to any lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered black or bi-racial person regardless of where he or she is in the coming-out process. \nGrad student Kendra Clarke, an employee of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services at IU, helped Akbar-Williams to get the group off the ground. She said Blacks Like Us maintains a policy of confidentiality to help create a safe and welcoming atmosphere for students and community members still coming to terms with their sexuality.\n"What's said in the room stays in the room," Clarke said. \nA native of Arizona, Akbar-Williams felt alienated when she first arrived for graduate school at IU. She said the predominately white gay community didn't want to discuss racism and the unique challenges black gays and lesbians face.\n"I just felt totally out of place," she said. "They just wouldn't talk about it." \nThe black community was similarly uninterested in discussing issues of sexual orientation. \n"There's a lot of suspicion in the black community when it comes to homosexuality," Akbar-Williams said. "We're still living in a conservative Christian black community. I started this group so black people could get together and talk about these things." \nClarke expressed similar feelings of alienation from both the larger black and gay communities.\n"A lot of time you feel you have to choose one or the other," she said. \nDoug Bauder, coordinator of the support services center, said there's been talk of starting a group like this for the past couple of years. He credited Akbar-Williams with finally getting the effort moving.\n"Tahirah has really spearheaded this," Bauder said. \nMeetings are held on the first Saturday of the month and are open to both students and the local community. Akbar-Williams said Blacks Like Us is currently limiting its meetings to GLBT black and bi-racial individuals so that the group can come to a better understanding of the issues faced by black GLBT individuals.\n"This thing is coming from the ground up," Akbar-Williams said. "We need to come together." \nShe said eventually the group hopes to open up some events to public dialogue.\n"In the future we plan on having some panels and discussions," Akbar-Williams said. \nTo find out more about Blacks Like Us e-mail Blackslikeus@yahoo.com or call the GLBT support center at 855-4252. \n-- Contact staff writer Dan Wells at djwells@indiana.edu.