As an African-American gay male, I feel I must challenge some of the remarks made by Andrew Park, co-chair of this year's Lambda Awards Nominating Committee.  These remarks appeared in the 3/27 - 4/2/98 edition of PGN.

Park himself was refuting assertions made by Rich Liu, head of AIDS Services in Asian Communities (ASIAC).  Liu apparently misstated some facts, according to Park, while criticizing the Lambdas for the lack of adequate minority representation on the Nominating Committee as well as a dearth of minority nominees.

Neither Liu nor any other gay person of color should be surprised.  This has been par for the course for years.  Liu may have made some inaccurate assertions, I don't know.  Park, however, in defense of the "process," was quick to exploit each and every "false" claim that Liu might have made — claims that ultimately seemed trivial in the total scheme of things.

All "spins" and justifications aside, however, the Lambdas are racist and always have been.  Most gay people of color who are familiar with the Lambdas are  well aware of this fact.  I say this, fully acknowledging that I myself was a Lambda Award winner in 1993 for "Distinguished Service."

Park states that "an invitation seeking potential nominees was sent "far and wide."  He adds that "a fax was sent to more than 100 progressive and sexual minority organizations, and a broadcast e-mail was circulated to hundreds of activists."  In other words, the Lambda committee can now say it has conducted its "outreach" and has fulfilled its obligation to achieve a more inclusive process.  In actuality, this is still a classic case of the propagation of racism.  Lambda's process of soliciting minority participation makes assumptions about the most effective ways to reach gay people of color.  Even assuming that the Lambda participants did indeed search "far and wide" for minorities, did it ever occur to them that there might be better ways to reach sexual minorities of color?  Obviously not.  Given the historic lack of minority participation in the Lambdas, it should be somewhat incumbent on those involved to be willing to devise more creative ways, to "go the extra mile," in recruiting and honoring gay people of color.  This hasn't happened, of course, because whites running the show have set up a system that specifically works for them.

Unlike in the mainstream gay community, there aren't exactly a slew of people of color gay organizations.  The Lambda folks could have made a commitment to personally visit each of the minority gay groups to encourage their participation and request names of potential nominees.  This would have required some additional work on the part of the Lambda folks, but it would have been an earnest effort to truly seek inclusion.  But, typically, white gay decisionmakers have determined that it is incumbent on gay people of color to adapt to the stated rules.  I'm sorry, but this is racist.  It is another classic case of the white majority not willing to show flexibility or concede any power or say-so in the "process."  Many whites, however, will likely not see it this way, feeling that this is simply more racist paranoia or an overstatement of the case.

Park says that "the list of nominees includes many people of color."  Those must have been the names he refers to when he says not all names appear on the printed ballot because of space limitations.  Either that, or I'd love to know how he defines the word "many."

It is because of practices such as the Lambda process that many gay people of color find it necessary to create our own venues of acknowledgment.  Philly Black and Latino Gay Pride this April is a case in point.  But the first thing out of the mouths of many white gays is, "a separate pride celebration only fragments the gay community."  This contention, once again, is laced with racist overtones.  If the white gay mainstream was indeed more inclusive, perhaps some gay people of color might feel no need for "separate" events.  There is still no problem, in my mind at least, in having culturally specific events regardless of the existence of racism.

These issues highlight the differences in perspective among the city's white gay mainstream and gay people of color.  There is a chasm between the races as wide as the Grand Canyon.  I have always contended that racism is not everybody's problem.  It is a white problem because people of color did not create it and we cannot be asked to help "fix" it.  It is the responsibility of whites in power — gay, straight and otherwise — to be willing to admit their racism and cease and desist racist practices and policies.  Until that occurs, I'm afraid the chasm will only widen.