This is an excellent affirmative piece of writing. Yes, one does not wish to create divisions where it does not exist. At the same time, one cannot generalise based on personal experiences. Personal experiences, here, refer to my own experiences. Racism, I would argue, is prevalent in Gay Culture, especially in the United Kingdom. One only has to visit the gay dating platforms to witness this. The idea that because someone is gay, they will be more sympathetic to other oppressed groups is, I would say, highly contentious. One can reverse this proposition and say that because someone is black does not make them more empathetic towards gays. Gays are no more or less likely to be racist than heterosexual men. Blacks are no more or less likely to be homophobic than whites. Gays grow up exposed to the same cultural values as heterosexual men. The same proposition can be applied to blacks; for example, colourism exists in many Black minority and majority cultures. Cultural (local and global) contexts, values and beliefs are more likely to determine one’s values towards so-called ‘others’. The ideologies that define gay identities are highly complex. Gay identity spans the spectrum from hyper-masculine to effeminate. Correspondingly, hyper-masculinity is determined by cultural beliefs about masculinity and the privileges and exclusions afforded to this group.

Can one divorce oneself from a culture that places so much emphasis on white superiority? The idea of white superiority pervades the aesthetics, defining notions of what is and what is not aesthetically pleasing and what is good or bad, civilised and uncivilised. The aesthetics are value-based judgements. I have just finished reading the book Bad Gays by Lemmey and Miller (2022), where they argue for ‘others’ coming together and working towards supporting each other. Part of healing is to acknowledge the challenges that currently exist. It is like the British government saying that institutional racism does not exist. How can we ever address a problem if we understate its existence?