Structural Intersectionality is the idea that people with two or more minority identities have different qualitative experiences when interacting with economic arrangements, social norms, and institutions than a sum of people who hold those identities separately from one another. Crenshaw cited women’s shelters turning away women of color who did not speak English as an example of different experiences within an institution. Crenshaw shows that these structures are not only experienced differently by intersectional people, but that it also disadvantages these people while advantaging others. This happens because the structures themselves were built with a specific user base in mind, in which those with intersectional identities were not thought of. This thought process is known as essentialism, which states that there is a characteristic that …show more content…
Of all queer youth who become homeless as a result of coming out to their parents, 44% are Black, while nearly 80% are nonwhite. As CNN Don Lemon echoed when he publicly announced his homosexuality, “It’s quite different for an African-American male … [Gay is] about the worst thing you can be in Black culture.” Other gay men in the Black Community have shared similar feelings, pointing at mainstream Hip Hop and R&B as outlets of homophobia. The homophobia that exists in Black culture contributes to the double-bind Black gay men find themselves in – they are too stereotypically hyper-masculine to be humanized by White gay men, but too feminine to be embraced by the Black community. While many point to cultural homophobia in the Black Community, it is important to acknowledge that research demonstrates that African Americans overwhelmingly support nondiscrimination laws and oppose religious exemptions higher than any other racial group, so one should not subscribe to a false narrative that Black people are disproportionately