What would it look like if the LGBT movement had a racial justice agenda? Well, for starters, we’d see our struggle for equality tied to other movements for justice, not just by analogy. So, for example, there’s been a noticeable silence about Trayvon Martin on most of the mainstream gay blogs, probably because most (white) gay folks don’t see the case as “our issue.” But as Zach Stafford recently pointed out here on HuffPost, gay folk should care about Trayvon Martin because all of us who are “outsiders” — whether because of sexual orientation, gender non-conformity, or race — can be targets of violence.

When we say that the gay right movement is the new civil rights movement, we’re playing into the divisive racial politics of NOM. We have to do better than “gay is the new black.” We have to see that the fight for sexual equality hasn’t replaced the fight for racial equality, because that’s not over. When the LGBT movement moves beyond shallow slogans like “gay is the new black” to embrace a racial justice agenda that sees our struggle as tied to others, then we’ll have truly won a victory against opponents like NOM that can only see “gays and blacks” as an easy place to drive a wedge.