Kobe Bryant Fined $100K For Saying ‘Faggot.’ Why Am I Not Happy?

The latest manufactured drama from the world of basketball (the previous one was Grant Hill vs Jalen Rose) centers around one of the best players in the NBA, Kobe Bryant. During last night’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, TNT cameras caught him calling referee Bennie Adams a faggot after being hit with a technical [...]

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Tom Joyner is probably the most famous black DJ in the United States, with his nationally syndicated radio program reaching eight million people across the country. His philanthropy has been recognized by the International Civil Rights Hall Of Fame. And he is also willing to engage in the same kind of exploitative finance that disproportionately [...]

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The latest video from Marsha Ambrosius, the vocalist from the popular r&b duo Floetry (“Say Yes”) demands your attention. “Far Away” tackles the theme of antigay bullying, a topic that has been prominently featured in the media since the suicides of several gay teenagers last year. It is rare that homophobia in the black community [...]

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Another Day, Another Coming Out Story Between Johnny Weir http://www.afterelton.com/people/2011/01/johnny-weir-finally-really-out and Kevin Spacey, 2011 has started off as an excellent year for coming out. This early momentum has been continued with the news that Boston Herald journalist Steve Buckley has acknowledged that he’s gay in his most recent column Buckley joins LZ Granderson as the [...]

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The case of the Scott sisters, the siblings whose life sentence for an $11 robbery was criticized as an example of blatant racism by numerous civil rights organizations, has a resolution. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has decided to use his powers of clemency to grant their release. However, the terms of release are as controversial [...]

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Just yesterday, I pointed out how the budget crisis is forcing cities to undergo drastic measures to provide services. Now here comes word that the Fire Department of New York is preparing to bring back its shirtless beefcake calendar for the first time since 2008. Production of the popular calendar was halted after one of [...]

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The new year always brings predictions of what to expect in the coming months. Here are some of the things I believe we’ll see in 2011: 1. A growing acknowledgment that there are communities of LGBTs and black people, not one monolithic “Community.” In the past, it was assumed that all LGBTs and black people [...]

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Homophobia in sports is a problem. Despite increasing acceptance from the larger society, there are currently no openly gay male athletes in American team sports. Which makes Glenn Burke’s story so historic. Burke was a wildly talented multi-sport athlete who was compared to Willie Mays when he debuted with baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers. Yet his [...]

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Black people are stereotyped as uniformly hostile to gay people, but it does not take much research to disprove that notion. Essence Magazine, the leading magazine for African-American women, has made history by publishing a slideshow of a lesbian wedding. The lucky couple featured on the site are Aisha Mills and Danielle Moody, from Washington, [...]

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A major criticism among the black left is that President Obama is able to get away with acts that would incur the wrath of the public if committed by a white person. Examples include his tendency to abandon independent-minded black people for political expediency (Jeremiah Wright, Van Jones, Shirley Sherrod), publicly shaming the black community [...]

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