Azealia Banks is at it again.
The opinionated rapper has come under fire again for comments about the LGBT community. She has compared gay white men to the Ku Klux Klan ( KKK ) in tweets that have since been deleted. "LGBT community ( GGGG ) are like the gay white KKK's," Banks wrote in the since-deleted post. "Get them some pink hoods and unicorns and let them rally down rodeo drive." Banks has an ugly history of making inflammatory comments that hurt the LGBT community and shouldn't be tolerated.
Banks burst onto the music scene in 2011 with the viral hit " 212." The bisexual rapper openly rapped about being attracted to men and women and embraced '90s queer culture signifiers like voguing. However, since the release of that song and her album in 2014, Broke with Expensive Taste, she has gained more attention for her offensive comments about gay and lesbian people than for her music.
In 2013, she started not one, but two homophobic feuds. She got into a beef with gossip blogger Perez Hilton and called him " a messy f——t.'" Banks gave a non-apology apology: "My most sincere apologies to anyone who was indirectly offended by my foul language. Not sorry for Perez tho. Lol.'' Banks also made transphobic comments about fellow bisexual rapper Angel Haze, saying, "You have an Adam's apple.
Banks has also repeatedly insulted white gay men in particular. In a tweet about gay men, she wrote, "Because it's not really LGBT. It's ( expletive ) GGGG and I'm sick of gay white men having control of the LGBT conversation.''
She also seemed unrepentant when asked about her comments, especially about Hilton. "A lot of gay men are way more misogynistic than straight men," she said in an interview with The Guardian. "The ( expletive ) they say about women behind their backs, it's like: 'Wow, oh my God!' ... A f***** is anybody that hates women. It's like, y'all sing along to my words when I'm saying [expletives leveled at black people and women], but as soon as I call this one white man a f***** the whole world exploded."
While the "f'' word may be a term of endearment among some gay men, the way she uses the word is hurtful and demeaning to those men. Banks may say that a "f——-t'' is a man who hates women, but a better word would be "misogynist.'' Gay men, especially feminine cis men, are vilified enough for transcending gender norms. Banks is only adding more fuel to a hateful fire.
While Banks may have a point about the LGBT community marginalizing Black queer women like herself, the answer is not to hurl insults. White gay men may dominate LGBT organizations, but her homophobic slurs make people miss the point of her comments. Meeting with LGBT organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and talking to them about being more inclusive would be a more constructive way to solve the problem of minority queer invisibility than dragging them online.
"I am bisexual. my brother is trans. My employees are all gay men. Nothing else to say,'' tweeted Banks as a way to excuse her comments. She has a lot more to say. Banks may think being bisexual gives her a pass to insult gay men, but it doesn't. She has to realize that her words carry far more weight than she realized, especially to her LGBT fans. As a Black bisexual artist, she must realize that she can create more change and gain more fans by uniting the LGBT community instead of trying to keep it divided.
