Mississippi Gay Officer Reinstated

Wow. As a member of the Hattiesburg community I have heard about this recent victory quite a few times now. I am honored to be living in the first city in this state that has finally made some moves. Granted, it took an act of discrimination to get to where we are, but it ended in an LGBT victory. However, I did not click on this article to view it, I clicked because someone directed me to the comments on this article. This man is a member of OUR LGBT community in hattiesburg regardless of his race. Its not about black or white. I think it is SOOO very sad that one of the first comments here brought about issues of race. Divided we will loose people! African Americans and LGBT individuals share a common ground; WERE BOTH MINORITIES! Can we please, please get over this race stuff, join together, and make my Mississippi and OUR country a better place. Thats right, this comment is coming from MS. You may eat crow now.

Remember people! The pigs are NOT our allies, even the gay ones! Remember Stonewall Inn '69! Remember Fort Worth Texas '09! Never forgive! Never forget!

In addition to his pay I hope he gets seniority and vacation.

For what it's worth, Hattiesburg has had a black mayor for years.

Carlos - I never assumed or even thought you were black to begin with. Had no idea either way. I see your point that you are making. And thinking about it - black and white are seperated quite a bit in our society. I only seperate people by the way they act and treat others - not skin color.

Let me clarify a few things. Firstly, despite the handle of Carlos I never said I was black. That's a sad assumption to assert only someone black would be interested in reading about black people. Secondly, the Advocate to me is a white men's magazine as is Vogue a white women's magazine, that's the primary demographic for the magazine. I don't pick up Vogue and see many ads featuring black hair care products because that's not the demographic of that magazine. If I did I would be surprised, as I was surprised to see a story about a black person in the Advocate. I made a specific comment about a magazine, you guys made a generalization about an the entire black community thereby fueling the divisiveness you are in the same paragraph critiquing. Something to think about.

In regard to these other comments around race, it doesnt matter if he is black or white, the point is this is an amazing victory for LGBT rights in a relatively backward state. This story is an example of the LGBT community coming together and race-baiting of either of side is just fragmenting us. I am so proud of this man for speaking up and showing courage. Now this a real role model for the gay community and shows that when we speak up, show some courage, we can have results.

Carlos - it may seem that it is only white but if that were the case this story would never have appeared. I'm sorry but I feel that the black gay community are the ones seperating themselves AS there is Gay Black Pride in Atlanta (I do believe that was the city) AND there is now ONLY BLACK GAY drag pagents. So you should have no problem with an only white publication.

Well, Carlos, if you're so upset with the "white man's" Advocate, why don't you read one of the dozens of gay news magazines for "LGBTs of color/" Oh, that's right--those don't seem to exist. Perhaps the Advocate doesn't cover the "hundreds of millions" of stories highlighting the positive messages from people of color because it's taken for granted that people of color would be LGBT-friendly due to their own histories of being targets of discrimination and violence. Unfortunately, it seems that there are far too many POCs who are just as willing to be complicit in anti-LGBT behavior (and many who want to deny that LGBTs should be treated as equals--unless, of course, they're willing to pass for straight).

To be honest I was shocked to see the Advocate cover this story because the victim was a black male. I have always thought of the Advocate as white men's magazine and a publication disinterested in covering gays of color. The only stories I expected on blacks in the magazine would have been accompanied by a headline such as "black pastor fights gay marriage rights". Am I ready to eat crow yet? Not quite, but I am getting close if more stories such as this are reported by your periodical.