Whether watching an emotionally charged episode of FX channel’s color-crossing reality TV series "Black.White," or news accounts of an alleged racially tinged rape involving Duke University students, reminders are everywhere that eruptions in racial tensions are not unique to gay Atlanta.

Nor is the casual but persistent segregation that exists among gay and lesbian organizations, places of worship and nightlife venues confined to Atlanta, or the South.

"It doesn’t matter if you’re in Los Angeles, or New York, or Chicago —-it’s not unique to Atlanta at all," said Rod McCullom, a New York-based black gay journalist who runs the popular blog, Rod 2.0. "Our community tends to think the South is the only place where discrimination and racism can be, but it’s not Southern at all.

Betty Couvertier, a Hispanic lesbian activist in Atlanta, agreed that the racial divisions "that occur in the LGBT community are no different than the things that occur in society at-large."

But maintaining the status quo segregation while being engaged in a fight for social equality leaves gay men and lesbians vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy — and vulnerable to the divide-and-conquer strategy of conservative opponents, Couvertier said.

"We must bag up all the ‘isms,’ mechanisms that blind and divide," she added. "We must cut across all of the divides, be informed and inform, and —-I cannot repeat this enough — participate, and become engaged."

But part of getting rid of the "isms" that divide gays includes recognizing the "interlocking nature of oppression" that people endure in various ways, said Rev. Leevahn Smith, pastor of Truth Center MCC, an African-American gay church in Atlanta.

"My suggestion for breaking down racism in gay Atlanta is to first realize that racism is connected with all the other oppressions in America," Leevahn said. "We’ve got to deal with racism, sexism, classism, etc."

Blatant acts of racism among gay men and lesbians in Atlanta may be rare, but "where racism rears its head … is that beyond challenging so-called normative sexuality, many LGBTQ folks fail to contest all of the other ‘givens’ in the society," said Frances E. Wood, a board member of the black lesbian group Zami.

Joshua Lesser, rabbi of the gay-inclusive Congregation Bet Haverim, said members of many minority groups are so focused on their own "victimhood" that they can’t see how others are being oppressed.

"Gay people can’t see ourselves as the first in line when it comes to being oppressed, and we have to help others," Lesser said. "The only way we will forward our agenda is to work on other’s agenda as well."

When Christian conservatives and Republican state lawmakers used a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage to take aim at gay and lesbian Georgians in 2004, gay organizations pleaded with other constituencies to stand beside them as allies against the amendment.

After successfully attacking gay men and lesbians, the "family values" crowd set their sights on curbing benefits for illegal immigrants. During this year’s state legislative session, Georgia lawmakers passed the most stringent immigration bill in the country.

"The immigration bill has to be perceived as the bashing bill of the year," said Larry Pellegrini, a veteran gay rights lobbyist. "The intensity of that legislation left little room to target anyone else."

Pellegrini and a handful of other gay men and lesbians were part of the fierce opposition to the immigration bill, but he said he "would’ve liked to see more formal participation [fighting the bill], particularly from gay organizations.

"The strongest connection [between the immigration bill and gay rights] is that the immigrant community, as new Americans, are people we will work with in the future, and it’s important to them now to see a demonstration of support from the gay community," Pellegrini said.

With a "March for Immigrants’ Dignity" scheduled for April 11, Pellegrini said gay people and organizations have the opportunity to stand with Latinos the same way leaders of Latino organizations spoke out against the anti-gay marriage amendment in 2004.

Pellegrini and Couvertier both lauded the work against the immigration bill done by members of Queer Progressive Agenda, a gay activism group that sprung out of the unsuccessful fight against the marriage amendment with the goal of combating all forms of oppression.

"The issues [gay people] face are many, from adoption to marriage, and [gay-straight student alliances], and hate crimes, to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ healthcare and domestic partnerships, immigration and war," Couvertier said. "It’s sometimes overwhelming, but [these are] all issues that affect us as a community."

Chuck Bowen, executive director of the statewide gay rights group Georgia Equality, agreed that the immigration fight was a good opportunity for gay groups to build coalitions, but said it did not fit into Georgia Equality’s 2006 legislative strategy to stay "stealth" and avoid provoking anti-gay legislation.

"We were not involved in the fight this year, but it is something that our board has talked about we need to be involved with in the future," Bowen said.

Gay organizations are increasingly trying to bring Hispanic and Asian gay men and lesbians into their fold, but Couvertier acknowledges there are significant cultural factors that divide them from black and white gay men and lesbians.

"There’s a lot of lines that have to be crossed before we can achieve what needs to be done [with Hispanic and Asians] — we have to take the step forward and go where they’re at, and that means going out, introducing ourselves, and doing the work," said Couvertier, who is also co-chair of the Human Rights Campaign’s local diversity committee.

With the internet playing an increasingly vital role in gay and lesbian life, McCullom thinks the web has the potential to further unite —-and divide —-gay men and lesbians of different backgrounds.

"People who may not feel comfortable approaching you on the street, or in a social setting, or even at work, are more ready to talk with you online," McCullom said. "Unfortunately, the flip side of that is that since it’s anonymous, and since it’s instant, sometimes people do have a tendency to exploit the negatives of people."

In gay chatrooms, a sizeable number of both black and white men state bluntly in their profiles that they do not date men of different races. Guys having preferences of what they find attractive is not in itself racist, but McCullom said seeing an abundance of racially restrictive ads has a chilling effect, and may cause gay men to wonder about where they are welcome.

With or without the internet, bridging the gaps that exist between gay men and lesbians of different racial, political and socioeconomic backgrounds "is a matter of will," said Wood, of Zami.

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