Can the Queen Speak?

Throughout my reading of the article "Can the Queen Speak?: Racial Essentialism, Sexuality, and the Problem of Authority" I often found myself questioning, as McBride does, the arguments of some authors regarding the issue of homosexuality and race. Most people would agree that those who participate in discourse about and "represent"the black race exclude homosexuality, which causes a false separation between the black community and homosexuality. Though McBride effectively critiques the arguments of Welsing and Hemphill, I have to disagree with some of his criticism of bell hooks. While I agree with the argument that hooks should not apologize for homophobia within the black community with the defense as McBride states that, "blacks are blameless because powerless", I do agree with her argument about the authenticity of the stories of homosexuals who live within black communities (258). It is not that the story of a black gay or lesbian living within the black community would be more accurate than that of one living within a predominately white community, it is that the stories would be different. Would we all not agree that since, as hooks mentions, people within black communities are more vocal with their "antigay sentiments", that the experiences of those gays that live within these communities would tell a different story (257)? And those gays and lesbians that move into white neighborhoods to be "safe" would tell something different?