Black Gay men just want to feel welcomed by their own family members.

Members of the Gay Black Community in Atlanta

In the gay black community, you often hear stories where men have moved away from their hometowns because their family and communities don’t except them for who they are, and they want to know why.

Over the past few months there has been a high number of deaths by suicide where the children and adults don’t feel welcomed by their community and suffer from numerous of people bullying them because of their sexuality.

In April 2019 Nigel Shelby a 9th grade student of Huntsville, AL Committed suicide due to homophobic bullying that took place inside his high school that was predominantly African American Community.

Family and friends told numerous of news sources that Nigel took his life “because he was being bullied for having courage to live his life fearlessly and authentically as a young teenager.

Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Christie Finley addressed Nigel’s suicide, Finley charged the community to come together and to teach the city’s youth the importance of “kindness, generosity, helpfulness and basically just being human.”

In the African American community, they often sweep the term “Homosexuality” under the rug while believing a pastor of their own community can “take the gayness away”. The thought process of this community makes you want to be able to sit down and dig deep into the thought process and why they feel as though one’s sexuality and who they love describes them as a person. “More than 55 percent of black youth believe that homosexuality is wrong”.

David Johns Executive Director of The National Black Justice Coalition said in a personal note of his social media platforms “ We need to start reminding young members of the LGBTQ+ community that they are beautiful, brilliant and perfectly made”. He went on to say that adults are to blame for failing to provide safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth to move through safely

Research shows that there is an increased risk of suicide attempts among ethnic minorities 19.5 % black teenagers kill themselves before the age of 24, 30.4 % of teens with a major depressive disorder kill themselves. These stats help prove the facts about suicide where LGB youth are five times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to heterosexual youth.

PEW Research Center for the People and the Press found that nearly half of all black churchgoers reported that their clergy regularly addressed homosexuality from the pulpit and these messages were overwhelmingly negative. So, it is not surprising that none of the five major mainstream national African American civil rights organizations support marriage equality. The position of the churches has muzzled some black political leaders who might otherwise be supportive on this issue.