Gay Black Men need love too.
- Machere J
- Sep 22, 2019
- 5 min read
Machere J Media Entertainment/ Lifestyle
Atlanta, Ga- In the month of August the city of Atlanta starts to plan to host the largest crowd during Labor Day weekend. During Labor Day weekend you have the multiple events taking place that bring on thousands of people such as Ludachris weekend, Dragcon and the largest Black Gay pride festival in America.
Black Pride weekend was formulated over 23 years ago when a group of friends were having a picnic in the park. This idea came about when a group of friends wanted to celebrate their pride as minority professionals living within their own community. More than 100,000 people come into Atlanta from across the country and internationally. You will find members from the LGBTQ+ community ranging in all ages attending the weekend festivities. The weekend begins with an opening ceremony where attendees have the choice to attend the meet and greet happy hours or just meet up with their friends some of whom they haven’t seen in a while. This weekend is filled with events that cater to the LGBTQ+ community and spreads awareness towards HIV/AIDS prevention, suicide rates, and transgender murders.
During the Pride weekend you will hear numerous of terms being used that may be a unfamiliar usage of terminology of a heterosexual person, these terms are used amongst friends to describe the type of men they are attracted to or the category they choose to associate as. En-Femme (A term often used by male-to-female cross dressers to indicate being cross dressed and not in traditional male clothing) and Bi-Sexual-person emotionally, physically, and/or sexually attracted to males/men and females/women. This attraction does not have to be equally split between genders and there may be a preference for one gender over others.
The gay black male community of Atlanta is known to be very welcoming, transparent and supportive to those who are still struggling with their sexuality. “When I first moved to Atlanta I wasn’t fully out of the closet and I was scared to identify with the gay community because I was raised to be a masculine man and not a fem boy” said Johnathan of College Park, Ga.
The city of Atlanta has a large population of gay black males that leaves the dating ratio for heterosexual females 1:30 men for every 30 women in the dating pool. 80% of the black males in Atlanta are either gay, bi-sexual or on the down low and not willing to admit their attraction to men. The identities of the black gay man can be very deceiving because you never know what they may look like, if they are open about their sexuality or if they just like “to have fun on the weekends”. You have men that identify with being Queer (sexual and gender minorities who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender.),
The history of African Americans shunning their sons for being gay dates to the early 1900’s. The Black community is known to be heavily involved in church and their religious views have caused them to not acknowledge the gay community because it’s against their beliefs and against what’s printed in the bible. You will often hear pastors and church members shout-out scripters that state a man should be with a woman and they should produce another life.
The church is supposed to be a place of worship and a haven for people to come and release their pain, hurt and celebrate their achievement but they are often judged and frowned upon because they chose to love someone of the same sex.
Transwomen are women too!
This is the first time the festival made Transwomen the main focal point of their topic that they focused on when bring awareness to a situation within their own community. Over the last year 20 transwomen were killed within their own communities because they chose to live free but were still judge because of their lifestyle. The MC’s of the program shared a powerful message with the crown that was inspiring to those in the process of transiting and they also made sure they have two powerful transwomen on stage representing them.
“Transwomen need to be represented in our own community that includes the LGBTQ+ and the African America Community because we aren’t always accepted for being who we are which is a woman! Our community often doesn’t respect us, harass us by calling us Faggots, Drag queens, He/She’s etc. We aren’t even respected in the Gay community sometimes.
Said Sasha Rouge, A House mother for the House of Angelita and has been in transition for over 10 years
The committee of Black Pride reached out to American Horror Story actress Angelica Ross who is known for her confrontational role as Candy on the hit FX show Pose. Angelica Ross is also known for her transgender advocacy and her Tech Company called Trans Tech Social Enterprises, a firm that employs transpeople who have a background in tech. Their motto is “TransTech is an incubator for LGBTQ Talent with a focus on economically empowering the T, transgender people, in our community. At TransTech, we learn and work together to develop skills and value within marginalized LGBTQ communities. TransTech members have access to online community and trainings as well as TransTech co-working and meet-up locations”
During Angelica speech she touched on the recent statement Malik Yoba made of his post on social media outlets. “America needs to know we are human and have emotions too” Trans people have a heart just like anyone else, just because we were born differently from others and transformed into a precious butterfly who we identify with doesn’t mean we don’t exist.”Said Angelica.
The hit TV show POSE was created and written by a transwoman named Janet Mock. Janet is an award-winning writer, producer and New York Times bestselling Author. Her motto is “Redefining realness and surpassing certainity.”
In the recent weeks the transwomen term has become the trending topic on black twitter and other social media outlets thanks to known actor Malik Yoba. The New York Undercover star Malik Yoba released a statement on his Instagram where he informed his audience that ““I love ALL women AND count MYSELF among those that find themselves trans attracted and I too have felt the self-imposed shame that comes with that truth but it’s time to speak up.
His confession received a lot of backlash because he was accepted that he was trans attracted to women. His openness didn’t sit well with the black community and he received a lot of nasty responded as well as he was dropped from mentorship programs and other speaking engagements because he chose to be free.
Advocacy
“Who you identify with doesn’t ‘define a person “David Johns founder of the National Justice Coalition. David Johns is well-known educator, CNN correspondent, and gay rights advocate who fights for Gay Right in the black and brown community for the LGBTQ+ community today.
Making sure your child is supported helps build their self-esteem, to a point that’s hard to explain. Children who are aware of their sexuality early on suffer from some sort of self-identity, mental health issues and the list goes one due to their families not acknowledging who they are or having the difficult conversations that need to be held. They are often brushed under the rug or told they need to go to church to be prayed over and blessed with holy water because god can change anything.
“Atlanta is known at the Black Mecca for Gay black professionals who can live in a non-judgmental society while being accepted within their own companies, therefore you see a large influx of black gay males moving to Atlanta, Gregoria. Said Raven a Queer therapist who works with a large population of gay black males in the city if Atlanta.
It’s important that the black community have these conversations and create the narrative to something great.
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