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'GROWG UP, FELT LIKE I WAS TOO GAY TO BE BLACK AND TOO BLACK TO BE GAY'
If you own a televisn, then you've most likely seen Alphonso Mills—the attractive Black gay man wh dreadlocks the latt mercial for a new once-a-day anti-retroviral pill ed to treat people livg wh HIV. Whout people like you, would be taboo to thk that a Black gay man would be on a natnal mercial speakg openly about his posive HIV stat. I realised that I would have to fally tell her the tth - I was gay.
Dpe knowg I was gay om the age of 14, took me almost 10 years to e out. I'm 28 now, and growg up, I didn’t know anyone who was gay, nor were there any black gay role mols on TV or the media. 9% of the UK’s black populatn scribe themselv as openly gay, pared to 2% of the total UK until I was my early twenti, I buried my feelgs and tried my bt to pretend to be straight.
When my iends ed to say thgs like “that’s so gay” - meang somethg was unol - I’d jo so I wouldn't stand by the time I turned 21, I uldn’t supprs my sexualy anymore. I knew pretty much nothg about the gay muny, and was eager to learn. My sister has a uple of gay iends, so I thought she would be unrstandg - and I was right.