NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to 90-year-old Hector Black about his life as a closeted gay man who didn't e out until he was 70 years old.
Contents:
- BLACK, GRAY AND GAY: THE PERILS OF AGG LGBTQ PEOPLE OF COLOR
- BLACK, GAY AND GRAYG GRACEFULLY LOVE
- 81-YEAR-OLD MAN ALLEG HE WAS JAILED FOR HAVG GAY SEX
- 90-YEAR-OLD GAY MAN RELLS LONG STGGLE WH HIS SEXUALY
BLACK, GRAY AND GAY: THE PERILS OF AGG LGBTQ PEOPLE OF COLOR
Jamal Jordan uldn't envisn what growg old as a gay Black man until he met Mike and Phil while workg on a book. * black old gay *
Who self-intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer (LGBTQ) — about 1. Nursg hom and other long-term re facili are pecially problematic for black LGBTQ elrs, acrdg to Kenh Mchell, 62, a black gay man livg New Orleans. “People need to be able to be their te selv; beg fearful and strsed impacts your qualy of life and your physil and mental health, " add Mchell, who serv as a board member for New Orleans Advot for GLBT Elrs (NOAGE) Burgs, 65, a black gay man Washgton D.
“It’s not the same as beg a young gay person; there’s ls to do, and many of our peers have died om the AIDS epimic, ” he said. Plans ll for 15 efficiency uns, a “stone wall” on the grounds memoratg the 1969 Stonewall Inn Rts and a yellow brick road — a nod to days past when gay men would clanstely intify each other by askg, “Are you a iend of Dorothy? Sign up for the ia of growg old as a gay man ed to terrify me.
I simply had no ncept of what longevy looked like for gay Black fear wasn’t irratnal.
BLACK, GAY AND GRAYG GRACEFULLY LOVE
Black gay love is revolutnary. * black old gay *
Wispread reprentatn of lbian, gay — and to a lser extent, bisexual and transgenr — people media have only recently bee anythg near “mastream.
81-YEAR-OLD MAN ALLEG HE WAS JAILED FOR HAVG GAY SEX
Gay history is Black history. * black old gay *
“We jt want to let young gay people know that they n have somethg to look forward to when they get old, ” Phil said to me on the send-floor ck of their Amerin Foursquare on Detro’s Wt si, one of the greatt pris of their 50-year relatnship.
” We were troduced by Curtis Lipsb, the executive director of LGBT Detro (also featured the book), who, hearg me lament the arth of olr gay men my life, sisted that I meet this uple. He scribed them as “val” to the cy’s gay Black muny, and was easy for me to unrstand why: I spent my teen years Detro.
90-YEAR-OLD GAY MAN RELLS LONG STGGLE WH HIS SEXUALY
is a muny for olr gay men and the men who love them. * black old gay *
“We’ve dited our liv to makg sure younger gay Black people know that they n grow old, and that they’ll have somethg to live for. He had a gay uncle that his entire fay “held up on a pestal, ” so he knew om a young age that beg gay was accepted his fay. “The few tim anyone ever ma fun of me, rarely impacted me, bee beg gay was affirmed by the people my life who meant the most to me.
He don’t want to spend too much time on his backstory and offers me only the followg: “I grew up Flt, Michigan, a homophobic cy, was reprsed.
The tablishment soon beme a popular spot for churchgoers, who wanted to hang out a welg space that wasn’t a is one set of patrons, however, whose memory hnts the uple to this day: In the weeks after they first went to bs the 1980s, a group of eight gay teenagers me to the rtrant every Sunday.