Contents:
GAY OR BI? THE DANGERS OF LABELG FRANK OCEAN
21 Great Gay Moments In Mic.
For gay black male sgers and rappers, outsi the closet remas mostly a don’t-go-there zone, to which only a few artists sce Ocean — cludg “Empire” star Jsie Smollett, Brockhampton lear Kev Abstract and rapper ILoveMakonnen — have ventured. “Instead of supportg each other, sometim we n get stuck a box and people n hold agast , ” says Atlanta’s ILoveMakonnen, a former Drake protégé who me out as gay 2017.
Anti-gay sentiment the black mic muny is driven, part, by old-time relign and a God who, acrdg to some beliefs, nmns homosexualy. As protectors of machismo see , homosexualy and what is perceived as “feme” behavr by men further strip black men of their mascule power. Craig Seymour, whose “Craig’s Pop Life” podst explor entertament om a black gay pot of view, se the black LGBTQ genr divi as a se of history repeatg self.
FRANK OCEAN: ‘I CRIED THE NIGHT I ME OUT AS GAY’
When to general acceptance, lbians don’t enunter the same roadblocks as gay men. Even if hard-lers the black muny aren’t fully on board, they won’t necsarily em a gay or bisexual black woman a threat to eher black femy or masculy. Once a man out as gay, however, he no longer fulfills the whe — or black — knight fantasy.
“I don’t thk ’s the gay thg; ’s the exprsn of , ” says Young M.
Billy Porter, an openly gay rerdg artist who has enjoyed succs as a Tony-wng actor, attribut unequal perceptns to the male-centric gaze. “That’s an easier visual to stomach, bee you know the only thg people are terted when they hear ‘gay’ is what we’re dog our bedroom.