'Growg up, felt like I was too gay to be black and too black to be gay' - BBC Three

Contents:

• ‘WE KEPT GETTG PEOPLE SAYG: EXCE ME, YOU DON’T LOOK GAY’ – HOW BLACK PEOPLE FOUGHT FOR A SPACE AT PRI
• 'THE UK'S BLACK GAY INS ARE WORTHY OF REGNN'
• FALLY YOU N WATCH TV AND SEE WE – AS BLACK GAY MEN – ARE WORTHY OF LOVE
• 'GROWG UP, FELT LIKE I WAS TOO GAY TO BE BLACK AND TOO BLACK TO BE GAY'
• GAY DATG UNED KGDOM
• 5 BT GAY BLACK DATG S & APPS TO FD THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE

‘WE KEPT GETTG PEOPLE SAYG: EXCE ME, YOU DON’T LOOK GAY’ – HOW BLACK PEOPLE FOUGHT FOR A SPACE AT PRI

We lnched the digal archive Black and Gay, Back the Day on Instagram at the start of LGBTQ History Month on 1 Febary. This giv our archive the feel of a fay photo album, wh imag that evoke memori, nnect old lovers and te younger Black queers about the spac that have existed the are two Black gay men: Jason is 24 and Marc is 51, so there is a generatnal age gap between .

We met 1990 at Nwangi, a Black gay club night at the Market Tavern pub Vxhall south London, which has sce been molished to make way for the new US embassy buildg. I love this picture as ’s a rare image of Black gay love and timacy – ’s radil simply bee puts Black gay love ont and and Caz, late 1980s. Photograph: Col GrantCol and Caz, late 1980sMarc: This photograph is of siblgs Col and Caz at the Lbian and Gay Centre on Cowcross Street, London, the late 80s.

It also acts as a remr of a very important place LGBTQ history, and emphasis the need for spac that are separate om the mercial gay scene. The Lbian and Gay Centre opened 1986 and prid self on meetg the diverse needs of the muny, creatg specific spac for women and Black and Wston Brixton, 1992.

'THE UK'S BLACK GAY INS ARE WORTHY OF REGNN'

Photograph: Calv DawksDJ Biggy C wh the hoe mic vol tr Jomanda at the Vox, 1993Marc: For many years, Black LGBTQ clubs were predomantly n by whe gay men. On Friday nights, tered to the diverse tast of Black gay people.

From club kids to dancehall queens or homothugs, all were wele.

FALLY YOU N WATCH TV AND SEE WE – AS BLACK GAY MEN – ARE WORTHY OF LOVE

No night was plete whout an appearance by the Glamour Crew – a tight-kn group of fabuloly drsed young Black gay men who drew fluenc om the Harlem ballroom scene.

He would have been his early 20s this photograph, around the age that I am now, and shows his early reer as a journalist for gay media. We have had lots of discsns about beg London-based Black gay journalists at different tim, and the kd of ternal battl he has won to secure verage of certa stori ensure that gay media is clive and tackl employment discrimatn.

There aren’t many Black gay journalists even now – although my iends Otamere Guobadia, Josh Lee and Ben Hunte are great exampl – so ’s spirg to see him on the ontle all those years McAlmont before Pri, 1992. Soho has now bee synonymo wh the “whewashed” ontier of gay nightlife and is often mistakenly perceived as a playground for a predomantly whe LGBTQ crowd, so ’s wonrful to know that there was a Black queer women’s night held at the heart of .

'GROWG UP, FELT LIKE I WAS TOO GAY TO BE BLACK AND TOO BLACK TO BE GAY'

I have heard warm stori about Patrick Liverpool, who died 2001: about his grand outfs and his nt parti, his home Brixton beg full of Black gay men om all rners of London.

But what has stuck wh me is his duty of re towards the Black gay men he met – often strangers whom he took to provi shelter, food and safety.

I fd how he fashned himself as an isolated Black gay man a small northern town spirg bee, his words, he beme the very image that he need to see. It’s a punk athetic that I thk also provis some diversy to the archive terms of the youth subcultur Black gay men have belonged to. The events were also signifintly more policised, wh notable monstratns agast Sectn 28, ernment negligence addrsg the HIV/Aids crisis, and discrimatn agast LGBT+ what is often overlooked the history of Pri the UK is the signifint Black prence, and the spac Black LGBT+ people sought to rve out for themselv among the “mastream” gay and lbian muny.

GAY DATG UNED KGDOM

A curated space for Black LGBT+ people at Pri me about 1991, led by an surgency of Black gay men ristg the persistent hostily and margalisatn felt by their muny at Pri. This is the story of how Black self-anisatn the early 90s paved the way for today’s UK Black Thompson and Lloyd Young at Pri Kenngton, Young In the late 80s, early 90s, there was an emergg work of Black gay men. One day 1991, Time Out magaze, there was a ltle article, like “Celebrate gayns at Kenngton Park” [a Pri event].

It was Black mic, rather than the hi-NRG mic that you’d hear om the rt of Gay Pri, which felt very alienatg. And so to fally attend a Pri where there was mic culturally relevant to me, mic om the Black gay clubs I ed to go to, was a ltle piece of paradise. They said “exce me”, and we immediately knew what they were gog to e out wh bee we always experienced that: you ask any Black gay person, they’d all had this experience, of people sayg: ‘You don’t look gay.

It’s Gay Pri, you know? I went along to Brockwell Park wh my iends; I remember walkg om my hoe Oval to Brockwell Park, and takg the back streets, bee we didn’t want to go through Brixton, bee we knew all the gays gog through Brixton probably would be subjected to some homophobia. At prev Gay Pris I ed to hang out very close to the women’s tent bee that was the tent that played the bt mic.

5 BT GAY BLACK DATG S & APPS TO FD THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE

So that was a lastg memory: jt feelg really exced about the prospect of havg a safe space for Black lbians and gay men, pecially after several unsuccsful attempts to create that at prev Bailey I remember the women’s tent, which I thk was always the more tertg of the tents. Tony was at the stage where he’d bee one of the most visible and vol activists for Black gay men. I thk if I’m beg hont, if they didn’t have that space, I would’ve stopped attendg Gay Pri.