On Malcolm X's 80 birthday, Peter Tatchell reveals the hidden gay past of the American black nationalist leader
Malcolm X was born 80 years ago today, on 19 May 1925. But amid the commemorations, controversy is brewing. Some black activists are enraged by suggestions that their hero might have been gay - or at least bisexual.
The controversy has been stirring since the publication of Bruce Perry's acclaimed biography, Malcolm: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America (Station Hill, New York) in 1991. Based on interviews with Malcolm's closest boyhood and adult friends, Perry suggests that the US black nationalist leader was not as robustly heterosexual as his Nation of Islam (NoI) colleagues have always insisted.
Malcolm X, real name Malcolm Little, joined the militant Muslim NoI in 1949, attracted by its teaching that Allah would deliver black people from white bondage. By the 1960s, Malcolm had developed NoI ideology in new directions, becoming America's leading spokesperson for black consciousness, pride and self-help. Sexual freedom was not, however, part of his agenda.
Yet Perry's book documents Malcolm X's many gay experiences. A schoolmate, Bob Bebee, recalls the day they stumbled on a local boy jerking off. Malcolm, Bebee recalled, ordered the youth to masturbate him, and subsequently boasted he had given him oral sex.
Later, from the age of 20, Malcolm had sex with men for money - as hinted at in Spike Lee's 1992 biopic - and he had at least one sustained sexual liaison with a man. While living in Flint, Michigan, his roommate noticed that instead of sleeping in the room they were sharing, Malcolm sneaked down the hall to spend the night with a gay transvestite named Willie Mae.
In New York, two of Malcolm's friends from Michigan remember bumping into him at the YMCA, where Malcolm bragged he earned money servicing "queers". Later, Malcolm worked as a butler to a wealthy Boston bachelor, William Paul Lennon. According to Malcolm's sidekick Malcolm Jarvis, he was paid to sprinkle Lennon with talcum powder and bring him to orgasm. Perry suggests that Malcolm's gay encounters may not have been entirely financially motivated. His masculine insecurities and ambivalence towards women fit the archetype of a repressed gay man and point to latent homosexuality.
After the death of his father, when Malcolm was six, he lacked male role models and was dominated by strong women - in particular, his tyrannical mother. He feared women and his early sexual experiences with girls were mostly unsatisfactory. Far from macho, Malcolm hated fighting and got beaten by other men. His passionate assertion that the need to feel masculine is a man's "greatest urge" indicates someone doubtful of his own manliness.
As for his sporadic gay hustling, as Perry notes, "there were other ways he could have earned money". Dope-dealing, thieving and pimping were sources of income he had pursued with success. There was no imperative to sell his body.
Why, then, did he prostitute himself? Misogyny and repressed homosexuality might be the answer. According to Perry: "His male-to-male encounters, which rendered it unnecessary for him to compete for women, afforded him an opportunity for sexual release without the attendant risk of dependence on women."
Was Malcolm X gay? Bisexual? In his schooldays, he was apparently a passive participant. Others masturbated or fellated him. Later, while working as a male prostitute, he took a more hands-on role in sex, especially with Lennon. This part-time whoring may have been pecuniary.
There is, however, plentiful research suggesting that many guys who have sex with men for payment are in denial about their homosexuality. They tell themselves they are doing it for the money. This is their way of coping with same-sex desires that they are unable to accept. Was this Malcolm's excuse?
Surely there must have been some degree of queer desire to enable Malcolm to sustain his sexual experiences with men over a period of 10 years? If this desire was within him from adolescence to early adulthood, could he have erased it completely in later life?
Sexuality is not like a newspaper - read today and discarded tomorrow. Established desires can be sublimated or repressed, but never eliminated. If people have a homosexual capacity, it stays with them for life - even if they never act on it. Was Malcolm an exception? There is no evidence that his same-sex dalliances continued once he joined the NoI; he married and had children, and, with all the fervour of a zealous convert, he embraced the NoI's fiercely puritanical Muslim sexual morality.
Had he not been assassinated in 1965, almost certainly at the hands of NoI rivals, Malcolm might have eventually, like Huey Newton of the Black Panthers, welcomed the gay liberation movement as part of the struggle for human emancipation. Instead, to serve its homophobic political agenda, for 50 years the NoI has suppressed knowledge of Malcolm's gay past.
Now it is time to blow the whistle. There is not a single world-famous black person who is openly gay. Young black lesbians and gays need role models. Who better than Malcolm X, one of the inspirations of my activism and one of the great modern heroes of black liberation?
(First published: Thursday May 19, 2005, The Guardian)
The controversy has been stirring since the publication of Bruce Perry's acclaimed biography, Malcolm: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America (Station Hill, New York) in 1991. Based on interviews with Malcolm's closest boyhood and adult friends, Perry suggests that the US black nationalist leader was not as robustly heterosexual as his Nation of Islam (NoI) colleagues have always insisted.
Malcolm X, real name Malcolm Little, joined the militant Muslim NoI in 1949, attracted by its teaching that Allah would deliver black people from white bondage. By the 1960s, Malcolm had developed NoI ideology in new directions, becoming America's leading spokesperson for black consciousness, pride and self-help. Sexual freedom was not, however, part of his agenda.
Yet Perry's book documents Malcolm X's many gay experiences. A schoolmate, Bob Bebee, recalls the day they stumbled on a local boy jerking off. Malcolm, Bebee recalled, ordered the youth to masturbate him, and subsequently boasted he had given him oral sex.
Later, from the age of 20, Malcolm had sex with men for money - as hinted at in Spike Lee's 1992 biopic - and he had at least one sustained sexual liaison with a man. While living in Flint, Michigan, his roommate noticed that instead of sleeping in the room they were sharing, Malcolm sneaked down the hall to spend the night with a gay transvestite named Willie Mae.
In New York, two of Malcolm's friends from Michigan remember bumping into him at the YMCA, where Malcolm bragged he earned money servicing "queers". Later, Malcolm worked as a butler to a wealthy Boston bachelor, William Paul Lennon. According to Malcolm's sidekick Malcolm Jarvis, he was paid to sprinkle Lennon with talcum powder and bring him to orgasm. Perry suggests that Malcolm's gay encounters may not have been entirely financially motivated. His masculine insecurities and ambivalence towards women fit the archetype of a repressed gay man and point to latent homosexuality.
After the death of his father, when Malcolm was six, he lacked male role models and was dominated by strong women - in particular, his tyrannical mother. He feared women and his early sexual experiences with girls were mostly unsatisfactory. Far from macho, Malcolm hated fighting and got beaten by other men. His passionate assertion that the need to feel masculine is a man's "greatest urge" indicates someone doubtful of his own manliness.
As for his sporadic gay hustling, as Perry notes, "there were other ways he could have earned money". Dope-dealing, thieving and pimping were sources of income he had pursued with success. There was no imperative to sell his body.
Why, then, did he prostitute himself? Misogyny and repressed homosexuality might be the answer. According to Perry: "His male-to-male encounters, which rendered it unnecessary for him to compete for women, afforded him an opportunity for sexual release without the attendant risk of dependence on women."
Was Malcolm X gay? Bisexual? In his schooldays, he was apparently a passive participant. Others masturbated or fellated him. Later, while working as a male prostitute, he took a more hands-on role in sex, especially with Lennon. This part-time whoring may have been pecuniary.
There is, however, plentiful research suggesting that many guys who have sex with men for payment are in denial about their homosexuality. They tell themselves they are doing it for the money. This is their way of coping with same-sex desires that they are unable to accept. Was this Malcolm's excuse?
Surely there must have been some degree of queer desire to enable Malcolm to sustain his sexual experiences with men over a period of 10 years? If this desire was within him from adolescence to early adulthood, could he have erased it completely in later life?
Sexuality is not like a newspaper - read today and discarded tomorrow. Established desires can be sublimated or repressed, but never eliminated. If people have a homosexual capacity, it stays with them for life - even if they never act on it. Was Malcolm an exception? There is no evidence that his same-sex dalliances continued once he joined the NoI; he married and had children, and, with all the fervour of a zealous convert, he embraced the NoI's fiercely puritanical Muslim sexual morality.
Had he not been assassinated in 1965, almost certainly at the hands of NoI rivals, Malcolm might have eventually, like Huey Newton of the Black Panthers, welcomed the gay liberation movement as part of the struggle for human emancipation. Instead, to serve its homophobic political agenda, for 50 years the NoI has suppressed knowledge of Malcolm's gay past.
Now it is time to blow the whistle. There is not a single world-famous black person who is openly gay. Young black lesbians and gays need role models. Who better than Malcolm X, one of the inspirations of my activism and one of the great modern heroes of black liberation?
(First published: Thursday May 19, 2005, The Guardian)
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Hide the following 13 comments
Would be ace if true...
19.05.2005 18:32
Fight the Power
' Muhammed Ali!: Gay Black Hero! '
19.05.2005 22:59
And what would be the point - if even true at all - of someone trying to chronicle and publish every alleged or apocryphal incident of someone's sex life - gay or straight?
What are Peter Tatchell's true intentions?
And what of _Tatchell's_ sex life? Is he just fantasizing - through his allegations about a black man?
So what?
Homophobed
20.05.2005 09:36
Qwerty
So what?
20.05.2005 15:31
Well, since I'm black, I'd hardly be racist against another black person. And since my attitude is "So what?" (whether its true or not), I'd hardly be homophobic.
The tone and itemized details and sexually graphic descriptions of Peter Tatchell's article reads like some shameful expose meant to somehow discredit Malcolm X if it were true - but under the duplicitous guise of "gay black hero". This so, because otherwise it would even more obviously be a blatantly homophobic article on the socially equivalent level of, "Did you know that [famous white person] has 3 black relatives in his/her family? *That's* right! *Three* black relatives!! One is a half brother/sister, the other is an inlaw, and the other is a cousin! There names are [this, this, and that]; one lives in London, the other lives in St. Albans, and the other lives in Manchester. S/he had dinner with one on Christmas, s/he had dinner with the other on New Years, and s/he had dinner with the third on Easter. And they all ate at the same table with him/her each time, and even slept in the same house over the holidays! That's right! Three black relatives!"
The response of any moral person would be, "Yeah... So what!?"
And, I would also guess what the true motivations are in someone wanting to detail such an expose: to somehow feel that person feels they could socially besmirch someone white who had black relatives.
Qwerty: "Of course there are!"
Exactly. And straight and bi, as well as gay, too.
(Why would *you* be so quick to erroneously jump to the conclusion that I would deny that there are gay black males? Aside from that, sexual orientation can sometimes be fluid, not necessarily permanently fixed, depending on what someone wants or explores at different times or phases in their lives, as is more obviously the case with women.)
My response would be the same: So what?
So what?
This is familar
22.05.2005 05:18
Hold on if what he says is true then how can a repressed, closeted, mysogonistic, prostitute be a good role model for black lesibans and gay men?
rog
I'm sure that's not true:
22.05.2005 17:13
Your knowledge, rog, is highly limited. I'm sure there are numerous ones.
One particularly famous one is writer/poet Audrey Lourde. Another one is filmmaker Marlon Rigg. James Baldwin is indeed another (gay/bisexsual). Another was Bayard Rustin, famous non-violence theorist/activist of the American Civil Rights Movement. Poet & novelist Maya Angelou may be gay/bisexual. I'm sure there are others. I'd suggest you consult your nearest library (especially Africana library department), bookstore (especially black bookstore), university (especially African diaspora studies), and black writer, professor or scholar.
live & learn
live and learn
24.05.2005 05:03
Live and Learn
Actually the quote: "There is not a single world-famous black person who is openly gay." Is from Peter Tatchell's article did you read before posting your comment?
And I agree that comment comes ignorance, it's a shame that he seems to be the only guy addressing black lesbian and gay issues, incorrectly.
rog
rog
World famous OPENLY gay
24.05.2005 10:04
Tatchell is right. In terms of world famous actors, directors, musicians, authors, journalists, broadcasters, politicians, celebrities, sportspeople, etc who are household names and openly gay, there are none.
Yes, it may be an "open secret" or widely speculated that singers like Tracy Chapman or Joan Amertrading are gay. Yes, British soccer player Justin Fashanu was gay (but driven to suicide), yes long dead authors like Baldwin and Langston Hughes were black and gay, yes former pop star Tevin Cambell came out long after the hits dried up, yes, Ru Paul is a minor celibrity known chiefly as a drag artist... but where are the household names? Where's the black Elton Johns or Martina Navratilovas?
You're sure there more, but you can't think of any... that's exactly the point.
And while there is this prejudiced attitude that a person's homosexuality descredits and disgraces them, there are hardly likely to be any in the future.
Qwerty
been around the block
24.05.2005 17:02
Why does a role model have to be famous? The internet has changed they was we communicate so while Bayard Rustin may not be a household name (ie on TV), black gays and lesbians can search this information and choose their role models rather than relying on that crap Tatchell puts out.
.And please don’t belittle Bayard Rustins achievements.
When you say ”openly gay” it’s is not our style, I don’t want to be a woman and I don’t hate women. There are many men who don’t love men they hate women but identify as gay. They probably hate gay men too, they are the guys who spend much of their time looking for straight men to pull ,they are bitchy, cruel and play mind games with other men. Who wants to be associated with that?.
Tatchell is right. In terms of world famous actors, directors, musicians, authors, journalists, broadcasters, politicians, celebrities, sportspeople, etc who are household names and openly gay, there are none.
Tatchell is wrong as I said before black gay heroes can be found on in books and the Internet rather than Sky 1. And why does he care does he want to be a black gay role model? Does he want to pull black men? Or is he an ego manic who can never get enough attention?
Yes, it may be an "open secret" or widely speculated that singers like Tracy Chapman or Joan Amertrading are gay. Yes, British soccer player Justin Fashanu was gay (but driven to suicide), yes long dead authors like Baldwin and Langston Hughes were black and gay, yes former pop star Tevin Cambell came out long after the hits dried up, yes, Ru Paul is a minor celibrity known chiefly as a drag artist... but where are the household names? Where's the black Elton Johns or Martina Navratilovas?
Ok why should black gay person “come out” to strangers what could this achieve? White people can come out because they have not got much to loose, the privilege afforded their straight parents and siblings has been taken away. I would be angry too. And if coming out blows up in a white persons face there are many support groups to help you get through it
The options for black people are suicide, a mental institution or brainwashing aka counselling.. I was encouraged to come out by a white friend and that was the second most foolish thing I ever did, luckily I got big fat balls.
You're sure there more, but you can't think of any... that's exactly the point.
And while there is this prejudiced attitude that a person's homosexuality descredits and disgraces them, there are hardly likely to be any in the future.
In the opinion of many white people my colour discredits and disgraces me so why should we set ourselves up for double trouble? To please you?
And finally if there are any young back lesbian and gay people reading this my opinion for living in a big white city is
1. Your parents know but have said nothing they are not fools
2. Being gay is a privilege respect yourself and be humble. Contrary to popular belief most people don’t give a fuck but some gay men will tell you otherwise.
3. Go for the homely type girl or guy they are much more trustworthy. Keep away from drama queens and macho men
4. Do not go into the gay scene, but if you must wait until you are totally secure and confident, it’s full of predators, losers, druggies and posers about 95% are shit and about 99% are racist.
5. Do not date any more than 3 years older or younger and find someone with a similar background who is positive about the future and trustworthy. Some guys are looking for a cliché and they are usually older from a less multicultural era avoid these like your life depended on it or you may end up being that cliché.
6. If you must take drugs only smoke weed and try not to drink don’t mix the two. You will be offered all kinds of free drugs to get you hooked on something this person will be your friend until you’re hooked. And someone will try to get you drunk or drug your drink.
7. Do not answer questions about your sexuality from anyone, some things are best left unsaid. If a person insists on discussing your sexuality they are wasting your time walk away.
8. The grass is never greener you will meet someone who is perfect, loving and warm who wants to be with you when you do stay with him/her you will be tested trust me but you must be strong.
9. If you have any doubt walk away immediately.
10. A person who gossips will defiantly talk about you behind your back and if you are intimate with a gossip your personal details are no longer personal.
judge dredd
been around the block
24.05.2005 17:03
Why does a role model have to be famous? The internet has changed they was we communicate so while Bayard Rustin may not be a household name (ie on TV), black gays and lesbians can search this information and choose their role models rather than relying on that crap Tatchell puts out.
.And please don’t belittle Bayard Rustins achievements.
When you say ”openly gay” it’s is not our style, I don’t want to be a woman and I don’t hate women. There are many men who don’t love men they hate women but identify as gay. They probably hate gay men too, they are the guys who spend much of their time looking for straight men to pull ,they are bitchy, cruel and play mind games with other men. Who wants to be associated with that?.
Tatchell is right. In terms of world famous actors, directors, musicians, authors, journalists, broadcasters, politicians, celebrities, sportspeople, etc who are household names and openly gay, there are none.
Tatchell is wrong as I said before black gay heroes can be found on in books and the Internet rather than Sky 1. And why does he care does he want to be a black gay role model? Does he want to pull black men? Or is he an ego manic who can never get enough attention?
Yes, it may be an "open secret" or widely speculated that singers like Tracy Chapman or Joan Amertrading are gay. Yes, British soccer player Justin Fashanu was gay (but driven to suicide), yes long dead authors like Baldwin and Langston Hughes were black and gay, yes former pop star Tevin Cambell came out long after the hits dried up, yes, Ru Paul is a minor celibrity known chiefly as a drag artist... but where are the household names? Where's the black Elton Johns or Martina Navratilovas?
Ok why should black gay person “come out” to strangers what could this achieve? White people can come out because they have not got much to loose, the privilege afforded their straight parents and siblings has been taken away. I would be angry too. And if coming out blows up in a white persons face there are many support groups to help you get through it
The options for black people are suicide, a mental institution or brainwashing aka counselling.. I was encouraged to come out by a white friend and that was the second most foolish thing I ever did, luckily I got big fat balls.
You're sure there more, but you can't think of any... that's exactly the point.
And while there is this prejudiced attitude that a person's homosexuality descredits and disgraces them, there are hardly likely to be any in the future.
In the opinion of many white people my colour discredits and disgraces me so why should we set ourselves up for double trouble? To please you?
And finally if there are any young back lesbian and gay people reading this my opinion for living in a big white city is
1. Your parents know but have said nothing they are not fools
2. Being gay is a privilege respect yourself and be humble. Contrary to popular belief most people don’t give a fuck but some gay men will tell you otherwise.
3. Go for the homely type girl or guy they are much more trustworthy. Keep away from drama queens and macho men
4. Do not go into the gay scene, but if you must wait until you are totally secure and confident, it’s full of predators, losers, druggies and posers about 95% are shit and about 99% are racist.
5. Do not date any more than 3 years older or younger and find someone with a similar background who is positive about the future and trustworthy. Some guys are looking for a cliché and they are usually older from a less multicultural era avoid these like your life depended on it or you may end up being that cliché.
6. If you must take drugs only smoke weed and try not to drink don’t mix the two. You will be offered all kinds of free drugs to get you hooked on something this person will be your friend until you’re hooked. And someone will try to get you drunk or drug your drink.
7. Do not answer questions about your sexuality from anyone, some things are best left unsaid. If a person insists on discussing your sexuality they are wasting your time walk away.
8. The grass is never greener you will meet someone who is perfect, loving and warm who wants to be with you when you do stay with him/her you will be tested trust me but you must be strong.
9. If you have any doubt walk away immediately.
10. A person who gossips will defiantly talk about you behind your back and if you are intimate with a gossip your personal details are no longer personal.
judge dredd
been around the block
24.05.2005 18:17
Why does a role model have to be famous? The internet has changed they was we communicate so while Bayard Rustin may not be a household name (ie on TV), black gays and lesbians can search this information and choose their role models rather than relying on Tatchell’s output.
.And please don’t belittle Bayard Rustins achievements.
When you say ”openly gay” it’s is not our style, I don’t want to be a woman and I don’t hate women. There are many men who don’t love men they hate women but identify as gay. They probably hate gay men too, they are the guys who spend much of their time looking for straight men to pull ,they are bitchy, cruel and play mind games with other men. Who wants to be associated with that?.
Tatchell is right. In terms of world famous actors, directors, musicians, authors, journalists, broadcasters, politicians, celebrities, sportspeople, etc who are household names and openly gay, there are none.
Tatchell is wrong as I said before black gay heroes can be found on in books and the Internet rather than Sky 1. And why does he care does he want to be a black gay role model? Does he want to pull black men? Or is he an ego manic who can never get enough attention?
Yes, it may be an "open secret" or widely speculated that singers like Tracy Chapman or Joan Amertrading are gay. Yes, British soccer player Justin Fashanu was gay (but driven to suicide), yes long dead authors like Baldwin and Langston Hughes were black and gay, yes former pop star Tevin Cambell came out long after the hits dried up, yes, Ru Paul is a minor celibrity known chiefly as a drag artist... but where are the household names? Where's the black Elton Johns or Martina Navratilovas?
Ok why should black gay person “come out” to strangers what could this achieve? White people can come out because they have not got much to loose, the privilege afforded their straight parents and siblings has been taken away. I would be angry too. And if coming out blows up in a white persons face there are many support groups to help you get through it
The options for black people are suicide, a mental institution or brainwashing aka counselling.. I was encouraged to come out by a white friend and that was the second most foolish thing I ever did, luckily I got big fat balls.
You're sure there more, but you can't think of any... that's exactly the point.
And while there is this prejudiced attitude that a person's homosexuality descredits and disgraces them, there are hardly likely to be any in the future.
In the opinion of many white people my colour discredits and disgraces me so why should we set ourselves up for double trouble? To please you?
And finally if there are any young back lesbian and gay people reading this my opinion for living in a big white city is
1. Your parents know but have said nothing they are not fools
2. Being gay is a privilege respect yourself and be humble. Contrary to popular belief most people don’t give a fuck but some gay men will tell you otherwise.
3. Go for the homely type girl or guy they are much more trustworthy. Keep away from drama queens and macho men
4. Do not go into the gay scene, but if you must wait until you are totally secure and confident, it’s full of predators, losers, druggies and posers about 95% are shit and about 99% are racist.
5. Do not date any more than 3 years older or younger and find someone with a similar background who is positive about the future and trustworthy. Some guys are looking for a cliché and they are usually older from a less multicultural era avoid these like your life depended on it or you may end up being that cliché.
6. If you must take drugs only smoke weed and try not to drink don’t mix the two. You will be offered all kinds of free drugs to get you hooked on something this person will be your friend until you’re hooked. And someone will try to get you drunk or drug your drink.
7. Do not answer questions about your sexuality from anyone, some things are best left unsaid. If a person insists on discussing your sexuality they are wasting your time walk away.
8. The grass is never greener you will meet someone who is perfect, loving and warm who wants to be with you when you do stay with him/her you will be tested trust me but you must be strong.
9. If you have any doubt walk away immediately.
10. A person who gossips will defiantly talk about you behind your back and if you are intimate with a gossip your personal details are no longer personal.
jd
hype vs. worth
26.05.2005 09:13
Quotation marks might help make that clearer.
(Oh, and my apology for letting Langston Hughes name slip my mind.)
rog: "And I agree that comment comes ignorance, it's a shame that he seems to be the only guy addressing black lesbian and gay issues, incorrectly."
--and quite, quite DUBIOUSLY! -- or could it be DUPLICITOUSLY?
Qwerty: "An anti-violence theorist may be famous in certain circles,..."
You mean, like one of the _landmark figures_ in the American Civil Rights Movement?
Qwerty: "...but he's hardly a household name."
Oh, I didn't know that we were only confining ourselves to today's pop society realm for "role models", rather than the intellectual, literary, and political activist realm. I never gotten my role models from pop society. That's a very superficial kind of "role model" that I would never encourage anyone--especially young people--and especially black youngsters--to hero worship--unless those pop society names are doing something much more profound than merely being a pop society hero.
Qwerty: "long dead authors like Baldwin"
Yes, _so long_ ago! They didn't even have mobiles then!
Whites with deeper minds don't limit their role models and heroes to pop society; those whites have plenty of, as it is said, "dead white men" heroes (in literature, in the sciences, even in music, and certainly in the arts).
RE Tracy Chapman: is she in the closet?
Qwerty: "Where's the black Elton Johns or Martina Navratilovas?"
Why not ask the music industry (that keeps most blacks from ever becoming anything approximating an 'Elton John' in the first place) or pro tennis (how many black stars--and especially black male stars--are there in _tennis_, anyway)?
Qwerty: "You're sure there more, but you can't think of any... that's exactly the point."
Don't get your undies in a twist, Qwerty. I myself can't think of very many (and actually fewer) _white_ household name gay males. And actually, I'm not up on most celebrities, anyway. (I've never been star struck and I've never paid that much attention to pop celebrities, as I don't try to vicariously live my life through them, and I've never been in awe of celebrities as just celebrities.) If people in contemporary pop society don't want to be out of the closet in _2005_, no less, it's not _my_ fault! And, if they are black (male or female), perhaps they've got good reason not to.
But, yes (outside of perhaps ballet or the theater), blacks (especially black gay men) might pay a much higher cost (primarily imposed by _whites_ in the industry in which such blacks work) for openly and publicly coming out, as judge dredd has articulately pointed out in more detail.
live and learn
You must be crazy!
28.11.2005 20:39
LG