Black Gay Celebrities 101

I felt that I needed to say this because its significance demonstrates a fact not only about the way Americans view gay people, but how Americans even gay Americans view gay minorities. I was extremely hard pressed to come up the group above. In fact, I don't even consider some of them like Carey and Dwight to be celebrities. The reason I was hard pressed is that Black gay men and women do not get the exposure that our white counterparts do. To prove my point, I am now going to come with 15 names of gay white men and women on the spot without using the Internet or anything.

All the guys from Queer Eye 1) Ted 2) Carson and 3) Thom. Then there is the guy who played Dougie Houser..something 4) Patrick. There is 5) Lance Bass from N'Sync and 6) and his boyfriend who was on Surivivor or Amazing Race, one of those shows. 7) There is the guy from Grey's Anatomy. 8) There is Chasity Bono 9) Ellen DeGeneres and her girlfriend 10) Di Rossi or something like that 11) Rosie ODonnell. There is the guy who was in the movie version of Xmen. He played the doctor in the wheelchair. It think his name is 12) Kan, I know his last name or first name begins with a K. 13) There is Dick Cheney's daughter who is about to have a kid. I would consider her a celebrity. 14) There is Graham Norton  There is the guy who played 15) Emmett on Queer as Folk. Also the guy who played Justin on 16) Queer as Folk.

There you have it folks, 16 names in 16 minutes! It took me hours to come up with this group of African American men and women and I had to use the Internet! The point here is clear.

White gay people and specifically white gay men are overexposed!

Comments

[jameelah]

wilson cruz is considered black? Learn something new everyday.

[Owner]

Black Hispanic.

[patrick s]

Black Hispanic? Hmmm.

I thought he was Puerto Rican. He seems fairly comfortable with black gay men but also has worke dwith many white gay men. I wouldn't guess what he checks on his Census form. Just because "Clik" has given him plenty of airtime, doesn't mean he is "black Hispanic" ...

BTW, I'm enjoying your blog, keep it up.

[Owner]

Your objection is precisely the point that I made in the text of that blog entry. I struggled to find Black gay celebrities so I ended up choosing persons who might be questionable when it comes to their authenticity as a "Black" man or woman or celebrity. You mentioned Wilson, but one might object to Anessa in the same light. Thanks for you support Patrick.

[His Sstory]

I don't think that is is simply defined as white people are getting over exposed. I think that black people have a responsibility in this too. The black church has made it difficult since the beginning to be truthful about one's sexuality. The concept of sexuality is a struggle for "straight" black americans. If there was tolerance, I think more black celebraties would be truthful about their sexuality. Black people do not want to come out because of fear that they will be ostricized.

We would need a mega star that has an overly masculine vibe to come out. Someone the world would have no choice but to love him for it. I said him, because black women's sexuality is not taken as seriously as it should. Me'shell N'deochello came out as a bi-sexual and people sleep on her.

[Owner]

Thank you for your response and interest in the topic. I certainly agree with you in that I perhaps oversimplified the issue. I understand that these barriers make it doubly more difficult to celebrate, as I did in my blog, Black gay men and women.

[Qyahel]

Wilson Cruz is of Puerto Rican decent, which by definition includes him as a person of color of African Ancestry. Hello people?! Slaves were dropped of in Latin America long before they made shipments to North America. Many Black Latino cultures are more in touch with African religion, music, art, and culture than we are in North America.

Just because we labeled ourselves "African American" does not make us any more "African" than Wilson Cruz. And because he is Latino by culture doesn’t make him NOT of “African” decent.

I believe we have succumb to the "divide and conquer" mentality that was used to oppress us and we have internalized it. People of African decent come in hundreds of shades, speak thousands of languages, and live all over the world.

Just look at the African continent alone, from Berbers in the North to South Africans in the South, and thousand in between; complexions range from light to dark and hair texture range from coarse to straight; culture and language is also tremendously varied with over a thousand languages being spoken on one continent.

We as African Americans have created this fictionalized, singular, Black vision of Africa, just as we have created this singular vision of Black Americans, Black, or African American, and this is not a reality. We are varied, bound together by a history of oppression, slavery, colonization, and tied to a common ancestry. Everything else about us is as varied as species of Apples - even our Black cultures in the US vary - from Gullah Island in South Carolina to New Orleans, from Mississippi to New York.

The sooner we as Blacks, Browns, Tans, Beige, and Yellows, realize that we are one and share a common past and common struggle, the better we will be. The power is in numbers. The division lies in categorization and localized terminology, for example, Puerto Ricans are "Puerto Rican" and not "Black". Nevertheless, they are of African decent and will acknowledge that. When African Americans refer to being "Black" they are invoking more than color but also American Black culture(s) (which usually defines peoples self view). It’s Jargon Aphasia (confusions of the tongue).

We must understand that we can't always apply OUR "American Black" terminology and labels of identification to other groups of African decent. It is often too culturally specific.

Some cultures of African people can identify and accept our labels others can't or don't. African Americans are also very ethnocentric, we tend to view everyone through our very own special Black American glasses and we attempt to fit people into our often very limited perspectives - as if we are the benchmark for Blackness or that a benchmark even exists. We are not the epitome of "African" or "Black".

Is it not OK to celebrate our diversity yet come together as People of Color of African decent? We have to shake the cultural stratification between Peoples of African Decent (Latins, Islanders, American, etc.).

Why doesn't Black History Month include and celebrate common heroes of Afro-Latino ancestry? Why doesn't Latin History include the same? Civil rights begun by African Americans inspired civil rights for Latin Americans (Chicanos). Our strikes were their strikes and theirs ours.

The Mexican American War of 1846 was one over Slavery. Cottons popularity drive the slave trade and the southern states production outgrew their land capacity so they tried to expand into the west. Mexico wouldn't allow Slavery to expand into their territories in the West (Texas to California). African Slavery had been abolished in Mexico 1829, years before the Americas. After Mexico won it’s independence from Spain, the Mexican government declared that any man, slave or freeborn, Mulatto, Mestizo, Indian, White, or African, born on Mexican soil was to be declared MEXICAN. Mexico was once 1/3 African during its history of colonization by the Spanish. Many Mexicans are of African Ancestry! So remember the Alamo!

Our children are being taught that we are unrelated and different. Yet in REALITY we share history and ancestry. Therefore, we encourage separatism, creating "Race" wars in our schools and communities. Latins vs. Blacks. Niggas vs Wetbacks. Beaners vs. Darkies. Ridiculous!

We are the same people and the white folks who benefit from it (whether they are aware of their privilege or not) don’t even live in our communities or go to our schools (but they own our community). They are hands off as we do the dirty work that helps maintain their status.

Fact - Puerto Rico's Indian population was decimated by the Spanish leaving less than 10% who escaped slavery less than 10 years after they invaded the island. The Spanish replaced the Indian work force with AFRICAN slaves, who out numbered both Indian and Spanish on the Island.

The African Slaves absorbed most of the remaining Indian population and also were allowed to marry with the Spanish. After the abolishment of Slavery in Puerto Rico, the Slave population of Puerto Rico decreased due to the end of forced immigration. Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico in 1873, approx ten years after the US.

Throughout the history of the Island, mainly the two races, African and Spanish interbred and intermarried, creating MULATTO and MESTIZO people. As more whites continued to immigrate they added a little more milk to the chocolate. That is why Puerto Ricans as well as Dominicans, Cubans, Colombians, Belizeans, and a host of other Latin American peoples range from Dark to Light with hair textures from coarse to bone straight.

The same happened to us African Americans with our white and Native American forefathers (through rape or interracial marriages). In both continents the whites separated and divided us by complexion, and colorism exists just as strongly in Latin America as it does in America.

How are we any different as Black Americans besides language and having formed and developed our culture under a different white regime than our Latino cousins? Stop dividing us. We are one.

We seem to embrace our Haitian, Jamaican, and other Island relatives - who tend to be darker skinned more than we embrace those who are from the same regions who are lighter skinned. They are also mixed up with Chinese, East Indian, Dutch, British, Carib Indian, etc.

Other Latin Countries who had African slaves and when slavery was abolished.

1821 Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela abolish slavery
1823 Chile abolishes slavery
1829 Mexico abolishes slavery
1831 Bolivia abolishes slavery
1842 Uruguay abolishes slavery
1843 Argentina abolishes slavery
1854 Peru abolishes slavery
1854 Venezuela abolishes slavery
1862 Cuba abolishes slave trade
1863 Slavery abolished in Dutch colonies (Trinidad, Tobago, Virgin Islands, West Indes)
1873 Puerto Rico abolishes slavery
1886 Cuba abolishes slavery
1888 Brazil abolishes slavery

The emancipation of African slaves occurred throughout the British Empire in 1834, and, by 1838, Dominica became the first British Caribbean colony to have a Black-controlled legislature.

Haiti became the first independent black republic and the only nation ever to form from a successful slave rebellion. Haiti is also the second non-native country in the Americas (after the United States) as well as the first (and therefore the oldest) nation in Latin America to declare its independence, on January 1, 1804.

After 1800, Mestizo settlers from Mexico and Guatemala began to settle in the North; the Garifuna, a mix of African and Carib ancestry, settled in the South by way of Honduras not long after that. Estimates have generally placed the number of the Belizean diaspora, consisting mainly of Kriol and Garifuna, at a number roughly equal to the current residents of Belize.

[Tunde Eso]

This is quiet encouraging it help to promote development in all ramifications of life especially among the youths.

[Tunde Eso]

This is quiet encouraging it help to promote development in all ramifications of life especially among the youths.

[Tom.]

I am white and gay, my boyfriend is British-African. It is not simply a case of white gays being "over-exposed". African's need to put themselves forward and promote their own homosexuality, if that is what they want. My boyfreind is 32 and STILL has not come out to his family because of "cultural" reasons, which as a "white person I would not understand" - so I'm told. What has white "over-exposure" got to do with African internalised homophobia? As one reader stated, African's must stop their own self hatred, homophobia and racism. White's cannot be blamed for all African social problems, especially when it is bred from within. If gay African's choose to remain in the closet then surely ANY exposure of gay people, black or white, is a good thing!??! Surely any exposure will wear down the ignorant. It is ironic that blacks fight for social equality based on race, but will stop at sexuality equality. Prejudice is predjudice on any scale and skin colour has nothing to do with it.

[Brian]

Patrick Stewart (the bald white guy in the wheel chair in the Xmen film) is gay??

Damn

[corey]

It's not that they are overexposed. How could you overlook a huge detail? Is the writer of this blog black? It's really quite simple. Black people DON'T want people to know if they are gay! Need I say more? I will. Gay men, and women. It's rare, because most of the time, they don't want anyone to know. Especially if they are famous, because they WILL be highly publicized, which will defeat the purpose. For the black gay people out there, you all know you struggled to come out (assuming you ARE out of the closet).

[Gigi]

You are so right. Wilson Cruz looks black to me. I would not have guessed that he was anything other than black.

[Ty]

White gays have it made when they come out, they have a whole lot of support from other gay men, blacks gays on the other hand are less visible especially in the U.K, and attitudes are very much against black gays, we get homophobia from straights, racism from whites gay and straight might I add, even violence and murdered by other blacks who are inspired by music such as hip-hop, rap and ragga which advocates the murdering of gays, it's no wonder we chose to stay in the closet.