Michael Sam

michael Sam

I’m concerned. I am pleased as punch that Michael Sam has come out ahead of the draft. According to reports, he had already come out to his team mates earlier. He came out to his father via text, and after initial acceptance, his father is now going through second thoughts. This is actually natural. Upon receiving news that your child has a different sexual orientation than you once thought might give you pause. Yes hopefully his father will realize his son is the same person he always was, and will love him the same. However his father needs to work through all of this in his own time. I pray PFLAG finds him and gives him resources to understand what his son will soon be going through. Coming out of the closet as a young person is enough to deal with when you’re NOT famous. Being in the super spotlight while going through the inevitable slip ups, sexts, hookups and random adventures that the sexual awakening of any young person requires, must be a harrowing ordeal.

Study link for more Blacks identify as LGBTQ http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/new-survey-3-4-of-u-s-adults-are-lgbt/

Those are enough concerns. The message that I see hiding in that NYtimes article, and that is a narrative I often see nowadays is what is troubling. This message is that black people are homophobic. Not merely homophobic, but more homophobic than whites. This is simply not the case, yet it is a theme repeated in the mainstream media. In actuality more black people are likely (as Michael Sam has so bravely demonstrated) to self identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered or Questioning. This does not mean MORE black people are gay. This means when asked on the phone, how do you self identify, more people of color will answer truthfully. So please explain to me how a community that is more likely to come out of the closet, also be more homophobic? It doesn’t make sense and isn’t true. Homophobia crosses all color lines, ages and social/economic statuses. Just like Homosexuality does.
I hope this false narrative of blacks being more homophobic ends soon. The above times article does more to continue this false narrative. It must stop.

Congrats Michael Sam. I pray your father wakes up and remembers the son that is right there in front of him, and loves you just the same as he did before.