I was in the US, having just graduated from college and living in Chicago. Before I knew it, I was in a gay relationship, struggling to figure out my place in an unfamiliar dynamic. When I came out, it was somewhat by force, in the sense that what started out as an initial attraction turned into a full-fledged relationship that I don’t even remember agreeing to. It’s not the easy experience that the media portrays of loved-up, chiseled men in trendy nightclubs, or beach destinations who manage to fall into relationships with perfectly matched lovers. My experience is that of a cis-gender, black man from the Caribbean, and I speak from the similar experience of other men who fit that profile. Yet, somehow I knew this before I even started.įor a community that spends so much time talking about love - “ love is love” - the LGBT community is a hard place to find love, especially if you’re a queer person of color. Nobody told me that it would be hard to find love as a gay, black man. Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary action - Joseph Beam
