TW for homophobia #ThisIsLuv: How My Dad Became a Queer Black FeministALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS ON BEING

TW for homophobia #ThisIsLuv: How My Dad Became a Queer Black FeministALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS ON BEING EMBRACED, NOT TOLERATED, BY A FATHER WHO HAS BECOME HER BIGGEST CHAMPION“My father has spent the whole day with us as we listened to scholars and artists speak to the necessity of Black lesbian poetics, begged Marci Blackmon to read her erotic literary scenes, swooned at Cheryl’s butch audacity and decades of gorgeousness, ate together, laughed together and celebrated what it means to have a brave bold Black feminist lesbian and self-identified Queer Black Troublemaker like Cheryl Clarke in our lives. At around noon, Cheryl said "Surely your father isn’t still here.” And he said “Of course! I’m a queer Black feminist too.”So as usual, my father is driving.  But as a straight 60-year-old Black man of West Indian heritage I know that he never knew he would end up here.In a time where parents abuse and throw their children into the streets and refuse to accept their LBGTQ identities, we have to increase tolerance.  It is a safety issue for the legions of young people who face violence at home and violence in the streets because of the wide-spread ignorance and fear of difference that is part of mainstream American culture. Because they have less access to privilege in a racist society, Black youth and especially Black immigrant and trans youth face horrifying consequences from this national culture.But my father has taught me that we can envision more than just tolerance. We can witness transformation in our lifetimes. My father’s response to my journey has taught me that we need to invite an active response to our Black LGBTQ love for ourselves and each other and not a passive one.Usually we hope and pray that the straight parents of LGBTQ children will NOT do terrible things. We hope they will NOT tell them they are going to hell.  NOT kick them out of the home. NOT force them to pretend to be straight and gender-normative. NOT physically, emotionally or verbally abuse them.  NOT withdraw support for their educations. NOT mis-gender them or force them to answer to names that don’t resonate with who they are.  NOT disrespect the families they create. Basically our hope is that parents do NOT negate the lives of their LGBTQ children.#ThisIsLuv moves from what it looks like to NOT negate, to celebrating models of what we actively want to generate. And my father’s continued actions over this past decade are a model that I am blessed to be witnessing.“Read the full piece here.#ThisIsLuv -- source link

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