During Black History Month, the mainstream media recycles stories about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X while LGBTQ outlets predictably trot out RuPaul, Bayard Rustin, Laverne Cox, and other examples of great African-Americans with whom we’re already well acquainted.
This week we’ve spotlighted a few amazing black unsung heroes. These people are leaders, journalists, and activists who span the entire African diaspora (i.e., not only Americans).
Next up, out former NFL player and LGBT activist Wade Davis.
After a college football career, Wade played for the NFL in the U.S. and in Europe. He played in the 2001 preseason with the Seattle Seahawks, and played in the 2002 regular season on the Barcelona Dragons.
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He then bounced around between training camps and preseasons with the Tennessee Titans and Washington Redskins in 2002-2003 before retiring.
In 2012, Davis came out and spoke eloquently about his experience as a closeted player in the NFL. His coming out led to a career in speaking, writing, and activism, and he has coached many sports figures on their way out of the closet since.
Gay sports icons Michael Sam, Derrick Gordon, and Jason Collins all came out after Davis. His bold revelation paved the way not only for those black gay men, but countless others in sports who may come out in the future.
Davis was a co-founder of the You Belong Initiative, which partnered with the NBA among other organizations to provide the very first sports camp for LGBT youth.
In 2013, he was appointed Executive Director of the You Can Play Project, an advocacy group specializing on the inclusiveness of LGBT people in sports at all levels.
We’re still waiting on that first out, active player in a few major sports now (particularly the NFL), but Wade’s work will make sure there’s a path ready once we get there.
o.codone
Can we stop marginalizing blacks by pushing them out of the mainstream giving them “black history month” as if they are a separate species? Blacks are Americans, they are our neighbors, they are out colleagues, they are sometimes even our family members and we are theirs. It is insulting to advocate that there is a parallel, separate but equal universe for blacks vs everyone else. It’s a polite, politically correct kind of Jim Crow. Can’t we just stop this now?
Tony Johnston
Really? Wade Davis for Black History Month? The same Wade Davis that wrote the HuffPost essay citing his own internalized r@cism towards other blacks as the reason he considers white men to be the superior dating option? REALLY? I disagree with o.codone’s reasons for wanting to do away with Queerty’s BHM stories, but this whole thing has been a total fail. A lot of the LGBT black people featured don’t and won’t set foot in the gay black community to help.
Tony Johnston
Rob, I think you should take a look at this and seriously reconsider celebrating this person:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wade-davis-jr/reflections-on-self-hatred-and-relationships_b_1431996.html
XzamiIio
@Tony Johnston: I went into the white community and helped.
o.codone
@Tony Johnston: you disagree with inclusion? how can that happen?
Tony Johnston
@XzamiIio: Good for you.
@o.codone: No, I disagreed with your opinions about Black History Month being marginalizing and insulting. And I know you’re eager to explain your logic, but I’m really not interested.
o.codone
@Tony Johnston: I’m not interested in explaining anything to you. Besides, if you weren’t so busy being stupid, and a douche, you’d realize there is nothing to explain. Somebody has to explain inclusion to you? God, that’s a stupid thing to say. What’s the matter with you? Wait, don’t answer that, just don’t.
Jaroslaw
@Tony Johnston: Go back and read the article you linked to again. The two salient points are (a) he admits to learning to lie about his homosexuality, inferring it easier to lie about other things and (b) he realizes NOW that his self hatred of his and others’ blackness was learned from society. Thank goodness we get to correct our mistakes, or are you saying that isn’t allowed?
CCTR
@Tony Johnston: In all fairness “black” themmed postings on Queerty are not usually very popular unless they are negative or give r@cists an opportunity to spew out offensive comments. So I applaud Rob Smith and Queerty for making an attmept to feature some gay black people that are noteable. Is that really a total fail? It’s up to you whether or not to consider them as heroes but at the very least don’t unjustly villianize them.
Thanks for posting the HP article! It clearly reveals that Wade claims to have worked with black and brown gay youths, and is confronting his own internalized racism. Heroes don’t have to be perfect as no one is perfect. I actually thought he exposed some very interesting insights as to his dating preferences (that are probably true for many others), doesn’t mean I agree with them but that is his truth and not mine.
Brian
The problem with identifying as gay is that you are making it the center-piece of your life. There are many other things to your humanity than your sexual identity. Bringing it to sex makes you seem selfish.
I would recommend that men keep it to themselves or at least not identify verbally as gay. If you have a boyfriend, fine, go out with him in public. Don’t hide it. Treat him as an organic part of your life and not as part of a statement.
I hate the idea that a same sex-attracted sportsman should have to identify as gay out of a misguided sense of loyalty to the gay rights movement. It’s a recipe for unhappiness.
Kangol
I tried to post on this thread earlier but the posts kept disappearing, so not sure what happened. BUT:
Roy Simmons was the first Black ex-NFL player to come out, back in 1992, on the Phil Donahue Show. He also was on Washington’s 1984 Super Bowl team. He later wrote a memoir about his life and struggles.
Also preceding Wade Davis was John Amaechi, who was the first Black and one of the only ex-NBA players to come out, in 2007. He has been an active spokesperson for Black and LGBTIQ equality and freedom, especially in the sports realm.
Props to Wade Davis, but he follows in the wake of some major pioneers, including non-black athletes like Greg Louganis and Dave Kopay as well.
CCTR
@Brian: In a society where same sex romantic attractions and sexual relationships are factors that people are discriminated against for, oppressed, harassed, and even in some cultures criminalized, doesn’t it make sense to identify, mobilize, and form community to fight and work against that?
How can one have a boyfriend, partner, or husband and treat them as an organic part of their life without it being a “statement” of some sort? Some people have a desire to make their sexual identity the center-piece of their life in order to make it the center-piece of their purpose to affect change and work towards equality. Sometime the courage it takes for people to verbally state and self identify as gay is liberating and motivatiing as opposed to a recipe for unhappiness.
Kangol
@o.codone: No one “gives” Black people “Black History Month.” Black people had to fight to get it and everything else in American society. Perhaps you are unaware of this, and unaware of how systemic and structural racism, white supremacy and white privilege work, and if so, you might open a history book or 20 and read, intensively. There are some useful introductory African American and African Diasporic history classes online that you might consider signing up for that will help you decolonize your mind.
Tony Johnston
@Jaroslaw: I think you should go back and reread the essay. Davis identified his self-hatred issues and is simply choosing to own the self-hatred. Aside from him acknowledging he has these issues, the essay really doesn’t go where. There’s nothing heroic or inspirational about it.
@CCTR: I never tried to “villianize” anyone. In the context of celebrating BHM, it’s undoubtedly problematic to feature a gay black man who admits he has eliminated other black men from his view because they are not as good as white men. If you can’t see that, you’re part of the problem. Shall we celebrate Tom Cruise, Kerry Rhodes and John Travolta for LGBT Pride month this coming June too?
enlightenone
“Bold?” Another dillusional joke of a hero. He took another 9 years AFTER “retirement” to come out of his self-imposed “closet. What’s his irrational for continuing to hide in plain sight?????? There are no MEN in closets!
CCTR
@Tony Johnston: I guess my understanding of the article you posted the link to was different than your understanding. I thought he had come to a point of confronting his internalized racism. Internalized racisnm and internalized homophobia are difficult things to confront and own. I do think it takes some courage to be honest about how and why he went there and may still be struggling there.
The article concluded with him progressing to a greater understanding. That is why I felt you were villianizing him for something that he claims to be working through. If the article had ended with him “owning” it and nothing else I would totatlly agree that he would be a problematic feature for BHM. Overall I do appreciate your opinion, your response, and you posting the article. Maybe it would have been a more complete feature if Rob Smith included some of Wade’s struggle in the feature.
Also i’m wondering if I misunderstood “this whole thing has been a total fail”. Did you mean this particular feature or all of the BHM features?
Bob LaBlah
Maybe if you guys would stop just for a minute and look CLOSELY as to why he might feel the way he feels about certain societal issues you will get a better understanding of his views. He was born in Arkansas but grew up in Aurora, Colorado. I won’t go any further but you are not seeing the entire picture.
You have to research people who are in the news and not just go off of what you read in what can only be described as sound bites on these blogs.
Brian
@CCTR: I don’t see why any man should have to politically identify as gay just to make a point about gay rights. You can’t cuddle up to the gay rights movement at night.
o.codone
@Kangol: Nice fantasy you’re having. If it weren’t for the media marketing BHM, it wouldn’t exist. How about all those other wonderful things that the civil rights movement fought for, such as economic justice, social justice, inclusion, how did that work out for bla*cks? What happened to those things, the ones that really mattered (unlike meaningless BHM)? Not too well b/c if it did we wouldn’t be having this conversation and you wouldn’t be crying about how rac*ist everyone else is 50 years later. Nice try, but your anger, and your insults have fallen on deaf ears.
Brian
I am not opposed to a person identifying as gay. But you must understand that you are limiting yourself on a wide scale while at the same time liberating yourself on a small scale. It’s a double-edged sword that both confines and liberates. The mere act of politically identifying as gay segregates you from the mainstream but opens the door into the small-stream.
What I resent is people being told by the “gay rights movement” that they must politically identify as gay. Apart from the drawback mentioned above, there’s something off about identifying as a manufactured word. Sometimes the best thing to do is just don’t hide it. Don’t hide yourself – in a way, it’s the most powerful thing you can do without it being too political or limiting in the way I mentioned above.
Tony Johnston
@CCTR: “Trying to examine my own internalized r@cism and how it relates to my current relationship is complicated…”
Notice none of it is past tense? The essay I read very clearly shows a black guy that still has a lot of issues with being black. He’s very conflicted throughout the whole thing. I think it would’ve been even worse if Rob had included his self-hate issues considering the reason why he’s being celebrated here. I think you’re also misunderstanding what I’ve been saying. To be clear, I couldn’t care less about Davis’ self-hate issues or his whites only dating preferences (though I find this outpouring of understanding for him very interesting being that I know it’s quite a different reaction when a GWM openly expresses the exact same preference), I’m simply saying he isn’t a good choice to use to celebrate Black History Month.
Bob LaBlah
@Tony Johnston: I’m just curious but who would you have chosen had it been left up to you?
enlightenone
Jesus, didn’t know about his Blackaphobia/Clarence Thomas on top of his somewhat lessening homophobia. Tragic, and he still doesn’t know it!
Tony Johnston
@Bob LaBlah: If it were up to me to pick someone, I’d say Alicia Garza. She’s a Black Lives Matter activist, and in her own words she’s “unapologetically black and queer”. Black Lives Matter is kind of a household name at this point, and a lot of the BLM activists are lesbians and gays, but they get very little support or recognition from the LGBT community. They’re mostly known for protesting police brutality, but they also work to fight against HIV and violence against transwomen of color (which gets less media attention). Cleo Manago is another name that comes to mind. He started an organization called Black Men’s Xchange that does excellent work in the gay black community. Marc Lamont Hill isn’t gay but he does lots of gay activism, which I believe earned him a GLAAD award. I’d definitely recommend looking these people up instead of wasting too much time on some guy who’s still struggling with his identity.
Bob LaBlah
@Tony Johnston: I tried to answer back but am being blocked. It isn’t my site so I have no other choice but to live with it. But here is an article I found very interesting that I think you might like.
http://blerds.atlantablackstar.com/2014/11/25/more-than-neil-degrasse-tyson-10-equally-awesome-black-astrophysicists-you-should-know/
Bob LaBlah
@o.codone: “Can we stop marginalizing blacks by pushing them out of the mainstream giving them “black history month” as if they are a separate species?”
In August of 2005 Kanye West was picked for the cover of Time magazine the same week John H. Johnson passed away. How’s that for marginalizing? A man who launched the careers of many in journalism who other wise would have had no chance lost out to THAT……I won’t go no further.
Jaroslaw
@Tony Johnston: I posted a comment yesterday that hasn’t shown up so I’m guessing it isn’t going to. I really don’t need to re-read it but I did anyway. I will post a short comment this time although some can write pages here……..Okay, he is NOT just owning self hatred – he clearly says his self examination started when he worked with brown/black youth and read books by Audre Lord and Baldwin. He said much more, but it was very clear from the last line that he is done being his old self, he was an “ass” for too long. If he praised himself too much and talked about being completely changed, you would have criticized that too. He started that foundation and got appointed the director of another. Those are good things too – I can’t judge the man on just one article as you are apparently doing.
cabe
@o.codone:
Black History month exists for the same reasons that gay history month does or gay pride paradesdo. Every minority group wants to have their time.
Bob LaBlah
@Jaroslaw: I am hoping he reads Essex Hemphill, E. Lynn Harris and a few others who left a mark on the black gay community. I too am experiencing vanishing comments but I assumed my being white had a lot to do with. I am obviously wrong if its happening to you and others.
Jaroslaw
@Bob LaBlah: It was interesting – as I was typing my comment last night, I saw something, I think, above the box that said “comment moderation” in effect. I said nothing that flamed another poster etc. but it just happens sometimes. What I really can’t figure out is it seems like it is always when I type a really long comment and yet others are able to post WAY longer comments! Seems all computer stuff has random bugs in it, so we’ll just chalk it up to that. 🙂
Jaroslaw
I hope I was clear – the comment that didn’t show up was when I saw “comment moderation in effect”.
Bob LaBlah
@Jaroslaw: At least you got that message. MANY of us no longer do. We research what it is we are talking about, post links, proofread it and as soon as we hit the orange Post Comment tab bingo, message disappears. I have spent well over an hour many times in making a comment only to have that happen.
I make two attempts at reposting and simply say the hell with it. I say “I got what I PAID for” and leave that particular comment alone.
Kieran
Wade Davis fearlessly tackling the old gay stereotype. Another ‘Profile in Courage’ for the gay community.