I ran from that for such a long time – my identity – because I was beaten for it, and then my dad died and I was sort of happy that he did because I dunno that I would have been alive, he’d just kept beating me for being gay. So my mom didn’t want me around cause then… in the African American community we don’t embrace that [being gay]. You know, we simply don’t because men have to be strong and being gay is not a good thing. And so my mom took me to an all-white school… at that point I went from being ‘gay, gay, gay’ to ‘n—er, n—er, n—er.’ …It’s a very, very, very painful experience to live and I try to show that in all of my work, you know, the personal atrocities that I’ve lived.”
— Lee Daniels, director of the smash The Butler, who shared his personal experiences of how homophobia and racism affected his storytelling in an interview with KCRW
Dxley
Haha. This reminds me of my very first boyfriend who was black. His dad caught us hard at it in his room and we thought we had locked the door and the music was on loud and we only noticed him when he whipped my ex’s back, because he was on top haha, and that was the loudest whip I have ever heard. Catwoman is child’s play. I’ll never forget that day, that man nearly killed us. I still remember my ex stayed in hospital for a week, he couldn’t walk, could barely speak because he still received some more whipping after I’d left. Poor thing, and I was purple all over my body and had to come up with some story to my parents but they eventually found out. Damn! I’m sure it’s hard being black and gay. I respect you guys who are out!
Scribe38
Worst coming out story I ever heard was from a friend of mines. His dad found a black inches magazine and started fighting him. My friend defended himself and his father had a stroke during the fight. To this day his dad is still partially paralyzed, with issues walking and speaking. My friend’s family blames him for everything and won’t speak to him. That happened when my buddy was 17 and he is almost 30 now. When I told my father I was gay, I ready to fight and he said,”yeah I know, so what are we going to eat?” You just never know how these things are going to work out.
tardis
Queerty, I vote you remove Dxley’s account from the site. His trolling has gone far too long. It’s inappropriate and at times can be out of line. Please, disable/ban/block this user.
Nyruinz
This was the most powerful “coming out” scene I have every seen on television…
http://youtu.be/nBJKCX6jCI4
Aric
@Dxley: A George Zimmerman sized mess.
Ogre Magi
@Dxley: Why didn’t you go to the police?
the other Greg
As Bill Maher points out, American society still considers it “cute” when black parents beat their kids.
White parents USED to beat their kids routinely, too, until the 1970s when it suddenly became socially unacceptable. Now if a white parent does that it’s – eek “call CPS!” But when a black parent does it, it’s considered “cute.”
Condescending rac1sm that’s not examined much.
Uisce
You told Harpo to beat me!
Kangol
Excuse me, but wasn’t it the mostly white Mormon and Roman Catholic Churches that were and are most against same-sex marriage? Wasn’t it a white father who was caught beating his child to the tune of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” this week? Wasn’t it a white conservative judge in Texas who beat his daughter so violently, an act she captured on tape, that led to him getting in serious trouble? Etc.
Please let’s stop generalizing about race based on one account by one person (Lee Daniels). It was black presidential candidates who supported same-sex marriage before any others. It has taken a black president to advance numerous LGBTQ issues further than any other. It is the predominantly white, conservative GOP Party that stands front and center against LGBTQ people, insults us, trashes us, abuses us, and then expects that we will keep crawling back for more abuse.
There are homophobic people of every race, creed and color. Homophobia is a sickness and a political strategy that should be challenged wherever it’s coming from, including from LGBTQ people who also may be r•acist, s•exist, tra•nsphobic, cl•assist, and so on.
afrolito
@Kangol: Thank you for saying this.
Tackle
@Kangol: Thanks for pointing this out. And I hope Lee Daniels reads that and learn something from it. This is not the first time that he has made sweeping generalizations about the so-called Black community. He seems to think that what happened to him growing up is endemic of all Black youth. I have never been beaten for being gay and I don’t know of any other young Black male who has. Not to say that I doesn’t happen. But I’m sure on occasion it happens with all groups. Lee has a Platt form, but he should be careful how he uses it on Black gay issues.
CXXX1
I didn’t see anywhere in the quote he made that said that there is a high percentage of AF-AM gay kids getting beat on by their parents because they are gay. I did read where he stated that in the AF-AM community that when he was growing up had a really hard time accepting the boys or young men being gay. He spoke his truth and if you cannot relate then you cannot relate. He spoke of what happened to him in his home and spoke about how in the AF-AM community then many did not embrace us,when he was growing up.
Today we have to deal with it more head on, look at hip-hop and the lyric’s of a lot of artist’s use describing us. This is not a stretch by any means. It is better, but it is a process that is taking a very long time. During the last presidential race while driving my mother to the doctor’s on the Gospel station we listen to had a Preacher urging AF-AM’s not to vote for Obama because of his stance on LGBT rights and supporting Marriage for The LGBT community.
BTW, a few weeks ago a AF-AM mother here in NC was arrested for beating her son and Having the boy’s brother beat him for being gay. Lee Daniels is a very talented director and writer who is opening people’s eye’s to the struggles that AF-AM’s and people of the LGBT community face. I think he is more talented and creative then Tyler Perry, in those aspect’s.
CXXX1
@Dxley: I am calling bullshit on this. Anyone with half a brain knows that if someone was brought into the emergency with those types of injuries CPS would have been called and the father arrested.
Try Again. That was an Epic Fail.
CXXX1
@CXXX1: Also, Deflecting does not help anyone or your case.
eigilvesti
@Kangol: SNAP!
balehead
Looks like somebody’s angling for a “Feel Sorry for me Oscar”….
Nyruinz
@balehead:
Looks like somebody wants to be a nasty queen cause those test results came back positive 🙂 #Itgetsbetterbitch