Interesting Quote: Phill Wilson, president of the Black AIDS Institute

"The fight is today. It’s a fight that we need to have and it’s certainly tied to access to care, it’s tied to access to information, but it’s also tied to making sure that we understand that everybody matters. Now the new folks that don’t matter in this context are young, black, gay and bisexual men and all of us need to be part of that fight because as we found out in the early days of HIV, HIV spread like it spread because we didn’t care about the first folks that we perceived to be at risk. And as long as anyone is at risk ... to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., we’re all at risk."

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These Two are changing things

It feels good to know that two Black Gay men are the faces of change in the Sports

President Obama nominates Darrin Gayles another Gay Black Judge to Federal Bench

After the foolishness with William Thomas, President Obama will nominate Darrin Gayles to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Darrin has a rich history in Florida. In 2011, he served as a circuit court judge for Florida's 11th Judicial Circuit and later, served as a county judge for the same circuit.

Darrin was also endorsed by the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund for his bid for re-election in 2012.

Metro Weekly also noted these accomplishments from Darrin:

Gayles served as an assistant district counsel at the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1997 to 1998 and as an assistant state attorney in the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office from 1993 to 1997. He is a graduate of George Washington University Law School and Howard University.

I wish him the best of luck

New Book celebrates Black Gay Relationships and Love

Fellow blogger and writer Darian Aaron has a new book that celebrates the relationships of same gender loving couples of color.

It's called, "When Love Takes Over" and provides passionate look at love between Black gay men. Here's some info:

"Pioneering in nature, bold in its intent while refreshing to the senses, When Love Takes Over is not just a celebration of male couples-of color but it is a vivid, candid and an insightful journey into the intricacies of romance, love and commitment as expressed through the lives of eighteen couples."- Herndon Davis, Media Host/Analyst and Author of Repackaged Common Sense

The arrival of this book is timely and necessary. The gay and mainstream media has largely ignored black same-gender loving men who have formed nurturing and long-term relationships, even worse; the love shared between these brave men have often been met with hostility from individuals within their own community. But finally, the diversity that exists within both the African-American and gay communities are laid out in the pages of "When Love Takes Over" for the entire world to see.

The coffee table book is available online through Amazon, Borders and Barnes & Noble.com. 

P.S. I'm so excited for Darian.

New Film: Punch Me

A new feature will be hitting selected theaters soon and it looks like it can be a hit!

It's called, "Punch Me". Here is the press release

With a romance on the rocks and his father on his sick bed, a young man must accept his true identity before he loses the two people he loves most. This is the premise behind the new award-winning film, “Punch Me”, a project which stars Robert X. Golphin (Denzel Washington’s “The Great Debaters”), Brian Anthony Wilson (HBO’s “The Wire”), and newcomer Elwood Idris Simon.

"Punch Me" emerges amid the tragic suicides of several teenagers in the United States as a result of homophobic bullying. It features important messages regarding self, parental, and societal acceptance.

"Punch Me" will have its Los Angeles premiere at the Edgemar Short Film Festival, which runs Friday, April 29 - Sunday, May 1, 2011. The celebrity jury panel includes Academy Award-Winner Susan Sarandon and Oscar Nominee John Singleton. The film also garnered official selection at the Marlon Riggs Film Festival (Dallas, Texas) and the Black Maria Film + Video Festival (an international juried competition and award tour). It was presented with the Jury's Citation- 2nd Prize

Audiences have called "Punch Me" and the performances in it: "emotional", "powerful", and "moving".

For more info on this film, check out their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/PunchMeFilm.

Marcus Brandon, a Black openly gay man wins election to N.C. House

Great news, y'all! Small gains, means a lot!

Here's the scoop:

Marcus Brandon has been elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives. He will represent the cities of Greensboro and High Point in the state legislature.


Brandon will be the only openly LGBT state legislator in North Carolina, and one of just five openly LGBT African-Americans serving in state legislatures across the country (including Maryland House of Delegates candidate Mary Washington, who will also win tonight).

This is good, because there are a lack of LGBT African-Americans in office. I hope this is a growing trend.

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Gay Youth Activist, Joseph Jefferson took his life

We have lost another member of the family.

Rod 2.0 reports:

There is very unfortunate news today as yet another young gay man has taken his own life. Twenty-six-year-old Joseph Jefferson of Brooklyn, New York reportedly committed suicide on Saturday by hanging, friends and associates of the former gay youth activist and HIV peer educator tell Rod 2.0.

By most accounts, Jefferson was a true LGBT youth pioneer. The 2002 graduate of New York City's Harvey Milk High School later worked on HIV prevention and outreach for Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD) and the now-shuttered People of Color in Crisis (POCC), New York City's leading HIV/AIDS groups for Black gay men. More recently, Joseph Jefferson was an assistant to Laurence Pinckney and James Saunders, New York City's popular Black LGBT event promoters, reports Nathan James. Jefferson was also active in New York City's colorful ballroom community.

"Joseph was truly a sweetheart," one friend who knew him well tells R20. "Extremely bright and impassioned about social justice causes... It's such a loss." The friend, who requests anonymity, adds that Joseph Jefferson seemed in good spirits and "showed no indications of being unusually depressed."

"As an advocate for LGBT youth, Mr. Jefferson surely made a positive impact on those he met and counseled. But this same nurturing and enrichment he offered to others, was absent in his own life to such a degree, that he felt the only way to deal with the pain of his existence was to end it," wrote author and activist Nathan James on Facebook.

Morehouse Men talks about being Gay

Don't Spread Your Gay-Hate/Poor Women of the World mess on your Work Email

Fools will never learn.

Those gay wedding pictures I posted yesterday, was a hit on the blogs. However, they were a miss to some folks who just had to give their sorry ass opinion.

Sandra Bradley, who's an administrative assistant for Morehouse College President Robert Franklin (who is very gay friendly BTW) sent a email that said:

“I can’t believe this wedding. It’s 2 men. They don’t smile in a lot of pictures and they look like a few brothers I’ve seen in the streets looking STRAGHT. Black women can’t get a break, either our men want another man, a white woman (or other nationality that’s light with straight hair), they are locked up in jail or have a “use to be” fatal disease. I’m beginning to believe Eve was a black woman and we Black women are paying for all the world’s sins through her actions (eating the apple)".

President Franklin found out about this mess and will address his office on this issue. It has been reported that several people were upset at Sandra for sending this email, and I would be too.

Girl, just because you are not happy doesn't mean you need to hate on them for celebrating their good stuff.

Sandra, please know this... Their marriage is not about taking some fantasy man from you or Black women. Please grow up and... Get a man.

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