512 Search results for "black queer"

by L.G. Parker The statistics are daunting and all around us. Because black, because queer, because trans, because gender-non-conforming, because, because, because… we are less likely to be hired, more likely to go without. Some of our loved ones might even suggest that we stop acting like a lil boy or girl, stop playing dress […]

By L.G. Parker For black and queer persons alike, much of the realities of our lives are considered “made up” by those who don’t and won’t understand us. Black, queer poets have access to new ways of approaching language as a result of this reality. As self proclaimed black lesbian warrior poet Audre Lorde said […]

Black queer and trans* folks are often excluded from mainstream ideals about love and romance. Their deviation from the White heteropatriarchal “norm” means that many folks in these communities rarely see images of themselves reflcted back on the silver screen, in TV series’, or in other media in popular culture. That’s why NBC’s new series “Living […]

When it comes to the black community and queerness, the common proverb-the more things change, the more they stay the same- provides much truth. Just yesterday N.B.A. player Jason Collins released his inspiring coming-out story. In this piece, Collins outlined his voyage to self-acceptance, his loving and supportive family and friends and his thoughts on […]

We’ve already been taught LGBTQ history. Unfortunately, too many of us don’t even know that we have been. We’ve already heard countless lectures about icons who happened to be queer—learned about their lives and work, read their words, recited their speeches, seen them remembered through art and poetry, and heralded them as some of the […]

This essay contains discussions of racialized sexual violence and mentions r/pe by Donnie Moreland There is this thing with us, as Black men. This war. Well, less war and more an inter-communal pogrom, wherein any Black man who shows no desire to lay with women exclusively is designated a cancer, subject to extermination. The prevention […]

by Zesiro Maji This essay discusses Black death and racist state violence against Black children  Timelines and headlines are saturating Black people with images, stories, and video clips of Black Death. It’s a somber, sobering reminder of the grim reality of what it means to be a Black person in America. The unrelenting violence against […]

Editor’s Note: May is Mental Health Awareness Month and National Masturbation Month. This is also the month that we celebrate Mother’s Day. At BYP, we will be exploring these topics alongside the theme of Imagination and the Arts, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. Science […]

I had every excuse not to do it. My heartbeat was a stampede. The thoughts in my head a tornado. Everyone else was having a great time, and I didn’t want to ruin it with the natural disaster whipping up inside of me. I could talk to my parents some other time. Or write them—again. […]

By michal “mj” jones She stares into the heart of the camera, a backdrop of ocean shore behind her and a swollen, pregnant brown belly below. Neck draped in seashells and her body in the watery spirits of Yemaya, she looks certain, calm, confident. As I gazed up at this photo of my partner during […]

By Benji Hart The block on Chicago’s far north side where I stay is majority Black, poor and working class. It’s also gay as hell. The matriarch of the street is a Black cis queer woman in her 50s named Ce. She lives with her wife, a Black woman in her 30s, her daughter from […]

By Preston Mitchum This past Pride month marked the one-year anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla. At approximately 2:00 AM, 29-year-old Omar Mateen – who allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS on a 911 phone call during the hate crime and terrorist attack – walked into Pulse on June 12, 2016, killed 49 […]