10 Search results for "giovanni melton"

by Maximillian Matthews I wonder when my late father first observed the singularity of my gender performance. Perhaps he saw it when he took me to my first concert during Janet Jackson’s 1993 Janet tour, and noticed how I knew every word she sang on the stage. He may have seen it when he observed […]

by Donnie Moreland I’m entering my apartment lot, around 9:45 PM, having returned from the gym. My vision often obscured around this time, I’m hurried to brake as two figures creep along in front of me. The two feel my headlights on their backs, thus they oblige my curiosity, and turn around. They are Black […]

This essay contains discussion of sexual violence, gendered violence, and mention of r/pe   by Sabelo Mtsweni “khanda elixegaxegayo liyofulela abafazi; indoda iyindoda ngokuba umthetho wayo uhlonishwe ekhaya” Loosely translated, this isiZulu idiom means that a man’s authority in a household forms his very essence as a man. Before I read it in Laurence Mabuya’s […]

by Donnie Moreland  Two Black men, their naked bodies shifting in-between spaces where shadows were not obstructed by an abrasive key-light. The slow moving image stripped bare of any noise aside from my own breath. Even still, their bodies colliding, their grunting, their moaning—though I could not hear—shook me as thunder might. I was disquieted, […]

by JeCorey Holder So here we are, minding our magical, savory, Black business. Letting sons express themselves with femme aesthetics. Gay fathers taking care of their little ones. Lesbian couples looking stylish and posing with their equally stylish children. And more queer family things. You know, just being generally amazing. As we in the LGBTQ+ […]

by Daniel Johnson The topic of masculinity, what it is and how it is expressed in both immediate and popular culture, is one that always seems to be spurred on or perhaps made more visible by conversations which happen on social media, usually centering around how men showing each other affection seems to be taboo. […]

By Maximillian Matthews “Don’t hit me up if you are fem… no soft shit.” “No offense to you but NO FEM, soft, questionable dudes etc. MASC dudes only!!!” “Please be masc. I’m not into feminine dudes at all. Carry your purse to the next dude’s house.” If you’re reading this, it’s too late. We have […]

Giovanni Melton did not have to die, but as reported by Attitude magazine, he was killed by his 53-year-old father, Wendell Melton because the elder Melton did not want to have a gay son. According to Giovanni’s former foster mother, Wendell was strongly against his son’s sexuality, and she is convinced that this is the […]

This essay contains discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation. by Maximillian Matthews There was Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, bell hooks, RuPaul, James Earl Hardy, E. Lynn Harris, Essex Hemphill, Bayard Rustin, and of course, James Baldwin. I did not know about any of them when I needed them most. I […]

By George M. Johnson There is no such thing as Blackness that doesn’t encompass Queerness, despite the attempts from toxic masculinity and those willing to protect its image at all costs to have you believe otherwise. This cost is paid in the form of transgender people murdered, young boys killed by their fathers over their […]