A Salute to Black Queer Icon James Baldwin
Every year for the past 6 years or so, my dear friend Phil has posted a daily journal of black achievement in honor of black history month.
Today, I would like to do something similar for Gay Pride Month - specifically, I would like to attempt to highlight prominent black lgbtqi+ history facts every day for the next thirty days.
To start, I give you the incomparable James Baldwin (excerpt from planetromeo.com)
JAMES BALDWIN
James Arthur “Jimmy” Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987), was an American, an author, a fierce civil and social rights critic, and ultimately, a gay rights inspirationalist.
Growing up in Harlem, in his teen years (early 1940’s) Baldwin realized he was gay and began to feel smothered by being both an African American in a racist society, and a gay man in homophobic America. The only “out” gay black men of the time were him and Bayard Rustin.
In 1948 at the age of 24, Baldwin decided to move to France to escape the racism and homophobia of the U.S. While in France, Baldwin became an avid writer and poet.
In his book, Giovanni’s Room (1956), he gives an interpretation of the life of an American living in Paris, and the feelings and frustrations he has about the relationships he’s having with other men in his life; specifically, the feelings for a certain Italian bartender (Giovanni) that he met at a gay bar in Paris. When his American publisher refused to release it, fearing that its gay subplots would alienate his core audience, he published it in England instead.
In public and in his writings, Baldwin displayed a hope for a better tomorrow, that even today is uplifting. He wrote to promote equality at all costs. He inspires us to be persistent in fighting for recognition of our humanity; exactly as we are, whether that be gay, bi, trans, or queer. In his book The Last Interview and other Conversations, Baldwin asserts, “I was not born to be what someone said I was. I was not born to be defined by someone else, but by myself and myself only.”
