Monday, February 27, 2017

To 'Moonlight' from a black gay man - a BIG thank you

Everyone is talking about Moonlight's big victory at the Oscars last night, as well they should. However, I noticed that something isn't being said which NEEDS to be said. Therefore, let me give my two cents with a personal letter to the motion picture and it's makers:

To the director and producers of Moonlight,

Thank you so much for making this movie. As a gay black man, it has been difficult to see three-dimensional characters on television and the big screen who are just like me. I was so desperate, I would look at old Soul Train clips on youtube and make guesses about the dancers. Or the episode of New York Undercover featuring Joe Morton a former boxer who became a drag queen.

Your victory and continued success is not only a triumph for yourselves, but also to the African-American lgbt community at large. I hope that Moonlight will be the first in a long line of films which spotlights accurate African-American lgbt portrayals and storylines.

Because goodness knows, we need it. Seriously, we have come a long way and I feel that your film is a reward for all of the times lgbts of color have had to sit through some of the most disgusting, nauseating, stomach-churning, religion -questioning ( I think you know where I'm going with this) portrayals of us created by our own people, i.e. African-Americans.

I mean there's just so many

oversexed bisexuals, self-hating black gay men in prison who commit suicide so that their mothers won't find out their orientation, butchy rape enthusiast lesbians,  gay black male plane stewards with purple lip gloss, invisible high school characters who likes to wear flesh toned hot pants during prison visits, drooling gay men who get hot and bothered over seeing men hanging over hospital beds while wearing bloody diapers, hairdressers named Peaches, devious transgender women, specials on the "downlow," fake-ass authors who publish books on "how to spot if your boyfriend is gay," phony tv shows which offer a crusty, dried up olive branch in the form of AIDS education episodes between the mocking, and above all, sermonizing by certain gospel music programs featuring certain singers who happen to be gayer than a giant statue of Judy Garland

that I can take seeing before I get the desire to pull out my razor.

Granted, my comments are not meant to speak against the lgbts of color who don't fit the supposed norms because we are all God's children There is nothing wrong with  effeminate gay men or butch lesbians. Nor is there anything wrong with sex in general. It's just that I am so happy to see anything featuring us as the main subject and the center of attention rather than a side character who is treated like a condiment.

Because, honestly speaking, I am running out of episodes of Soul Train to watch.

2 comments:

Sheila Morris said...

You're the best, Alvin! Excellent.

BlackTsunami said...

Thank you, Sheila ;p