00:00Joining me now in studio is Love & Hip Hop Hollywood star Milan Christopher.
00:07How are you?
00:08Hey, what's up? How you doing?
00:09I'm well, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us.
00:11Definitely.
00:12I have tons and tons of questions.
00:13Okay, let's get it.
00:14You've been very successful before the cameras started following you day to day.
00:18Right.
00:19And now you've been placed on this platform as a very prominent LGBT spokesperson.
00:23Right.
00:24So I want to take a step back.
00:26South Side of Chicago is not exactly known for being Sesame Street.
00:29No.
00:30Were you out when you were in Chicago?
00:32Yeah.
00:33Okay.
00:34And I grew up in the ghetto.
00:36Okay.
00:37South Side, like Killer Ward is what it was called.
00:4077th and Hermitage.
00:41Very welcoming.
00:42So, you know, it was, my dad was a police officer.
00:46So I kind of had like that leeway that people wouldn't necessarily mess with me because they knew my dad.
00:51But it was hard, like just walking down the street, going to school or going to dance practice or going to choir practice.
00:56Because those were things that I was involved in when I was a teenager.
00:59I actually got shot in the leg from a ricocheted bullet just walking to dance practice.
01:06Wow.
01:07That's amazing.
01:08I was like 16.
01:09And so did you come out when you were in high school?
01:11I came out to my little brother when I was like, I think I was like 13 or 14.
01:18Okay.
01:19And my little brother was nine.
01:20Mm-hmm.
01:21And probably like four years later, four and a half years after that, my little brother passed away.
01:26Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that.
01:27Gun violence.
01:28He was, well, it wasn't gun violence because, you know, they were playing with guns in one of his friends.
01:32It was an accident.
01:33It was an accident.
01:34Yeah.
01:35I'm very sorry to hear that.
01:36No, it's okay.
01:37And so fast forward to moving to L.A.
01:40Mm-hmm.
01:41When you decided to move to L.A. and jump into this industry, knowing some of the stereotypes and stigmas, did you go into saying, okay, I'm going to go into music, I'm making this transition, a life change?
01:50You know.
01:51Were you immediately out?
01:52No.
01:53Okay.
01:54You know, when I first moved to L.A., you know, I was going through stuff personally in Chicago.
01:57And I was like, you know what, I have to get out of this environment, you know, and I just packed up all my stuff one day and I drove from Chicago straight to Los Angeles.
02:07Was your sexuality a conversation when you were trying to break into the industry?
02:11Definitely.
02:12Was that something that?
02:13When I first came to L.A., because I was already out from Chicago, but when I came here.
02:19It's a new scene.
02:20It's a new vibe.
02:21Yeah, but I also wanted to be successful.
02:22And I knew that there was no openly, from my knowledge, any openly successful black gay man on television and music that were just out.
02:31And if it was, I wasn't aware of them.
02:34So I started, you know, finding a beard.
02:37One of my beards was one of my friends, Hazel.
02:39Hazel E., she's actually on Love & Hip Hop.
02:41And I used to go places with her and pretend that she was my girlfriend just to get my foot in the door to kind of be able to network with people.
02:50Because a lot of times, people, when they find out that you're gay, they put you in a bubble.
02:55Like, okay, he's going to be our LGBT.
02:58Yeah, right, right.
02:59You know, he's not going to associate with everybody.
03:01He's going to just associate with the gay people.
03:03They don't pay attention to your talent, what you're bringing to the table.
03:05Exactly.
03:06And so I wanted to break out of that.
03:08But then after a while, it just became so stressful.
03:11And if a person doesn't want to work with me or be my friend because of how God created me, then that's their problem, not mine.
03:19So I just was like, I'm just, oop.
03:22Just forget it.
03:23Forget it.
03:24And then I just, you know, kept it moving.
03:28I'm going to fast forward into love and hip hop.
03:31The relationship with Miles has millions tuning in each and every week.
03:35And being out and having a relationship or trying to sort through a relationship in the music industry is one thing.
03:40But now having it on a global platform, millions, millions watching, that's a huge leap.
03:46Why and why now?
03:48You know, it definitely, it was a time.
03:51This year alone is really big for the LGBT community.
03:55Excuse me.
03:57We have marriage being legalized in all the United States of America.
04:02We have Caitlyn Jenner and basketball players and Laverne Cox and Michael Sam and just different people who are like, you know, we're fed up.
04:10We're tired of being in the background.
04:12We're having to hide who I am.
04:14To make you comfortable.
04:17And it's no reason for us to feel like that.
04:19You know what I mean?
04:20So by them coming out, I think it was leeway for me to come out and present my love with another man to love and hip hop and have them put us on the show.
04:31And you know, this is something that we've talked about quite a bit in the office.
04:34We've had Laverne Cox on our cover two separate times.
04:37I hope I can get a cover.
04:39Just throwing it out there to the edit team.
04:40Just put it out there.
04:41You know, I'm sexy.
04:42Check my Instagram.
04:43I did check your Instagram, but we'll talk about that later.
04:46And we received some negative comments on social media quite a bit.
04:50And Shonda Rhimes is on our cover, our October cover and all of her cast members.
04:55And she's brought a lot of same sex issues and relationships and things to the forefront.
05:01And as you mentioned, there does seem to be a different level of acceptance that's happening now.
05:06Why do you feel the hip hop community is, I guess, lagging behind?
05:10That's the go to derogatory term to call somebody a fag.
05:15To try to hurt them.
05:16Or to hurt them or any of those things is like, that's the go to thing.
05:19So it has a negative connotation because of our culture.
05:23And you know, and I think right now things are changing because people are seeing that, you know, it's more to religious beliefs than just focusing on one thing or trying to destroy somebody because of, you know, who they love.
05:38And it's more to us than, you know, we're not a little secret.
05:42We're human just like you.
05:44You know what I mean?
05:45So I think with that being said and being able to see us more visibly and see that, it's changing the climate of our culture.
05:53And, you know, which is amazing because, you know, there's different cultures around the world.
05:58Like in Europe, it's not as bad as it is here.
06:01Right.
06:02It's like, okay, whatever.
06:03Like who cares?
06:04What are we doing on Thursday?
06:05Exactly.
06:06Okay, cool.
06:07Glad you told me.
06:08So, you know, and that's good.
06:10That's pushing forward.
06:11That's progress.
06:12So, you know, and when you were speaking about Laverne Cox and those comments, you have to also stand back to this is what we were taught.
06:19You know what I mean?
06:20That's why like 70 to 80%, I don't want to misquote that, but 80% of the teen suicides are from LGBT community because we have nowhere to go.
06:32We can't go to the church, we can't go to our family, we can't go to our school, we can't go to our community because everybody turns their back on us.
06:38And I think, you know, the problem with our culture and everything is that we don't talk about sex.
06:46We don't talk about, you know, things that happen in reality.
06:51You know, we were, I was born the way I was.
06:53I didn't wake up one day and say, hey.
06:55I want to create hardship in my life.
06:57I want to be, I want to take the hard route.
06:59Yeah, right, right.
07:00You know, I didn't do that.
07:01I want to learn this way and God knows everything.
07:03He knows who I was before he created me and who I will be while I'm here.
07:08So, and he makes no mistakes.
07:10And so, you know, I think that's what people should understand and understand that I'm a very good person and the majority of everybody else.
07:16And you can't keep treating people hurtfully or, you know, shamefully, disrespectfully because they're different.
07:26Because African Americans out of all people on this planet should know that.
07:32Do you have any thoughts and opinions on Young Thug and the speculation on his sexuality?
07:36You know, I think it's really kind of horrible that, you know, because someone chooses to dress a certain type of way
07:45or say certain type of things just to kind of like be funny, that you would automatically throw them in a box.
07:52And I really don't think that Young Thug is gay.
07:55And if he is, you know, hey, who cares, you know?
07:59And if more so he would be bisexual, then he would be gay.
08:02But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
08:04He is who he is.
08:05He makes dope music.
08:06So his sexuality shouldn't be an issue because he makes good music.
08:10I hear you.
08:11Okay, so once the cameras turn off, how do you feel the transition will be going back to from reality TV to regular reality for Milan?
08:20You know, I can't really, I live my truth on the show, on and off the show.
08:26So who I am on the show is who I am off the show.
08:29I actually, it's so funny because I've been just walking down the street of New York.
08:33I've been meeting so many people, they've been walking up to me and just, you know, like, oh my God.
08:38And so they're like, oh, you act exactly the same.
08:40You're the same person.
08:41You know, when I'm on the show, it's, you know, I'm showcasing those intimate moments.
08:46But it's nothing that, I don't think it would be a big transition for me to go back to not putting it on a platform.
08:55You know what I mean?
08:56Because I'm still going to go to my businesses.
08:58I'm still going to promote.
08:59I'm still going to be in the studio.
09:00Still going to love who you love.
09:01And I'm going to still love who I love.
09:02I heard that.
09:03I heard that.
09:04I heard that.
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