00:00Whenever we post anything about the LGBT community
00:03or even just news about men doing things outside of the gender norm,
00:07a lot of readers get very agitated.
00:09And y'all let us know on social media in the comment section.
00:12So, for example, when we featured Laverne Cox on our July 2015 cover,
00:17a lot of people said she was not, quote, a real woman.
00:20And just this week on Facebook posts about Jaden Smith having swag,
00:24one reader named Rosita Kaysen, yes, we called you out,
00:26said, I don't understand why it's wrong to believe
00:30boys should dress in attire for boys and girls the same.
00:33Those of us who believe that, we have just as much right
00:37to our opinion as anyone else.
00:39Okay.
00:40If I was Rosita, here's what I would ask myself.
00:42What threatens me so much about him or other people's self-identification?
00:51Why does that scare you so much?
00:52That there's something within you that you need to look at.
00:54In the case of Jaden Smith, it's an attack on the masculinity of the black community.
01:00You know what I mean?
01:00I'm always hearing people say that.
01:02And I'm like, in actuality, this is a gift.
01:05It's the gift of identities.
01:08It's the pluralizing of the male identity,
01:12which I feel like for many years has been missing.
01:14I feel like, and I think for men in general,
01:16it's just either been you're a man or you're gay.
01:19Whatever that's called.
01:21But for women, there's so many different options for us.
01:25Essence magazine caters to black women.
01:28Therefore, the majority of the transphobia and homophobia that you will experience
01:33will be through other black people.
01:35I am a black man.
01:36Most of the homophobia that I've experienced has been through black people.
01:40That is because I've only been majorly around black people.
01:44However, reality is, who is to say that black people are the most homophobic of the bunch?
01:48We're out here more than...
01:50Well, perhaps that we're the most vocal about it.
01:51Yeah.
01:52Well, when you say you're vocal, and be like, who are you talking to?
01:55Because if I'm stepping into a white space,
01:57I'm going to get racism and homophobia and all types of other stuff.
01:59And even when you talk about the preservation of black masculinity,
02:03which is a very stupid hotep, I understand that.
02:06But that is also, you have to trace what that comes from.
02:09That is ultimately traced to a white supremacist idea of emasculating black men.
02:14It is up to black men and black women and black people together to challenge that
02:19and to let it be known that you do no longer have to live up to that,
02:22what has been forced upon you.
02:24But that alone does not mean we are more than anyone else.
02:28Are you suggesting that the root is in the white community?
02:34And that's where...
02:35Because if we're just speaking about homosexuality as a whole,
02:39yes, in a black conversation, we have to speak about how it isn't really working within us.
02:44The same way how there's...
02:45No one likes all lives matter.
02:46We like it.
02:47Black lives matter.
02:48So a conversation about black homophobia...
02:51It doesn't excuse what exists within our community,
02:53but I think it's a dishonest conversation to challenge us to be better
02:57by starting with the false premise that we are more deficient
03:00and we are worse off than anyone else
03:02because that makes it a disingenuous conversation.
03:04It makes it a dishonest conversation.
03:06People get defensive and then we get stuck
03:08because then I have to say, no, that's not true.
03:11You're having me defend people I don't even agree with who don't even value me.
03:14Value you, right.
03:15But I have to also always understand and contextualize
03:17why do you feel the way that you do about people like me,
03:20my trans sisters and friends, and you.
03:24Like, all of these people, like, where does that come from?
03:27I need to know where that comes from
03:28before I'm going to really challenge where you're that way.
03:32Justine, can I get your thoughts on this?
03:33I guess today, if you go on any YouTube comment section
03:36when you see those, you know, conspiracy theory videos or whatever,
03:40they would look up and be like,
03:41hey, this is what they do to us.
03:43They take, you know, your biggest black superstars,
03:46your biggest black actors,
03:46and they got to dress up as a woman
03:48and they got to do this and this,
03:49they're trying to demasculate us.
03:51And I think that just kind of boils down to us, you know,
03:54like, and it's, again, it's weird for us to talk about it
03:56because we all work in entertainment,
03:57but it's like, yo, we hold celebrities to such a high standard.
04:00I mean, just a high platform for what reason?
04:04You know what I'm saying?
04:04But I also feel like we were harder on Jaden versus a Kanye.
04:07No, I mean, like, my thing is, like,
04:09Jaden doesn't have swag because he wears a dress.
04:11Jaden has swag because he's Jaden.
04:13I think Jaden is great, but just to be clear,
04:15there are gay white men complaining about white gay publications
04:18saying, like, you only, you put more straight,
04:20they're literally, you put more straight men on a gay magazine
04:22than you do actual gay people.
04:24If you are not playing into male fantasy,
04:28you are quickly ostracized and criticized
04:30the way anybody else would be
04:32because you are not fitting a very rigid role
04:34that society has defined for you already.
04:37Like, we just lost our shining star, Prince,
04:39and so, you know, you look back at, like,
04:41the publications when Prince came on the scene,
04:43you know, African-American publications
04:45weren't necessarily, like, yay,
04:47we're so happy that he's so gender fluid
04:49or whatever, you know, it is.
04:51There has still been a lot of gender fluidity from us,
04:56and these are still our stars.
04:58Whether or not people were, like, openly accepting the possibility...
05:01Like Michael Jackson.
05:02Yeah.
05:03Totally.
05:03Michael Jackson ended up being, like,
05:05one of the most beautiful white women towards the end.
05:08Oh, we're about to get some comments in our section about that one.
05:13I'm named after Michael Jackson,
05:14so I'm, like, but y'all...
05:16But do y'all think that men get it more...
05:18Um, are criticized more than women?
05:20Yeah, absolutely.
05:21But when you think of, like,
05:23what is lesbian in mass media,
05:24it's a feminine woman with another feminine woman...
05:28Oh, yeah, mass media.
05:29...paying for...
05:30I mean, portraying, like, a male fantasy.
05:32Right.
05:32And so within the...
05:33I'm not looking to white people to solve our problems.
05:37What I'm saying is I don't want to...
05:39The conversation to start from this false standpoint
05:41that we're worse than them.
05:43Oh, I don't believe that.
05:44Because when you say black people...
05:46Like, are black people more homophobic than anybody else?
05:49That's a false statement.
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