“…no positive examples to showcase who we really are. Knowing that mass media can have an impact on the psyche, the visual lack of “us” is what caused me to write the fictional viral post Tyler Perry’s New Black Gay Sitcom “Tony and Dave”. At the time of this article, there are no Black male same sex couples on network television and it’s been that way for years. Understandably Black gay men want to see more representations of functional Black gay love. Usually when there is a homosexual man of color on television who is dating or in a relationship, their partner is always a person of non-color. It’s been said that you rarely see functional Black gay couples on network television, cable television and absolutely not on the big screen. When discussing this topic, many Black gay men state the problem is that there is not more examples of positive Black love, heterosexual or homosexual in mass media. Are the speculations around these athletes really the issue? “Aint no good gay Black men out here If they are they like them White mens”. Once it was rumored that Michael Sam was (based on an unexplained picture) dating a White guy and all of a sudden Black gay men turned into Black women at beauty salons on a Saturday afternoon with a similar narrative to match. You will be hard pressed to find a brown or dark complexion person/s on Telemundo. This is what got Black gays in a tizzy? Now admittedly Orlando Cruz’s husband does look Caucasian in appearance and let’s not pretend there is not prejudice and racism in Latin America.
So out of the four professional athletes of color, two are dating or married to men of Latino descent, one was engaged to a White woman and another may have dated a White dude. Michael stated himself that he once dated a swimmer at one point while attending the University of Missouri but has not made any statements on his current personal love interests. By all accounts there is no proof that they’re currently together. Darren Young is in a long term relationship with Nick Villa who is of Latino descent but what about the White man in the selfie with Michael Sam? He is Sean Smith of Illinois but keep in mind it was rumored that he was his boyfriend or that they once dated. Jason Collins was in a relationship with a White woman for about 7+ years.
Orlando Cruz is married to Jose Manual both are of Latino descent. In recent months and years, there have been a total of four (4) professional non-White major league athletes to publicly open up about their homosexuality Orlando Cruz, Jason Collins, Darren Young and Michael Sam. Gay dudes make it sound like a gay Black athlete comes out of the closet every third Wednesday. Wait a minute though, what “Black gay athletes”?
Not a Rolls Royce but a White lover or partner. One question then lit up the internet “Why is it when these Black athletes come out of the closet they got to hook up with White men?” I feel like this is spillage from the notion that once a Black male celebrity achieves a certain level of success the next thing to do is obtain the ultimate status symbol. Then the “ selfie” came out and gay Black men let out a disappointed “Aww damn. The Black Gay Athlete – Drunk In “Interracial” Love?Įver since Michael Sam made his sexuality public knowledge, (notice I didn’t say “Came Out of the Closet”), Gay men and Black women were clamoring to know who is he dating or is he in a relationship.