It is 101 because we believe that the extra person in our community can create change. These are the Brothers who pushed through one of the most horrific years in history and made a difference, created something new, and broke barriers. The Native Son 101 is a list in alphabetical order of the Black gay/queer men who made an impact in our community and in the world in 2020. Honoring Essex Hemphill and Joseph Beam who gathered Black gay writers in the anthology Brother to Brother to “tell the story that laughs and cries and sings and celebrates” of Black gay men in the wake of the AIDS crisis, we present the Native Son 101. I say this because I come from a legacy of courageous, creative and politically and socially conscious Black gay men who believed in pushing back against oppression, built communities to support their own, and took trauma and created magic. You see, that is the only option because it is part of the Black struggle. The immense catastrophe this pandemic is having on the Black community at every intersection - especially my own.Īnd while I am triggered by the similarities that this virus has to the AIDS Crisis of the ‘80s, as a Black gay man who is HIV+, I soldier on. As I sit in solitude contemplating the last 12 months - 10 of those in isolation - I am saddened by the devastation of Covid-19 and the loss of 300,000 Americans and counting.
