First, let me say how ecstatic I was to see that, out of the thousands of friends and acquaintances I’ve gotten to know via social media and other platforms, I heard absolutely no one insult Frank Ocean (R&B singer affiliated with Odd Future, known for “No Church In The Wild”) for coming out as a bisexual.
His letter describes love and humanity in the poetry you’d expect from a crooner like him. More surprising was the deluge of messages coming from fans appreciating him coming out on his own terms, something that his own detractors wouldn’t have the testicular fortitude to do on any meaningful level. Black urban music is in constant need of a reality check with homophobia and sexism within its popular ranks, and Frank Ocean’s outing provided a meaningful step because of the respect he earns among hip-hop elites.
Naturally, my thoughts turned to an earlier discussion I had on Twitter about Manning Marable’s outing of Malcolm Little (X) in
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. It seemed to me off-base to make the publicity surrounding the book focused on Malcolm’s sexual preference when, clearly, the narrative gave us so much more about the man. Many of Marable’s detractors suggested that Marable’s outing slandered a legend, and that
