“I came out in like sixth grade, so relatively young and in rural Alabama. I got a lot of mess for it, like I got teased and taunted. It was a really hard experience. My mom found out when I was in seventh grade and it was not good. Of course, she told my dad, and my parents were split up at the time. He was a little more supportive, but I could still tell that it bothered him a little bit. I didn’t really have any other role models, no one who was LGBTQ or black women at that.
In tenth grade, I was able to go to Baltimore to do an internship. We were driving back from D.C. and it was pride month. So, we were just driving past and seeing all these rainbow flags. I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, this is a pride parade!’ The woman I was with asked if I wanted to go and we pulled over. I just started crying, because I had never seen so many people so confident in their identity and feeling supported and seeing that I hadn’t had that. Just being in that environment where it was celebrated it just felt great. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone. And seeing other black women too, it was a refreshing experience and it made me feel loved.
I’ve been back to [the pride fest]in D.C. and Baltimore a few times. It was in New York this past summer and I volunteered. It was really great.
This is Alabama, I mean it’s a fairly conservative state. Luckily, Birmingham is a little more blue, but it’s still something I struggle with. Not necessarily should I come out to this person or not, because I feel like that’s not my problem anymore, it’s yours if you have some type of problem with it. I think more so now, it’s being tired of having to explain my identity and explain certain things to people, when I shouldn’t have to do that. I shouldn’t have to explain to people that they should see me as another human being or to not demonize my sexuality.
People are getting fired specifically for their sexuality. It makes me feel sad. I feel sad and angry. There’s so much to say about that, but I’m just sad, angry and tired. It doesn’t make sense. You have this conservative supreme court now and it makes you feel kind of hopeless. It’s like we’re going backwards.”
– Imani Leonard
Allison Brown
Senior Staff Reporter
[email protected]
