Tommy Sotomayor
“Black people has been inundated into finding out who’s gay. The more you make out this being gay and out so horrible, the more you are driving this underground culture of people being ashamed into being who they are.” – social commentator/comedian Tommy “TJ” Sotomayor
Those two sentences succinctly speak volumes on how this fascination of exposing Black gay and DL men have been part of the Black entertainment and pop culture over the past decade or so. We can thank Wendy Williams for leading the charge when she was a radio shock jock known for going out of her way to expose male rappers and singers as men allegedly living on the “down low” as heterosexual men publicly while sleeping with men in secrecy. Ironically, a large chunk of her fanbase today as a TV gossip monger is gay men. In recent weeks, the fascination of the rumored plan of four NFL players coming out of the closet together on national TV became the topic du jour in the Black community, especially for Black gay men and straight women. Days later, the allegations of NFL star Kerry Rhodes’ sexuality became the biggest buzz of the year, outside of the fascination over bareback porn stars including Venom and Hot Rod, in the Black gay community with days of social media mentions following every alleged twist and turn that occurred between the NFL star and his former assistant/alleged lover. Though we as LGBT people of color are quick to cry foul over homosexuality being demonized by other cultures, we play a double-standard when we support Wendy Williams, MediaTakeOut, Bossip and other gossip media that delight themselves into exposing a man’s sexuality with no reasonable gain other than to draw in readers, especially Black gay men of color, to feed into the frenzy of pushing someone of the closet when they were never gay or never came to terms with ones own sexuality.
Thus, we were extremely pleased to run into a video that directly addresses the affects of the fascination of outing Black men and the damage that it causes by social commentator Tommy Sotomayor.
We follow Sotomayor’s YouTube channel because whenever he puts on his comedic or social commentary hat to discuss the recent news that put African-Americans in a negative light, he drops a bomb of truth for Black Americans to take responsibility for how we are portrayed in mainstream America, especially in media and entertainment. With his stern views on why Blacks are portrayed negatively becoming a common theme in his video, he is met with loud praise by viewers and even louder backlash and criticism from Black people proclaiming that his messages are filled with hate. Some of those same critics have gone further to attack this father’s sexuality by calling him “gay” “a homo” “a faggot” and more. It seems that when an immature debater has run out of pseudo thought-provoking ammunition in an attempt to prove their points, name-calling in the weapon of choice, especially the usage of the most degrading words in hopes of the submission of the person who displayed better arguments and reasoning.
In the Black community, we have heard the words “gay” “homo” and “faggot” used against Black men as means to offend him into submission, defeat or defense of his own character for as long as our memory goes back. Thus, being a homosexual seems to be the worst thing to be in the Black community – even worse than being a convicted felon, a promiscuous hoodrat, a crack fiend, a gangbanger or even a prostitute. These are the very things that Tommy Sotomayor talks about his in his recent video below confronting Black America and its unnecessary homophobic behavior and its crippling affect on those who identify as gay.
We really encourage you to watch this compelling video and share your thoughts in the comment section below. Read more
