My name is George I’m Johnson I am a journalist and activist and a philanthropist I’m gonna talk a little bit about me and my story as a member of a black letter organization and a person who also identifies as being queer so it’s interesting because this project
Was actually suggested to me by one of my really good friends who’s a older brother within my chapter at convention this year was like what do you go tell your story because you know we all with you down so they like but he was
Like it took a lot of years for you to build this and he was like I think the world needs to see what it looks like when you build and when you you know that you fought so hard to to show the intersect and how we could all get along
And how you know that we could learn to appreciate LGBTQ people because of your voice and because of the work you’re doing because we get to you know be your biggest cheerleaders now when we when we were at one point your biggest adversaries I joined the organization
Back in 2006 and since that time I’ve had my struggles being Who I am and also being a member of the organization and dealing with the images and of projecting masculinity a little bit about the orgs we are considered the divine nine she’s nine blacker glitter organization started in 1906 with Alpha
Phi Alpha being the first we’ve been at the forefront of many of the movements the women’s rights wings back in the 20s the civil rights movement of the 60s and we’ve always found them a way to be involved in anything that’s going on within the black community to help our
Communities as best we can as we have started to progress into a movement where it is being led by people of color and black people who identify as queer we’re now starting to notice a shift a shift in the narrative and a shift in the way that activism is happening and a
Shift in the way that our culture is responding to issues around blackness with the intersection of queerness and so I felt it was important now that we have a serious conversation around the issues around homophobia the LGBTQ and black rape life I joined Alpha Phi fraternity incorporated back in the
Spring of 2006 initiated March 25th even though we typically in Greek communities go by our probate date which would be April 7th it was our 100th year as a organization so it was a big deal I was the number seven on our a line which would be considered the jewels so
My spot was like kind of like the revered spot within our organization things weren’t always easy even though I wasn’t out at that time people still knew because because I mean and I’ve always been me the person who’s always been effeminate and yeah fit minute for
Pretty much my whole life as my family would say it wasn’t like I could hide it I actually think that part of me joining the organization was to try and toughen myself up in some way or try and work on my image around masculinity it didn’t
Work but I did learn that there was a way you know years later that I could intersect the two and make it all work for me as I went through the org I kind of rose up within a chapter level kind of fast so I became the chapter
President which some older brothers were like gave kids a chapter president like I don’t know about this and so I had to deal with a lot of criticism and pushback from that from there I brought through a line so I’m the Dean of line in 2007 and so the more criticism came like
I can keep that in this you know this baguette keep you guys doing these things fall of 2007 that I was allowed to be the Dean of a line and so then you know more comments came like y’all gonna continue to let this you go have these high positions with an opportunity
I don’t know about this and you know I would hear the whispers it was never a direct issue but it was always behind the scenes where people were talking about me talking about it and we just come back to me and it it was hard
Though as a 21 22 year old who hadn’t come out yet who hadn’t fully identified as who I was I was dealing with an identity crisis with myself and also fighting to prove that I belong within my organization as the years continue to go on things didn’t get much better by
Oh 809 I was starting to be more out and it was becoming a bigger problem for many of the brothers and it became a point of contention we didn’t get along we butted heads we went back and forth on many issues and unfortunately it led to me pulling myself away so by 2008
2009 I was beginning to identify more with my identity so when that came about I was going to clubs more people were seeing me how war and it was becoming a bigger issue within the fraternity only because I was helping the younger brothers so much and had such a close
Relationship with the younger brothers some of the older brothers didn’t understand and so there was a huge disconnect and like why is his respect level so high when y’all know we not kind of afford this by 2010 was kind of when all hell broke loose uh-uh I had
Enough day I had enough and we had gotten to a pretty big argument me and some older brothers and my final breaking point was when I reached out to a brother who was you know in the black church just kind of with my concerns because he knew of
Me and some of the other brothers I was having issues with and his response was less than favorable it was more like well you know because of your identity you know I can accept you into Christ but I’m not sure if I can accept you as
A brother you know like you still have this issue and that’s when I made the decision that I was not gonna live in pieces like for the appeasement of other people I kind of went harder I started really talking more about the issues that I was having
I started intersecting myself with in my chapter more and talking to the brothers about some of the things that I was going through and some of the issues I had I was blessed to have a line where there were several of us who identified as gay and then several of us who
Identify as heterosexual and so people were able to see how easy and how free-flowing our relationships were and how we used to travel together and I think it brought about an understanding from other brothers to be like well if they all could get along what are we missing like what’s happening here by
2011 I started running homecoming for us and I was step master that year we won the step show our homecoming tailgate was file fair and and everybody was like okay maybe George’s aren’t right like maybe George’s okay as the years progressed and people started to see my
Work in activism my work in journalism my fight for LGBTQ people more heterosexual people who have friends with more heterosexual brothers started to come around to the idea of okay there are identities outside of us maybe we just need to listen but maybe it’s not so much about this masculinity thing as
Much as it’s about the protection of of black people and so that’s kind of why this story now is so important me telling my story as a way to bring the necessary conversations that we need within not just black Greek life but black institutions and black organizations ie the n-double-a-cp
Ie the black church ie historically black colleges and universities like there’s such a bigger picture that needs to be discussed not just on a micro level but on a macro level of how black institutions oftentimes oppress we oppress others within with like a talented tenth mentality and it’s it’s just time for us
To progress past that LGBTQ identities are going to continue to increase so why not be more inclusive of them within our movement spaces why not hear their stories as we continue to progress as you know black Greek letter organizations and more people continue to identify we can’t continue to reject
Members based on sexuality we just have to grow from there and we have to we have to find some type of not even a common ground because again we all black we all in this fight together and so anytime you try and put yourself in a
Place of privilege as well I’m a black Greek well I’m black middle-class which isn’t a thing but I’m black middle-class all you’re really doing is watching other people drown until you’re eventually thrown off the boat by white supremacy so who this whole thing is to bring about the needed conversations we
Need to have around people who identify as LGBTQ or identify as something other than the heteronormative society that we’ve always lived in because it’s time for us to to be one and be a fist in the fight against white supremacy and we can’t do that if we’re still so hung up
On patriarchal traditions that you know we never in respectability politics as Negroes when there’s no such thing as being a respectable Negro one of the most important things in bringing this short doc you series to life is the importance of understanding that LGBTQ issues are blackberry letter organizational issues the best analogy I
Could do for people to understand is the HIV epidemic HIV is a huge issue within the MSM in u.s. Texas man community so when you look at your organization’s you look at the percentage of members who may identify as either gay or bisexual even though there is no real analysis
Done as a person who’s been in the room you know there are a lot of gay individuals there are a lot of bisexual individuals who are a part of our organizations so even if a minimum 1/4 of your organization or 30 percent of your organization happens to identify as
Gay and bisexual if you look at the CDC numbers the CDC is saying that 50% of black MSM s will contract HIV over your lifetime so if you take the 25% or the 30% of your org that identifies within that spectrum you have a potential to
Have upwards of 12 and a half to 15 percent or even higher of your members who may contract HIV or who may already have HIV within these orbs so the biggest issue is when we look at oh we just you know masculinity and you know the imagery of our orgs we do a
Disservice to some of the other social detriments that go on within the community because that erasure of a person’s identity also erases the oppressions that they face that a heterosexual person may not face you know another big issue is when we look at the protections needed for
Transgender women if we continue to have this argument within orgs of what we don’t want trans people here or we don’t want these people to identify as us they’re going to continue to be murdered at a high rate at a much higher rate you know the average life expectancy of
A black trans woman is only 35 years of age we have to do a better job of not being so Pro black with conditions we have to do a better job as black Greek letter organizations of understanding that you know we didn’t have you know in
The 60s or 70s or 80s that many people who are identified within that spectrum well now we do and now because we do we have to make their issues or issues because their issues are our issues and the longer we go and the longer we get
Kiev and push back on this idea of holding up masculinity or this idea of what womanhood you know has to look like within the sororities our people are going to continue to die and we’re continuing to oppress our own like being the oppressed school oppress that that
Can never work and it’s not going to work as we have seen the movement has become one led by queer people you know black lives matter was started by queer women that’s a big deal I work all the time with black youth project and people
Who are members of VIP who are in Greek letter or good time talking about you know our fraternities and sororities but we also have to talk about the unfortunate thing is that many of us have had to leave our organizations to do this work and to do movement work
Because our orgs are so caught up and you know the status quo and not wanting to you know I came to shelves that shake the table you know or some of these issues and so again it’s like we have to do better with having an appreciation
For our brothers and our sisters who are LGBTQ especially those who are within the organizations who are doing powerful work in movement spaces and can’t intersect that work with the thousands of members who could potentially be backing us and helping us shift the narrative and in shift policy and make
These changes we can’t do it by ourselves outside of these orgs and so at some point we have to do a better job of intersecting these orgs into the LGBT not just in LG but the movement is inclusive of LGBT people and that’s where we need to go
We’re gonna do more work within this doc you series we’re gonna get some voices from some heterosexual members of my chapter to talk about how they felt about me years ago and how they feel about me now and you know just some of the how their minds have changed around
Homophobia and masculinity and how I’ve helped them to get there because I think it’s important that other members of other orgs see them and see them talk about it as a way for like a conduit into the heterosexual community we’re gonna bring in some of the other
Organizations to talk and have you know a full you know dialogue back and forth about some of the things we’ve struggled with some of the good things that have happened some of the bad things that have happened we just don’t want the conversation to stop what we do want the
Conversation to create change and so that’s what this whole project is about it’s not about bashing heterosexuals it’s not about the gay agenda or you know that people often try to say we’re on it’s about stopping the can additional Pro blackness that goes along with in our community it’s about you
Know unifying us and understanding that queer people have a space within this movement we’re not looking for we’re not looking for diversity and inclusion and that we already in I don’t need to be included in something I’m already in but I do need to be acknowledged and we
Do need to be acknowledged and so that’s what this is about is to start that acknowledgement and start to bridge that gap that really has been severely strained especially since the movement spaces have become more queer and the I guess the old guard and the old institutions of a black movement spaces
Have started to become so silent and so that’s what we’re doing this time for us to all the raise our voices again i’m george johnson journalist activist anthem fists and join us for the ride
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