Liberation Cannot Be Selective

Letting Go and Letting It Out

they threw rocks and i held them

they pierced through my skin

they called the way 

i love a sin

someone today

called being gay 

'ungodly'

and it stayed with me 

longer than i wanted it to

i carried it with me

this pain

that my existence was a sin

it reminded me of a story my grandad had told to me

two guys are walking 

on their way home, someone 

throws some stones

one guy holds the stones

the other cast them aside

i held the stone

in writing this piece 

i hope to release 

put down 

the stone 

that was cast onto me 

i will be here, i will be queer

i will be seen, i will be the version of me 

that my younger self 

needs

when i was younger 

i would

search 

the internet 

for black queer

icons

constanly 

googling 

Is Queen Latifah gay?

Girls kissing?

How to know if gay?

then frantically searching how 

to delete searh history

for me

to say out loud 

i am gay 

its a mantra 

a reminder

permision 

to myself

i am gay 

i am gay 

i am gay 

and thats okay 

i was born this way 

i love women 

my soul

fits into theirs

like a glove 

i was made

for their mold

i love women

i am gay 

and i keep telling myself 

thats okay 

cast ur judgement throw ur shade

i know 

my god 

made me this way 

i thank her

everyday 

mothergod

you are sweet 

i see the shape of you 

in my dreams

i know

i long to be

wrapped up with thee

mortal 

men 

dress me in sin 

say i dont belong 

even though 

we have the same skin

blood and bone

they tell me 

they are on

the thrown

mother god

they turn 

your love 

to hate 

twist ur words

it begins 

to make me irate 

mothergod

they call ur name in vain 

they use ur 

name to spread hate

mothergod

why do they move 

this way 

---

There is something deeply contradictory about demanding Black liberation while policing Black identity.

In one breath, we speak of freedom.

In the next, we dictate who qualifies for it.

Homophobia inside the Black community does not exist in isolation. It mirrors the same rigid hierarchies imposed by white supremacy: patriarchy, gender control, religious domination, and the elevation of a singular “acceptable” identity — usually heterosexual, cisgender, male.

White supremacy did not only enslave Black bodies.

It exported moral codes.

It imposed Victorian sexual norms.

It criminalised queerness.

It weaponised religion.

And many of us inherited those frameworks without interrogating them.

We started calling them tradition.

Homophobia within the Black community does not come from African tradition.

 It is deeply entangled with colonial Christianity, Victorian morality, and white supremacist gender control.

Before colonisation, many African societies recognised diverse gender roles and same-sex relationships. Queerness is not foreign to Africa. Criminalisation is.

European empires exported anti-sodomy laws across Africa and the Caribbean. 

They criminalised intimacy. 

They imposed rigid binaries. 

They weaponised religion.

And we inherited those frameworks.

Sexual violence and humiliation were used against 

Black men, 

Black Women,

Black Children,

Under slavery to degrade, emasculated, we were…we are treated as subhuman. 

We were cannibalised, we have begun devouring ourselves.

Tearing into each other's skin.

That trauma is real. 

I want to make something clear this was not an expression of queer identity. 

This was

this is

sexual violence done onto black bodies.

This was 

this is

an abuse of power. 

They didn't 

they don’t

See us as human.

And now we don't see each other as humans.

queerness is not humiliation. 

Queerness is not domination. 

Queerness is not a colonial punishment.

It is simply existence.

When we call Black queer people “ungodly,” we are not defending tradition. 

We are defending colonial theology.

When we cast out Black trans youth, we are not protecting the community. 

We are replicating exclusion.

You cannot fight white supremacy while upholding the same structures of patriarchy and moral policing that it created.

Liberation that excludes Black women is incomplete.

Liberation that excludes Black queer people is dishonest.

Liberation that excludes Black trans people is fragile.

If you refuse to see the humanity of every Black body, you are not fighting oppression.

You are fighting for control.

I am Black.

I am gay.

Neither cancels the other.

Neither is unethical.

Neither is colonial.

Both are mine.

And any theology that demands I amputate myself to belong is not liberation

It is spiritual violence.

If your God teaches you to despise your own people, then perhaps it is not God speaking

But your own fear.

True freedom requires all of us.

---

I used to be silent.

I refuse to be quiet about our liberation.

Because I love my people deeply —

even when they struggle to love all of me.

I will be seen.

I will be heard.

I will speak.

We do not move forward by shrinking.

We do not heal by pretending.

We do not transform anger by swallowing it whole.

Silence has never saved us.

Ignoring ignorance does not dissolve it.

Appeasing bigotry does not educate it.

This is my portion.

This is my piece.

I am angry

And I am free.

i lay the stone 

thrown

it was never mine

to hold