Our Black Gay Diaspora Podcast is Crossing Borders
Over fifty years after the Stonewall Riots and the American Civil Rights movement and the lives of most Black LGBTQ+ citizens across the globe are invisible to popular LGBTQ+, Black, or mainstream media outlets. Our Black Gay Diaspora Podcast is a global biweekly platform where Creator and Host, Erick Taylor Woodby interviews Black LGBTQ+ individuals who share who they are in their countries and professions.
Ranked in the top 10 of FeedSpot’s “60 Best Black Gay Podcasts”, the concept for the platform sprouted in the early morning hours in mid-February 2021 during a visit to Stockholm, Sweden. Engulfed in the Scandinavian winter darkness, a steady flow of ideas poured out of me as I wrote possible themes, titles, and guest lists.
Throughout my years of international travel, I’d seen Black people in each country I visited. I was an American digital nomad in search of Black LGBTQ+ European citizens. Yearning to know who they are and how they’re thriving.
Typing “Black LGBT in Europe” in my search engine yielded little information. Just a few pieces about HIV transmissions, homophobia, and Black LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. There was little information about the lives, careers, and successes of Black queer citizens. I wanted to go beyond think pieces aimed at educating non-blacks on the racist entanglements Black citizens experience in their daily lives. To read about the journeys that go beyond interactions mired in racial negativity.
Samuel Girma, a Swedish film and art curator and activist, said it best in Our Black Gay Diaspora Podcast’s Episode 17. “I’m at the level of not anymore engaging with whiteness, in order to prove that we are human.”
A lot has changed since I came out in August 1998. Today, being an out queer person is less of a liability. As of February 2024, 36 countries recognise same-sex marriage. We have films like Pariah (U.S., 2011), Stud Life (UK, 2012), Moonlight (U.S., 2016), and the pioneering Logo television series Noah’s Arc (U.S., 2005–2006).
That being said, film and television projects featuring Black LGBTQ+ protagonists are still a rarity. Leaving us to long for stories with those who resemble us.
A September 2020 NBC News article stated that “two in three Black Americans don’t feel they see their stories represented on-screen.” Since 2012, there have been several high-profile films on American slavery. But NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reminds us in his November 2019 The Hollywood Reporter article that these types of movies overshadow African-Americans’ “…many scientific innovations and inventions that transformed American society — from refrigeration to blood banks — get dismissed, diminished or ignored.”
This is also true for media that centre Black LGBTQ+ communities, in particular, Black same-gender-loving men. Throughout world history, men have had clandestine sexual and romantic connections with each other. But the bounty of films, television projects, and books about down-low men suggests that only Black men enter these relationships. Which drowns out the accomplishments of Black openly gay activists, artists, doctors, lawyers, writers, and other professionals.
During Our Black Gay Diaspora Podcast’s Episode 22, American screenwriter and producer Cameron Johnson said, “I think it’s important to see images of love and passion and innocence between Black men.”
Entertainment educates us on who we are and how we’re perceived. Black LGBTQ+ communities lack a well-rounded offering of positive images that encompasses our professional and personal lives. Thus, creating the perception we don’t exist, don’t contribute to our societies, and aren’t valued. Why is little known about the lives of Black LGBTQ+ individuals in Barbados, Kenya, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries?
With over 100 guest interviews, Our Black Gay Diaspora Podcast does its part to showcase our histories — while building an archive of contemporary individuals. It’s also cultivating a professional networking community where Black queer people offer insights, career strategies, and business opportunities.
In advocacy, there are Nigerian-American advocate and paediatrician Dr. Lulu®, Kenyan Activist Ruele Okeyo, British Therapist Dennis L. Carney, British-Nigerian Anglican Priest Jide Macaulay, Malawian Human Rights Advocate George Kachimanga, and American Event Host and Community Advocate Rayceen Pendarvis.
Organizations that celebrate, educate, and advocate for us include British Founder and Managing Editor Rob Berkeley’s BlkOutUK.com, American President and CEO Antoine Craigwell’s DBGM, British Director Marc Thompson’s The Love Tank and PrEPster, American Founder and Chief Physician Dr. Julius J. Johnson-Weaver’s Resolve MD and RMD Proud, and British Founder and Managing Director Gamal ‘G’ Turawa’s Purplefrog Connections. G is also the protagonist of the 2022 BAFTA-winning docudrama The Black Cop directed by Cherish Oteka.
In film, television, and literature, Our Black Gay Diaspora Podcast has profiled persons like American Actor, Dancer, and Choreographer Phineas Newborn III, Jamaican Author and Playwright Krylios, Swedish Script Editor and Journalist Palmira Koukkari Mbenga, American Documentarian Writer and Actor Bryan Sparkman, Italian Writer Stefano Duc, and American Writer, Actress, and Filmmaker Ashlei Shyne.
Pink Coconuts’ Barbadian Founder Donnya Piggott, Sol Journey Travel’s American Founder Janis Bailey, and American Co-Founder of South Africa’s Obsidian Wine Retreats’ Chris Caldwell reminds us of the importance of leisure and self-care. Encouraging us to travel beyond our country’s borders to expand our horizons.
It’s true that Black citizens worldwide experience racial trauma as one of the enduring legacies of European colonialism and the Euro-American slave trade. It’s also important to uplift and celebrate our gifts, our successes, and joys.
“Together Celebrating Our Global Community™” is Our Black Gay Diaspora Podcast’s tagline. Loving who we love is not a choice. However, being who we’re meant to be can be. The platform honors and uplifts our stories in our voices.
For new episodes, news and updates, go to ourblackgaydiasporapodcast.com.
