Among the cool things I didn’t know I’d get to do when this week started: Reference Lil Nas X in the newsletter.
For people who don’t know who Lil Nas X is (and by people, I mean my parents): He is an amazing artist-rapper-social provocateur and co-writer of the 2019 bop, “Old Town Road,” after whose release Lil Nas X came out as gay.
(If you didn’t see the three dazzling lewks he served at the Met Gala this week, are you even living? Mom, I’m talking to you: ARE YOU EVEN LIVING?)
Promotion for his debut album “Montero” included a “baby registry,” complete with a photo in which he’s cradling his belly, which appears to be about seven months pregnant.
On Friday, Lil Nas X’s first album debuted and he revealed what was on his registry: A call to donate to more than a dozen LGBTQ and social justice nonprofits, including Memphis-based Relationships Unleashed, an organization committed to helping the LGBTQ community thrive and HIV advocacy.
We here at MLK50 like to say we knew Relationships Unleashed way back when: One of its founders, Gwen Clemons, was one of the six “Unsung, Unbowed, Unstoppable” honorees MLK50 celebrated this spring.
In the piece, Clemons talked about her early years of trauma and living in the closet. “Young Gwen was really angry and unsure about where she fit in this world,” she said. “I was queer. I knew I was queer. But it was a part of me I suppressed because it wasn’t accepted. You knew you were different, and you didn’t want to be subjected to that ridicule.”
“The early part of my life was filled with pain. It doesn’t have to define me anymore, but it was a catalyst for my change.” Read more about Clemons and her organization here.
Black folks living as unapologetically loud as they wanna be. You love to see it.