As an academic, I was aware of numerous groundbreaking studies and scientific advancements related to HIV. Yet, even those actively involved in HIV advocacy outside academia were largely unaware of this research. This urgency drives me to bridge the gap between research and practice, to ensure that the brilliance of research is not confined to the Ivory Tower. 

in the Power universe, multiple Black queer characters are not caricatures or void of complexity. Instead, they are the core drivers of the plot and prompt character development for others. Their queerness is as apparent as their Blackness.

As their teammates traded pre-game handshakes at center court, Johnson, an auto plant worker’s son from Lansing, Michigan, and Thomas, a native of Chicago’s hardscrabble West Side, stepped toward one another. 

The best friends shook hands. Then they kissed one another on the cheek. 

Atlanta psychotherapist Dr. Ed Garnes wears more hats than a pub coat rack. Healer. Educator. Community activist. Writer. Podcaster.

Despite such varied, complex interests, Garnes says his professional goal is quite simple. He wants to demolish the trope that Black people — specifically, Black men — don’t look after their mental health. He wants to make therapy cool.

Despite decades spent honing his skills in New York City’s cutthroat housing and economic development arena, then taking on Atlanta’s booming housing market, Doug Jones considers himself an accidental real estate agent. He considers himself a storyteller who happens to sell real estate. 

When I was about 11 years old, my parents suspected I might be gay, and they decided to do something about it. 

I do not want to disappoint God, Mississippi, or home with this letter, but I have to disappoint God, Mississippi, and home with this letter. I am currently succumbing to evil.

As a Black queer teacher with over 10+ years of teaching across various cultures, including in the Midwest, East Coast, Appalachia, and at an HBCU in the South,  I wanted to provide a road map/examples of how teachers of all sorts can intentionally create spaces where Black queer students thrive. 

While ample attention has been given to book bans, especially recently, one aspect is, oddly, glaringly absent from the conversation- how are minority children who desire to read these books impacted by these bans?

Instead, it was a post that read “They’re having a best gay movie off” and it featured two films - Call Me By Your Name and Red, White & Royal Blue. Individuals, particularly Black queer men like myself, were stunned as the film Moonlight, which won an Oscar, was glaringly absent from the discussion (a topic for another day).

It is incredibly dehumanizing, discouraging, and demoralizing to be a 1st generation, neurodivergent Black queer man who flourished academically while others, including friends, seemed to be relegated to the shadows.

While it is important to highlight fatherhood and those who shepherd their children into adult life, we frequently forget to ask a critical question: who gets the opportunity (and privilege) to be a father if desired? For many men who identify as queer, there is a delta between wanting a child and having one.

Despite waning attention, HIV is still around, and most new cases are found in gay men ages 13-34. Of note, we know Gen Zers are between the ages of 13-27. Thus, an unfortunate and impactful storm is brewing, but we must predict the weather and prepare.

At barely 10 years old, Pierce Hand Seitz already had a leg up on other 5th graders: After getting a taste of legal proceedings during a mock trial, he was pretty certain he wanted to be a lawyer when he grew up

Seventeen months ago, Byron Perkins, a Hampton University football player, was in a dark place. After a promising 3-0 start to the season, his team lost two games in a row —  including a likely discouraging, 32-point beatdown at the University of Delaware. 

In 2000, I wrote an introduction for a new edition of Essex Hemphill’s magnificent collection "Ceremonies." I pointed out what I believed to be that work’s purpose: remembrance as the only way to begin the process of healing the wound that white supremacy, poverty, homophobia, heterosexism, and most recently HIV/AIDS had inflicted upon us as Black Gay Men. (Cover image of Essex Hemphill by Barbara N. Kigozi, June 1994)

It was with these words that poet Audre Lorde began her groundbreaking 1982 work “Zami: A New Spelling of My Name”, in the process launching earning a reputation as a master poet and black lesbian literary icon that has endured years after her death.

In 2020, at the peak of his career, Dwight Howard had a list of accomplishments many of his pro basketball peers would envy: a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers, multiple selections to NBA all-star teams, a seven-figure salary and sportswriters debating whether the Atlanta native is among the greatest players in history.

Do fat people exist in the future?

That's likely a question that many have never thought to ask. It has been argued that people of size are some of the most openly discriminated against and marginalized. So, for some, thinking about fatness and fat people existing in the future may be hard to imagine.

But not for writer Alex Smith, a 46-year-old, Philadelphia-based artist, with roots in the Punk music scene. Smith is not afraid of anarchy. In some ways, he thrives on it, and people are taking notice. His newest work, "Black Vans," takes his ambitions to uncharted territory and places Black, queer, fatness center stage.

"If we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this," Smith tells The Reckoning. "It was a no-brainer that the main character was going to be a fat, Black bear, period," when discussing his comic book series and its lead character, "Bo," who is of Afro-Latin descent.

With a bearded, high-heeled Saucy Santana featured in mainstream music videos and a pony-tailed Billy Porter hosting ballroom legends on the BET Awards, it’s become easy to think that the Black queer man has claimed his seat at the mainstream table. It took just one cable show and a blink-and-you’d-miss-it sex scene to prove otherwise.