Dec 10
Watch: Singer Tank Offers Thoughts on Gay Stigma in Black Culture
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Singer Tank – an R&B star and longtime LGBTQ+ ally – has offered his thoughts on the anti-queer stigma in Black culture, and he did so again on a recent podcast appearance, Vibe reported.
The 48-year-old recording artist, whose real name is Durrell Artaze Babbs, was a guest on the "Holdin' Court" podcast, where his daughter, Rachel Renee, is a co-host.
"The first thing somebody's going to allude to – whether you are gay or not – when they trying to assassinate your character or get off the highest joke imaginable, they're going gay first," the "Please Don't Go" singer said, before positing that homophobia among African Americans "stems from something within our culture that has created this stigma that somehow there's a program to make Black men gay."
"You see it everywhere; there's an attack on strong Black men," Tank added. "But who's the attack coming from?"
The musician suggested that the root of that aspect of the culture was "us. There's something about Black men and the homosexual conversation that is a mess. The phobia as it relates to Black men is the elephant in the room."
Co-host Big Court suggested that fashion and media had confused the conversation. But Renee pointed out that the flamboyant styles rocked by musicians like Prince weren't seen as evidence that they were gay themselves.
Tank agreed: "We owned it!" he exclaimed of such boisterous wardrobes. "It wasn't an attack or an assassination on anything. That's where some of our heroes come from."
The singer went on to ask, "Where does this agenda come from? I've never seen anything that made me say, 'Oh wow! I want to be gay. I'm inspired to be gay 'cuz I saw that outfit or 'cuz YSL made this shirt.'"
One source, the "When We" singer suggested, was religion.
"I was raised that gay was an abomination," Tank recalled. "Not just a sin, but the worst." But when he found his way to a "life outside of that book," Tank added, "I started accepting the fact that one way is not the only way."
Tank's remarks are only a part of his commentary on LGBTQ+ issues over the years. In a previous occasion – an appearance on another podcast, Angela Yee's "Lip Service" in 2019 – the singer answered a question about whether a man orally servicing another man a couple of times qualified him as gay.
Quipped Tank: "It doesn't mean he's gay. It means he sucked dick twice," adding, "the art of being gay is being gay."
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
