Having worked in youth services for the past ten years, I’ve had the opportunity to observe countless different types of young people, with varied and shared experiences, who have been in a place of need for one reason or another. And it’s that need that I experienced myself as a young person; homeless, and in need of a friend, that I continue to advocate for a community in search of freedom. My name is Greg Wilson, I’m 34 and I recently released my first book, “Metamorphosis of a Heart”, chronicling my own personal experiences growing up as a black, gay, young man, in a boxed-in and sometimes closed-out world. I work on the backs of LGBTQIA youth of color, and work to provide them holistic health services, leadership development, housing, an ear to be heard by and opportunities to share their beautiful gifts. I often use the analogy of the caterpillar and butterfly, as a means of illustrating how our community plays a huge role in the development of the next generation. How at times that process can be traumatizing and at others, up lifting.
The people we see or come across daily are like caterpillars, and we (the community) are their leaves. The leaves they must feed off of in order to grow, build, and/or survive. I grew up longing to be successful, loved and understood. I felt ostracized by society because the levels and experiences of racism, discrimination and hate became so often. Even with those feelings, we still often depend upon these other races to provide us with the opportunities, jobs or chances that we may not see as much in our own communities. We must break the cocoon of imprisoned mindsets that continues to hold us back as a community! Do you know how strong and powerful we are? Why do you think folks are so afraid and threatened by us? We, as a community are like butterflies that don’t realize it’s true ability to fly and soar… we’re constantly crawling like a caterpillar on the floor…11 years ago, I found out I was HIV Positive. I had to learn about HIV as I was dealing with it after being diagnosed. For years I hid my status from my black brothers and sisters because of fear of judgment and condemnation. Even in seeking health services, I feared going to black agencies because of the fear of seeing someone I knew or someone telling my business. Like many do, I resorted to going to a white agency ran by people that don’t know, appreciate or care about black culture. We’ve become so used to abuse, racism, and disrespect that we condition our minds to believing that it’s tolerable because it’s familiar. It gets NO better working for these agencies either. It’s difficult working for people that have never had to experience similar hardships, so they don’t show true compassion or empathy to their black clients. They don’t care about us!
Why do we put so much power in other people’s hands as opposed to using our hands to hold up a mirror to see who truly holds the power! Why are we expecting something from people that never promised us anything? Why are we not depending upon ourselves and each other? We must do better! We need to come together as a community and begin to have real honest conversations! Respect the differences and embrace the similarities. We must unite, and rebuild our community! Embrace our metamorphosis and allow our hearts to change because of love and not just because of circumstances. I can count on one hand how many of my heterosexual brothers truly looks at me as an individual and responds to me as such without having to look at my sexuality as a main component to judge me for. I am more than who I have sex with. I am more than my status. I was talking with a good friend of mine about the #doingit campaign, and what I came up with in that conversation was that we must stop talking about coming together and supporting one another and begin #doingit! If we are not doing that, then we must ask WHAT are we doing?
