How many gay black men come from single parent homes

Friends of mine have tweeted and retweeted the news non-stop, with my Instagram newsfeed being the same way. I have witnessed those who are pro-same-sex marriage question how one can fully and proudly call their selves same-gender-loving when they refuse to be part of the same-sex marriage movement.

The reality, for some, is an anomaly. That means 29 percent of single parents are fathers— up drastically from years past. And do not get me wrong, I am not saying this reality is true for all. In the United States, there are more than 64 million men who identify themselves as being a father.

Out of that figure, only million men are part of a home where they are married to a spouse and have children under the age of 18 living there. I knew in order for me to have happiness, I needed to be true to who I am. He is in his 30s, is slightly tall, dark-skinned, and has a killer smile and mesmerizing voice.

And for many, they have never seen a successful, loving partnership with two people at all—whether heterosexual or same-gender-loving. It is partly for this reason why I want do some of the research I am interested in academically. And what is unfortunate is that their position, their perspective, and their point-of-view on the same-sex marriage debate is usually overlooked and discredited.

The same research showed that white children from single-parent homes tripled from 7% to 22%. Week after week, news has broken that court system after court system has declared same-sex marriage bans in Colorado , Virginia , Utah , and many more states unconstitutional.

Approximately , children are being raised by two same-sex parents. Everyone is not so lucky. We were joking around flirtatiously via text when the conversation came up. According to Census data, in , 2 million men lived without a spouse or partner and their minor children.

In the past few weeks and months, it seems as though the campaign for marriage equality in America has hit its stride. Many Black American men, who happen to be same-gender-loving, cannot fathom happiness with someone of the same sex for an extended period of time because they have no examples of what it looks like.

Oftentimes, those who are for same-sex marriage have criticized and abused those who, like my friend, have not jumped on the bandwagon. He is a great guy whom I came to know professionally and quickly developed a great friendship. Oh, wait, he is serious. And I have wondered to myself, how productive is this debate?

Yet there is a subset of SGL men who are in this place and not being considered. What I came to learn from him in that conversation is that, while he could imagine settling down with a woman, getting married, starting a family, and living the American dream, he could not imagine the possibility with another man.

Instead, what we should be doing is recognizing that there are those who have differing views from us, who reside within our communities and love and sound like us, and meet them where they are. I think we ought to be careful to not try and force everyone into the same categories, belief systems, and ways of thinking.

Between 2 million and million children under age 18 have an LGBTQ parent. Many of these children are being raised by a single LGBTQ parent, or by a different-sex couple where one parent is bisexual. Not everyone is given that luxury. And no matter how many times I was told otherwise, I chose to believe there was something better.

Just because one is part of a community, does not mean they have to believe, live, and operate from the same mindset as everyone within that community. According to the Census Bureau from and , African –American children who lived in single-parent homes more than doubled from 22% to 55%.

He has a great heart, loves his family, and is God-fearing. My initial reaction was to attempt to convince him otherwise, but then I caught myself. Many of them come from single parent homes. They are accused of being sellouts, on the downlow, ignored, discredited, uncooperative, and also of lacking vision and imagination.

I had suggested if we both were still single by a certain time in our adult lives, we might as well buckle down and get hitched. For him to be married to a man, as he put it later, was a foreign idea and as a result, not something he desired. There are several same-gender-loving Black American men who feel this way.

I believed that in order to fulfill my purpose, I had to embrace all of me and live my truth.