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Big Freedia - Freddie Ross is a gay man who answers to both she/he pronouns. Often called the Queen of Bounce, he specializes in bounce, edm, dance, and hiphop music.

Cakes da Killa - Born Rashard Bradshaw, he’s a gay American rapper based in New York. His debut album “Hedonism” was released in 2016.

Frank Ocean - Frank Ocean is a r&b/hiphop artist who has dated both men and women, but doesn’t claim any labels as his own. In fact he actively rejects labelling himself. “Chanel” is a must listen.

Keiynan Lonsdale - Singer/actor who played the love interest in Love, Simon. He’s also released some truly amazing music this year like “Preach” and “Kiss the boy.” On his sexuality he had this to say “I actually don’t label myself…some people call me queer, some people call me bisexual, whatever it is now I’m happy with all of it.”

Kele Okereke - The gay lead singer of indie rock band Bloc Party. He’s also released two solo albums under the mononym “Kele” and a third under his full name.

Kevin Abstract - Gay & a founding member of hiphop group Brockhampton. Kevin is a rapper and singer-songwriter, and released his debut solo album in 2014. In 2016 he came out and released his second and very gay album “American Boyfriend.”

Le1f - Born Khalif Diouf, he’s a gay rapper and producer. His debut album “Riot Boi” was released in 2015.

Mykki Blanco - Originally on the music scene as a transgender woman, Mykki decided not to transition and live his truth as a gay, HIV positive man. He said “I am a femme gay man, but my trans journey is who I am.” He is a rapper, poet, and activist.

Taylor Bennet - Bisexual rapper & brother of Chance the Rapper. One of his latest singles “Be Yourself” is very gay and very good. I also love the song he did with his brother, “Broad Shoulders.”

Todrick Hall - Gay pop/hip house musician, dancer, drag queen, and choreographer. He released a new album “Forbidden” just this year. Listen to “Boys wear pink.”

Americans aren’t told this shit. 

The only thing we’re taught about any Middle Eastern country in school is that 1) the region exists 2) it’s where The War is happening and 3) Muslim people live there. That’s it. Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll get into the Hammurabi Code and some early Babylonian stuff but American schools seem to think that if it happened outside Europe and before the colonial period, or makes America look bad and isn’t about A Very Watered Down Version of What Slavery Was, it’s not important.

Info on this is almost notoriously hard to find. It’s not in any texts on American and Russian involvement in the Middle East during the Cold War that I can find. You have to specifically look for a book about the Shah’s return to power, and even then you’d be hard pressed to find a book like that at your local bookstore. Once you get into some higher level college courses you might know about it, but the people who can afford those are more likely to already be indoctrinated into a certain Way of Thinking (read: they’re racist as shit) by the time they get there. And it’s almost like you have to know about it beforehand if you want to find information on it.

She’s 60. She never heard of this.

As I was explaining this and how, during the Regan years, we funded Osama Bin Laden to fight against Russia, leading to the destruction of much of the infrastructure in the region, one of the plant workers came in to get his badge fixed.

He works in the quality control lab. He served 15 years active duty in the Army. Super smart guy, has a masters in chemistry and another masters in biology, raises saltwater fish in his spare time for sale, has the saltwater aquarium setup of the gods.  Raises rare corals too, some of which he donates to be used in re-seeding reefs around the world, but that’s a side tangent.

And he listened for a minute, then nodded and said “Yeah. I was there during that. I helped train people to fight. They wanted us to help them build schools and hospitals, after, but we were only interested in them as cannon fodder. Left the whole area in ruins. I wasn’t surprised when they hated us for it later. Told people then it would happen. We let them know then that they were only valuable to America as expendable bodies. Why wouldn’t they resent us for that?”

And she just looked floored.

“So…” She started, after a few minutes. “What do you think of Trump?”

“I hate him. He’s a coward and he’s going to get good people killed.” He didn’t even blink. “

She looked back and forth between us for a second, and then asked how I knew all this.

“I research things.” I said. “Google is great.” He nodded enthusiastically.

And she just sat there for a second and then said, really quietly, “I didn’t know.”

She lived through it.