The 2025 Native Son Awards had been a radiant reminder that no system can strip away the enjoyment, power, and energy of the Black LGBTQ+ neighborhood. This month, Native Son, a nonprofit group advocating for Black queer males, gathered the neighborhood in New York Metropolis to rejoice Pleasure Month and honor the brilliance of visionaries like Colman Domingo, Tony and Emmy-winning designer Paul Tazewell, movie star choreographer Sean Bankhead, and extra.
However past the accolades and applause, there was a deeper present operating by way of the room. The night make clear the rising urgency to guard the neighborhood organizations constructed to protect and assist the areas the place Black LGBTQ+ lives are affirmed and celebrated.
“It’s a scary time in America. The dismantling of civil rights, establishments of historical past and studying, and our democracy threaten our equality, inclusion, and existence — particularly for Black, immigrant, LGBTQ, ladies, and different minority teams,” Emil Wilbekin, founding father of Native Son, advised theGrio “We have to concentrate, get up, and work collectively to create change the best way Bayard Rustin did with the March on Washington. As so many freedom fighters have stated, none of us is free till all of us are free.”
That duality, each struggle and freedom, was woven into each second of the night. It felt like a love letter to the neighborhood: one half celebration, one half name to motion.
“Simply as a lot as we’d like gas to struggle within the streets and advocate for what’s proper, we additionally want individuals to throw the events, to like on individuals, and to deliver the sunshine. We’d like all of it,” Domingo shared.
And certainly, the room glowed with the heat of that sunshine. Simply as Durand Bernarr lit up the stage together with his soulful efficiency, neighborhood leaders like Don Lemon—who hosted the night—together with honorees Phill Wilson, the internationally acknowledged HIV/AIDS advocate and founding father of the Black AIDS Institute, and Dr. David J. Johns, CEO and Govt Director of the Nationwide Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), sparked one thing deeper. Collectively, they ignited a flame of advocacy and hope that moved by way of the room (effectively, not less than, they did for me).
“There was a time when the general public on this room wouldn’t dare have even the braveness to be out and be at an occasion like this,” Lemon mirrored. “All the things is momentary. We’ve made progress. Progress isn’t linear. It’s not straight up. Typically it’s jagged; it’s up and down like steps, nevertheless it continues to maneuver ahead. So that is momentary. When this administration is gone, we’re going to be okay.”
Dr. Johns adopted that sentiment with grounded knowledge: “We win once we reclaim African methods of being; once we do not forget that we now have at all times had each useful resource that we’d like so as not simply to outlive–Black individuals have a patent on survival–however to thrive like we now have all of that. We all know how to do that factor known as current underneath insurmountable situations, and I don’t need us to be consumed or suffocated by the situations brought on by a present occupant or every other people who find themselves hoarding energy. None of that issues. The ability that we now have as individuals manifests in neighborhood.”
And that’s exactly what Native Son was created for.
Based in 2016, Wilbekin says Native Son’s inception was rooted in a want for neighborhood. Since then, it has grown to be a worldwide platform created to encourage and empower Black homosexual/queer males.
“Native Son was created as an intervention for myself. I wished to be in neighborhood with different Black homosexual males — to share experiences about being the one one at work, dwelling with HIV, desirous to be in a relationship,” the group’s founder shared. “It was additionally about creating neighborhood with like-minded Black homosexual males so we didn’t should be alone in our existence on this world that usually instances marginalizes us, dismisses us, and ignores our super contributions to artwork, tradition, literature, politics, activism, and trend.”
The group’s identify pays homage to James Baldwin—its non secular muse and North Star. Impressed by Baldwin’s “Notes of a Native Son,” Native Son honors Baldwin’s legacy of telling the reality, regardless of how uncomfortable.
“Baldwin is taken into account our North Star, our icon. It feels much more poignant to have Black because the motion, neighborhood, and platform’s namesake in at the moment’s darkish political local weather. Baldwin spoke fact to energy throughout the Civil Rights Motion and wasn’t afraid to problem the established order. His life and legacy function inspiration and a blueprint for us at the moment,” Wilbekin continued.
And in at the moment’s local weather, that blueprint is extra very important than ever. As anti-LGBTQ+ laws beneficial properties traction and packages like Medicaid face unprecedented threats, the stakes are exceptionally excessive for Black queer and trans communities, a lot of whom already reside on the margins.
A part of weathering this storm is going through the truth that Black communites, particularly Black homosexual and queer communties have to avoid wasting themselves. One of the vital poignant realities was the truth of how the present administration’s coverage modifications have left individuals like Wilbelkin who’re dwelling with HIV with the assist of sure medicines, involved about their very own existance as these with insurance coverage are actually confronted with maxed-out co-pay help and people with out personal insurance coverage face the danger of packages like Medicaid being stripped from them.
The message was clear: nobody is coming to avoid wasting us however us. However in that fact, there’s additionally super energy.
As we think about the ripple results of those political selections, we should additionally look inward and ask what it means to face in solidarity with our Black queer siblings. It’s not nearly Pleasure parades and hashtags. It’s about exhibiting up, talking out, and supporting organizations like Native Son that function lifelines.
Black queer and trans communities have lengthy been requested to avoid wasting themselves. And nonetheless, they do. However they shouldn’t should do it alone.
