Frank Oceans Posts Personal Essay On The Orlando Shooting, Homophobia and Religion

Very eloquently stated Mr. Ocean. Thanks so much for sharing.

 

Well he sure as hell is not in any closet or anything at this point. If he was not 'out' or 'questionable' he is now. Very powerful words.

'my brothers'
'me'
'us'
'our'
'we'
'ourselves'

This latest outrage in Orlando is seeming to have a bit of a silver lining, if that is possible. JMHO no disrespect to those who died, were injured, or lost loved ones in Orlando.

 

I have to tell you a personal story. I was giving a press junket to french and european press in the aftermath of Orlando Terrorist and Hate Crimes attack. On the press day, I had several minutes of complete disruption of composure, which is very undiplomatic, and unlike me, I am very good at compartmentalization. I was struggling to find words, I was stuttering because I had so many emotions going through my head. I couldn't even read through the distributed talking points. I didn't really have time to process the grotesque massacre that happened in my hometown backyard. I woke up on Sunday to the news like so many but it was different for me. I am from the Tampa Bay area and it is a little over an hour and half to Orlando. It was nothing for me to travel to Orlando and I went to Pulse regularly when I lived stateside. When I was a Diplomat-in-Residence, I would regularly travel to the Universities in and around Orlando because it was part of my region. The degrees of separation were tremendously close. In fact, the very first name (Eddie Sotomayor, Jr) listed was a friend and politico and we worked in similar circles.

I do think that this event in particular is a silver lining for a lot of us and a wake up call to the white gay elites who may have lost sight of the FACT that people around the world HATE US and some of them want us to die. After reading Frank Ocean's resolution, I am always fascinated by his flowing sense of writing, it reads as if it is single string of consciousness. I left my battle with god a long time ago and made peace with my former Servant-to-the-Lord self. In many ways, I miss that guy, he was a lot more optimistic. But Mr. Ocean question is a great question that I wish would be presented to American clergy in particular....because American clergy are the primary source of Anti-Gay hate spread around the world outside of the barbaric Middle East. If god is real wouldn't he want us to be our authentic selves in his likeness versus pretending to be someone else?

 

I was gonna say something snarky and inappropriate to break the tension. But I couldn't. Cause this is serious.

I can't answer the closing questions. I'm not even sure they're meant to be answered.

I'd like to think so. I've grappled with this too.

Unfortunately many churches have nothing to say about people like us.

 

He needs to branch out into other expressions (book writing, other media). He's too well-spoken and intelligent to be confined solely to pop music. The importance isn't so much to guys like us on this forum, who are pretty much our own people to one degree or another, but to that young man or woman all by themselves in the middle of nowhere. Pop culture can be transformative, if given the expression by people like Ocean. I remember when REM did "Everybody Hurts" and people said it was too sappy. Yet somewhere, a few kids probably DIDN'T hang themselves after hearing it. Ditto for Ocean's messages and songs and some kid who isn't lucky enough to be in Atlanta, Chicago, LA, or New York and can escape the homophobia of family and church simply by going across the big town. You never know where the written and spoken words end up or who receives them.

 

riveting! now, if he can only give us the album he promised us...

 

Okay but about this album...

 

When I saw this first reported I forwarded the text to a few friends (almost all of whom forwarded it to others). Two people in particular made the point you made - that his talent is in his fluency, that he should write more, whether it is accompanied by music or not.
I agree. He as the ability to send his words sailing above the page. It appears so natural and effortless, but as someone who has made a living in part by writing, I know how hard it is to appear effortless.
What struck me most about this elegy was that it appears that Frank Ocean shares his thoughts and talents when he finds a way to say what seems obvious to so many but do it in a way that makes you sit up and take notice. After all, this appeared after a week or more had passed and perhaps folks thought, all that can be said has been said. And then he gave us this to make us think again.

 

Since god is a figment of the human imagination people hear what they want to hear when they talk to god. IJS.

 

I prefer Dudeism myself when it comes to spiritual beliefs.