We as SGL men must emphatically realize the sacredness of our ground of being....especially the gift of erotic love that marks us out as Adodi.....how holy the orgasm.

As SGL men, we are constantly fed a diet of repudiation. We are responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community, the delinquency of young black males and the breakdown of the Black family among other things. This venom comes from within and without; from the dominant white power structure and from some of our own brothers who are being manipulated and used by it, but most deadly, a good measure of it comes from us, from our own minds and hearts.

There are two powerful truths that we as SGL black men must absorb and allow to resonate in our very souls: The first is that who we are is holy. God has blessed our very ground of being. The second, the most contradictory to the homophobic status quo is that the love, specifically the erotic love we crave and offer to one another, the most salient aspect of our “otherness” is also holy.

What many of us do not know or realize fully, is that we have been chosen. We are not the dregs of society; we are our community’s best and brightest. Consider the lineage we come from: George Washington Carver was one of us. James Baldwin was one of us. James Cleveland was one of us. Bayard Rustin, without whom the March on Washington would have never happened, was one of us.

These luminous names are enough in themselves to illustrate the first truth; the second truth finds its support in the Bible, that book that is so often twisted and misunderstood. In this matter, we have no greater examples than David and Jonathan. Consider David’s utterance about Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1:26: “very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.” Absorb this. Let this sink in. The love between a man and a woman is the love that produces human life. David prized the love of Jonathan, a man, above even this. How powerful, how sacred must our love must be!

Even the dynamics of top and bottom are echoed in their relationship; Jonathan offered David his armor; this is a powerful symbol if sexual dynamics, not merely who is the active or passive partner in sex, but the psychological mindset of each man, the bottom who finds joy and pleasure in entrusting his masculinity and vulnerability to another man, and the top, who, comfortable with his own vulnerability, finds in his bottom a vast space to express the force and beauty of his maleness. It is these holy truths that should inform our relationships.

The next time you take your lover into your arms, exploring his body, tasting him, breathing in his scent, being nourished by the water of his sweat, thank the Almighty for the gift. When life giving seed issues between you, embrace the sacredness…..how sweet the grace, how holy the orgasm.