Frank Ocean just posted a passionate essay on his Tumblr page in response to the Pulse nightclub shooting that left 49 dead and 53 injured, getting deeply personal about how it affects him as a member of the LGBT community.
In his emotional post, he addresses homophobia around the world, his own church and family.
"I read in the paper that my brothers are being thrown from rooftops blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs for violating sharia law ... I heard it's in the name of God," he writes. "I heard my pastor speak for God too, quoting scripture from his book. Words like abomination popped off my skin like hot grease as he went on to describe a lake of fire that God wanted me in."
Ocean came out in 2012, announcing he had a relationship with a man when he was 19.
"I heard on the news that the aftermath of a hate crime left piles of bodies on a dance floor this month. I heard the gunman feigned dead among all the people he killed. I heard the news say he was one of us," he continues, before describing one transphobic interaction with his father that may have caused their estrangement.
"I was six years old when I heard my dad call our transgender waitress a faggot as he dragged me out a neighborhood diner saying we wouldn't be served because she was dirty. That was the last afternoon I saw my father and the first time I heard that word, I think, although it wouldn't shock me if it wasn't," Ocean adds.
"Many hate us and wish we didn't exist. Many are annoyed by our wanting to be married like everyone else or use the correct restroom like everyone else. Many don't see anything wrong with passing down the same old values that send thousands of kids into suicidal depression each year," the singer continues, speaking for the entire LGBT community. "So we say pride and we express love for who and what we are. Because who else will in earnest?"
"I daydream on the idea that maybe all this barbarism and all these transgressions against ourselves is an equal and opposite reaction to something better happening in this world," he writes in conclusion, "some great swelling wave of openness and wakefulness out here."
