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> Calvin Warren
 "I
Have Declared War on Heterosexism"
Growing Up Gay, Black, Pentecostal - and Outspoken
Starting
in fourth grade, Calvin Warren remembers being harassed by classmates
for being gay. Students spread rumors about him being a "fag"
and a "sissy." He remembers finding "nasty messages
" scrawled about him in library books. He has been cornered
and bullied. One student threatened to cut his face with a broken
bottle.
More
painful than these threats was the "psychic violence"
he underwent as a member of his local Pentecostal church, where
he was choirboy. Every Sunday from the pulpit, preachers would denounce
who he was by damning homosexuality as an "abomination"
and "the antithesis of black manhood."
"At
the time it was very painful," says Calvin, now 21 and a senior
at Cornell University. "Not being able to separate myself from
the church, I was caught between a rock and a hard place. I felt
cowed into that position because I had no place else to go."
Calvin
grew up in the city of Newburgh in upstate New York, a semi-rural
community where a traffic light divides the wealthy from the poor.
Raised by a single mother, Calvin always felt like "the odd
man out." Instead of playing ball, he read. Instead of hanging
out with other boys in the neighborhood, he immersed himself in
the church choir.
When
he came out to his guidance counselor at the age of 16, she suggested
he hook up with "Safe or Sorry," a Planned Parenthood
peer-education program on sexuality. "That was the birth of
my activism," Calvin says.
He
soon began giving talks to high school students on topics ranging
from safe sex to homophobia, inspiring his local Planned Parenthood
(PP) to develop its Circles program. The program, which creates
circles of safety and support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
people, received Planned Parenthood Federation of America's (PPFA)
Pepe Award for Excellence in Diversity in 2001. Calvin helped develop
and give the welcoming address for PP's "Safe Schools and Sexual
Orientation: Avoiding Litigation" conferences, which empower
school districts to create action plans to make their schools safe
for LGBT people.
Last
fall Calvin spoke at PPFA's three regional conferences on his experience
as a gay teen of color, and received standing ovations. Those who
heard him were moved to replicate Circles at their home affiliates.
"I
love language, it's the most powerful tool we have, especially for
marginalized people," says Calvin, who joined the debate team
in 9th grade and continued debating through college. "Heterosexism
steals your voice. It denies your right to speak. When people were
threatening me, I was too frightened to speak. You feel like you're
an invisible man. Planned Parenthood restored a sense of my agency
by allowing me to speak."
Calvin
also found his voice as an undergraduate at Cornell, where he designed
his own interdisciplinary major combining psychoanalysis, cultural
theory and post-structuralism. His senior thesis, called "The
Eroticism of Violence," is a psychoanalytic reading of the
lynching of African Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century.
In the fall, Calvin will enroll in a joint PhD program in American
studies and African American studies at Yale - while pursuing a
law degree at the same time.
"I'm
really interested in critical race theory and queer theory, which
is an emerging discourse in law," Calvin says. "I'm interested
in the way law is able to govern people's sexuality and able to
construct people."
Calvin
continues to reconcile, question, and push the envelope of his identity
as a gay black male within the codes of mainstream society. He has
found a sense of peace with other gay Christians. He has also analyzed
how sexual orientation influences an African American man's acceptance
as a role model for other blacks.
"The
entitlement of blackness was denied to me; my sexuality negated
my inclusion in the group," Calvin explains. "I wasn't
really black because black people are not gay."
The
dominant theme in his scholarship and his activism is to restore
a sense of agency to gay people. "I have declared war on heterosexism.
I am tired of losing beautiful, inspiring gay people to depression,
suicide and murder."
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