Read Frank Ocean’s Moving Post About The Orlando Shootings And Pervasive Homophobia

It’s been four years since Frank Ocean released Channel Orange, and since then he has kept a relatively low profile — save for appearing on the occasional Beyonce and Kanye West album. However, this morning the R&B legend wrote a post on his Tumblr reflecting on the recent mass shooting in Orlando, discussing the damaging effect of ingrained homophobia and the tension this causes for LGBTQI people who are also religious.

“Many hate us and wish we didn’t exist,” he writes. “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. So we say pride and we express love for who and what we are. Because who else will in earnest?”

The piece also mentions Ocean’s own father’s intolerance against transgender people, dragging a then six-year-old Ocean out of a diner that had a transgender waitress, “because she was dirty”. In 2012, Ocean confirmed on Tumblr that he was bisexual, a historic move for a hip hop/R&B musician given the casual homophobia often inherent in the scene.

Apart from it being important and enlightening, Ocean’s post will also remind you of what a beautiful writer he is (not that that’s essential, but it reads like poetry). “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 news say he was one of us,” Ocean writes.

“I’m scared to know but I wanna know what everyone hears when they talk to God. Do the insane hear the voice distorted? Do the indoctrinated hear another voice entirely?”

Read the full post here.