A Quiet Black Gay Pride

This photo is an item I lost to another bidder. If you look at the photograph carefully, you will see why I wanted to purchase it.

The young men standing close together appear to be from the 1930s or 40s. Both are Afro American. They guy on the left wears an odd pair of jeans. Decorated on each pocket is a heart with an arrow going through it. Even for today the wearing of such clothing outside certain reinforcing and nonjudgmental environments is rare.

As with many of the photographs I post on this blog, this one is open for interpretation. Though maybe, we can look at this one with a bit more confidence about how life was conducted in private in the lives of gay brothers from the past. Look at the guys in the photo. They definitely strike a masculine blue collar, working class pose. They are men's men. Yet, this hard stance is softened by their standing intimately close together as they appear to be slightly touching. That self protective machismo guard has been let down as evidenced by that "odd" pair of jeans the one the left wears.

Looking at these guys, these brothers from our past, I want to see a black gay pride in its most subtle show of brothers loving brothers.