Hip-hopper Frank Ocean is discussing
his reasons for revealing a former romance with another man.
Ocean, whose real name is Christopher
Francis Ocean, made the disclosure in a July 3rd blog post on his
website. He is being credited as the first mainstream hip-hop artist
to come out.
The 24-year-old Ocean, a member of the
collective Odd Future, said in the post that his “first love” was
another man.
“By the time I realized I was in
love, it was malignant. It was hopeless. There was no escaping, no
negotiating to the women I had been with, the ones I cared for and
thought I was in love with.”
Ocean added that his feelings were not
reciprocated.
In an interview with UK's the Guardian,
Ocean said coming out was “about my own sanity and my ability to
feel like I'm living a life where … I'm happy when I wake up in the
morning, and not with this freakin' boulder on my chest.”
“I wished at 13 there was somebody I
looked up to who would have said something like that, who would have
been transparent in that way.”
To his critics, Ocean added: “People
are just afraid of things too much. … Sure, evil exists, extremism
exists. Somebody could commit a hate crime and hurt me. But they
could do the same just because I'm black. They could do the same
just because I'm American.”