When the Republican senator John Kennedy, of Louisiana, read aloud a raw passage from the book All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto During a hearing of the Senate’s judicial committee in 2023-by unrolling the sentences on the lubricant and sex with his southern accent, oscillating between theater and contempt-he may have believed to humiliate George M. Johnson. But Johnson, author of one of the most censored books in America, has seen something else, tells us an interview published in the most recent edition of LGBTQ+ magazine The Advocate.
Posted in 2020, All Boys Aren’t Blue was wanted from the start more than a simple memory. It was, as his subtitle says, a manifesto. “I knew it was a special book,” said Johnson to Thus journalistand Advocate. “But I could never have predicted that he would become the center of a national conversation on censorship, education and erasure of black queer truths. »»
Johnson recognizes that this show affected them. “But it also allowed the book to reach audiences that he would never have joined otherwise. Someone, somewhere, saw this extract, commanded the book and discovered a story that Iel did not know. »»
Resist with memory and history
The reaction was immediate and fierce. But Johnson did not fall back. Last September, Iel published Flamboyanta vibrant celebration of black figures in history, too often reduced to a facet of themselves-even completely erased. “It was exciting, because I was able to find my own heroes,” said Johnson in this interview. “People I had never heard of growing up, because their queer identity had been erased. »»
Flamboyant is rooted in the rich and radical heritage of the Harlem Renaissance, a period that textbooks have flattened and stripped of its queer brilliance. “Black people have shaped the Harlem Renaissance,” insists Johnson. “They were in music, in fashion, in literature, but history erased this aspect. »»
From Josephine Baker to Gladys Bentley, from Langston Hughes to Jimmy Daniels, Flamboyant Honor what Johnson calls “our Avengers” – a line of black queer lights too powerful to be ignored. Daniels, cabaret artist and actor of the Harlem cultural scene, particularly marked Johnson.
From Harlem Renaissance to Met Gala
See some of these recently reimaginated inheritances, at Met Gala from last May placed under the theme Superfine: Tailoring Black Style – Details such as Bentley’s tuxedo or Baker loops – was a confirmation moment. “It was like a circle that closed,” says Johnson. “And I have the privilege of helping people understand what they are looking at. »»
This feeling of filiation, found memory and future reinvented, is at the heart of Johnson’s work. “There is no point in telling the past if you cannot connect it to the present,” said-àal. “And it is not used to talk about today if we do not offer a vision for the future. »»
Transform despair into an engine
Johnson is not naive · of the moment we are going through. As a non -binary author, Iel saw the Trump administration live and his allies trying to erase any recognition of non -binary and transgender people. But for Johnson, despair is not an end: it is a fuel. “Hope can be passive. Despair forces action, ”he says. “Stonewall did not happen because people hoped that it improves. It happened because they knew that it would not improve – unless they do something. »»
With this philosophy, Johnson continues to write. To remember. To claim. To repair. Because no matter how many legislators are trying to silence them, it will not go anywhere.
“They can ban the book,” concludes Johnson. “But they cannot ban history. And they certainly cannot ban us. »»