It's All About Me!

I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and at age 18 moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1972 to attend college. I acquired my BS in Business Management from Morris Brown College, worked for the Atlanta Board of Education as an elementary school counselor after graduation. After leaving the educational realm, I worked and retired from our local telephone company after 27 years. In March of 2005 I had launched and serve as the Chief Executive Officer of CTD III Enterprises, LLC.

What’s new with me? I am currently in the process of self-publishing my first book, "Grand Prize: Lookin’ for a Grand Prize Winner!" - A Dating/Relationship guide for Gay Men of Color (GMOC). CTD III ENTERPRISES, LLC has created its first product line, called “Cleon Sez. “ We are laying the groundwork for creating a unique entertainment center specifically for the Black Gay Men of Color in Atlanta in hopes of franchising facilities throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and possibly in other parts of the world.

At this point I want to speak on why I adopted the word “Gay” in my focus on homosexual males. I’ve coined the phase Black Gay Men of Color, a combination of the term Black Gay Men and Men of Color to embrace those men who are African-American and those who are men of other ethnic cultures and identify themselves as Gay. Although we recognize that there are African-America men who identify themselves as Same-Gender Loving, we embrace them as well, we use the word Gay because at the present it is politically based for AIDS/HIV funding, fundraising and to push a political platform on marriage, adoption and a national hate-crime bill )

Currently, CTD III ENTERPRISES, LLC is developing new products, creating workshops and we are excited in promoting Polivisity, a dating/relationship concept based on Poly-Fidelity and created for Gay Men of Color. It involves two or more single men who have come together in an intimate and committed relationship with each other, which is based on trust, honesty, and faithfulness.

What are we looking forward to in the near future, your participation in on-going viewership of CTD III ENTERPRISES, LLC website, inter-action with Cleon’s Blog, any ideas, suggestions, and words of wisdom for us and our community!

On October 11, 1987, National Coming Out Day was created. National Coming Out Day is held on October 11th every year to commemorate the first March on Washington by LBGT people. The March took place in October of 1987 and highlighted the lesbian/gay struggle for acceptance. The first National Coming Out Day was held on October 11, 1988.

The purpose of National Coming Out Day is to promote honesty and openness about being lesbian, gay or bisexual. LAMBDA celebrates this day with activities and resources designed to support coming out. LAMBDA also conducts ongoing projects to help enable our queer brothers and sisters to take their next steps out of the closet.

So what could this day or month (some national gay organization promote October as also being National Coming Out day) mean to you, well for all those who want to come out and reveal their sexual orientation are encouraged to put it out there in the universe and create karma around it. Understandingly, some folk cannot come out to people in their lives for fear of a financial loss or abandonment, usually teens and college students who are still living at home and/or who are still being supported financially by their parents. While still others or are financially independent may have fear of losing their jobs or some physical violence to them or their property (i.e. Car, personal items at work, harassing phone calls). Although formal action can be taken against an individual in law enforcement, you will suffer a loss, no doubt. Now these are worse case scenarios and very rare are. In the face of that possibility, folk still come out.

Now for the rest of you who want to come out for different reasons such as:
1. You ‘re tied of being sick and tired of being sick, and tired of lying to friends and family about who you are when they have continually questioned your sexual orientation.
2. You’ve finally come to terms with your sexuality and you need to tell someone.
3. You’re ready to move to the next level of your life of being more open and honest about yourself.
4. It’ doesn’t make since to not come out, being that you are financially independent and don’t fear the lost of income from coming out.
5. You’ve been hiding the love of your life from the people in your life, and keeping them a part from your other love ones is no longer an option.
6. You’re over 35 and still hiding from your parents and adult friends.
7. You’re tired of all the close calls that keep on happening in almost being caught with another gay brotha who you’re into.
8. You just needed something to get you motivated like this.
9. You want to set an example for someone else who’s really struggling with attempting to balance both worlds as one (straight and gay).
10. You want to be free.

 

I officially came out 6 years ago. And if you know about others coming out, then you know that we all have our personal stories. I thought I would share my in hopes of inspiring anyone that it matters to....Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.....Martin Luther King Jr.

My own "coming out story" goes like this! At age 47, three years ago, I "came out" to Senior Management at work by asking for them to implement a domestic Partnership policy, which we now have instituted. Also, I "came out," if you will, to my family, close friends and close co-workers during the same year. Oddly enough, my motivation for doing so was because I had made a decision to pursue a gay relationship and planning to take steps to begin dating men.

First off, I had paid close to $2,000 in a gay dating service to seek "quality men," as well as placing ads in and answered ads in the personals of local gay newspapers in Atlanta. I had also placed a profile in the Yahoo Personals.

I had my first sexual experience with a man in college at age 19. I was a sophomore and he was a freshman. Up until that time, I had girlfriends through my high school experiences; I even had a girlfriend during that first man on man sexual experience in college! All the years I was growing up, I had never had a sexual interest in men, however, after this first experience; I never went back to women, go figure! lol From that time on, up until six years ago, I was just having sex with men, 99% were married men, had girlfriends, or just dating women.

At the time I was totally green. I had no gay friends, being that I was not living a "gay lifestyle." I did not know anything about the lifestyle until I went to a gay dating service and had to answer a long questionnaire. To avoid being embarrassed and asking the dating service representative such questions as, What is a top? What is a bottom? What is a versatile? I had to figure things out for myself. In going to a gay club for the first time in my life five years ago, I called up one of the guys that I had dated once through the dating service and ask him how did "they" ask someone to dance. He laughed and told me that it's rare that you would be asked and then preceded to tell me how you go about getting someone to dance with you.

I told my family and close friends that I was gay so that they would know that if I brought a male person over to their home or a gathering, he would either be a boyfriend or someone that I was dating, and I needed to know if they had a problem with it. Fortunately no one had a problem me. I also told my close co-worker friends (straight males, females), being that I was dating and experiencing the ups and downs of dating and wanted to talk with them about my weekend excursions. I was amazed at the similarities between what some of my female co-workers experienced with men and mine. In closing, for me "coming out" was a very simple process, maybe because I was older or financially independent, however, I believe that I just didn't give a dam who knew, it is my life not theres!

I writing this, it is my hope that we don't wait on the "hip hop artist, movie/tv celebrity, high profiled sports figure" to all come out in order for us to stop living in the shadows and only coming out in the dark where we are only visible to each other in the gay nightclubs.