Read Frank Ocean’s Deeply Personal Message About Orlando

"So we say pride and we express love for who and what we are. Because who else will in earnest?"

From: NewNowNext

 While the world impatiently waits for Frank Ocean to drop his new album, he has released something much more powerful in the meantime: a letter about the Pulse nightclub tragedy in Orlando.

In a post on his Tumblr page, Ocean reflects on his past from growing up and hearing his church pastor condemn homosexuality to his father refusing to be served by a transgender waitress.

“I was six years old when I heard my dad call our transgender waitress a faggot as he dragged me out of a neighborhood diner saying we wouldn’t be served because she was dirty,” he wrote. “That was the last afternoon I saw my father and the first time I heard that word, I think, although it wouldn’t shock me if it wasn’t.”

Ocean also goes on to talk about ISIS murdering gay men, and the recent massacre in Orlando, but he remains hopeful that the hate will end.

Read his essay below:


This isn’t the first time that the Grammy-winning artist has taken to Tumblr to express his feelings. Back in 2012 he revealed that he had fallen in love with a man four years before. The post was was an excerpt from the liner notes for his debut album Channel Orange, and in turn was his coming out letter.

“Most of the day I’d see him, and his smile. I’d hear his conversation and his silence … until it was time to sleep,” Ocean said in his 2012 confessional. “Sleep I would often share with him. By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless…”