In 2012, when Frank Ocean told me (yes, me, specifically) to “imagine being thrown off of a cliff” in the Tumblr note he published before dropping the transformative Channel Orange, the same Tumblr note in which he admitted publicly for the first time that he had been in love with another man, I cried, and then I did, too.
I admitted for the first time publicly – or at least for the first time to my parents – that I was queer in a three-page email.The fall from that cliff was glorious for many beautiful moments – until I smashed head-first into the ground.