Top 70 Karamo Brown Quotes

Southern black gay and bi men are suffering from a self-esteem issue.

I hate chapped lips.

I’ve been on reality TV since I was 23.

I will kick my best friend out of the way if RuPaul wants to stand next to me as my best man.

We’re so divided as a world that we don’t often have the opportunity to sit down and talk to people who are different to us. We’re so ready to always be right that we sometimes forget it’s OK to listen.

My household runs the same way it was with my parents, who were a mother and father with their kids.

I’ve never done drag, but I’d love to try it.

I was 15 years old when I came out.

I would like to encourage hip hop artists to invite those of us who are in the queer spaces in, so we can have those conversations. I love hip hop. If you bring me in the studio, I know how to act. And we can talk about what’s not cool because, clearly, there’s still homophobia that penetrates in all these areas.

Really, I think the extra layer of raising a son as a gay black man comes from trying to raise a son who doesn’t subscribe to masculine stereotypes.

I don’t like the term ‘coming out’ because it gives the power to the other person.

We have to start making sure that churches start to talk about… black queerness in a way that’s affirming. Because a lot of young black men are in the church, and that’s where they start to learn this self-hate behavior.

It’s important to learn how to have conversations with other people where it’s not debating but discussing.

Any parent who says parenting came easily to them is not being honest with themselves. Parenting is hard.

We’re trying to get the world to see it’s not always about the outside, it’s about the inside.

Its rare to see a proud and out LGBT person win an Oscar in a lead or supporting actor role.

While the Internet has allowed for some extraordinary progress in creating conversations about diversity, it also allows uninformed comments that one has made in the past to live forever.

There’s so much toxic masculinity out there. I grew up with the notion that the more masculine you are and the less you show emotion, the more of a man you are.

Even when you look at, like, movies with some of our famous celebrities, they don’t really cry and bring out their tears until, like, forced.

Love is love, and people need to just accept that.

Fatherhood is an honor, and men should be strong enough to step up to the plate.

Encourage your friend and family member who are queer parents of color to post their stories and share it with the world. It’s time for us to be seen.

Most people don’t remember the guy from ‘The Real World.’ They know the guy who is a professional, a father, and a friend that gives great advice.

We must do our part to make ourselves visible to the world. Let everyone see that being a queer parent of color is normal and happening right next door to them.

What defines someone as a ‘man’ should not be the clothes they wear or how deep their voice is. It should be the content of his character, his strength in the face of overwhelming adversity, and his ability to still love and help others when the world has turned its back on him.

My main thing is obviously mental health and well-being, and then my second passion would be politics; the third would be fashion.

I was on MTV’s ‘Real World’ at the time when ‘Queer Eye’ came out. I remember, the first time I won an award, I got the award, and they were like, ‘It’s a tie! With ‘Queer Eye!” I never thought that I would one day follow in their footsteps.

People always look at reality shows and think, ‘How do they fall in love so quickly?’ When you are quarantined with the same people, the emotions you normally feel after a year come within a week.

For many gay and bisexual men of color, economic inequalities add to the pernicious effects of oppression and homophobia.

I can be walking down the street, and someone will stop me and ask me for one of my hugs. They feel like I’m their friend, which I love – though sometimes my kids get a little weirded out by it.

As one of the first African-Americans to be out on a reality program, MTV’s ‘The Real World: Philadelphia,’ I understand the courage it takes to live your truth on a national platform, the importance it holds to LGBT communities of color, and the power it has to create a greater conversation within American culture.

So often, we take photos on our iPhone, and then they’re gone in a year, and we don’t even remember them. I like to experience life and disconnect from that.

I always encourage people to get out there, travel the world, see new things, experience new people, experience new food, experience new culture. What happens is that helps you to grow and be your best self.

My family is Jamaican and Cuban, but we would go to see our Jamaican side every summer for three months and every Christmas. One of the things I used to love was climbing trees and picking ackee fruit for breakfast.

My goal has always been to help as many people as I can.

The funny thing is, we teach – as a culture, we teach people that it’s OK to talk about your fitness goals… Like, I want to be more physically fit, I want to drop 10 pounds, but no one’s talking about how I can spend 10 days to get happier.

Unfortunately, a lot people still don’t understand queer culture.

We have to continue to do the work, because we can’t see people lose their lives over senseless gun violence.

Most people have never been listened to, and they’ve never been asked questions that they want to be asked.

I came out at 16 years old as a proud, gay man. My last girlfriend in high school – when I was 15 – became pregnant with my child but did not tell me.

My favorite job, and definitely the one that means the most to me, is ‘Queer Eye.’

Literally, I look back on it now, and I often think to myself, ‘Karamo you should have done better.’ But that’s the thing: when you’re in that dark space, you can’t do any better. And it’s for people around you to say, ‘You know what? I need to check in with you and be there to support you.’

Often, men forget to buy their grooming supplies.

The black community can be competitive and cautious when it comes to those we want put on display for the world to see and judge. We are a prideful people who believe that anything that will make us seem ‘less than’ should be hidden.

I have such a deeper respect for firemen knowing how much they get paid and how much they put themselves on the line.

Historically, hip-hop is about a generation of artists rapping about the realities they see in their neighborhoods or the ‘truths’ they hear growing up in their homes.

We, as communities that are marginalized, need to open up our minds and realize that we should be asking and advocating for more of everyone. Let’s get more gay black men; let’s get more trans women.

Life experiences with oppression and homophobia often become internalized and can have detrimental effects on the development of positive sexual identity for Southern black gay men.

My life is an open book. There is nothing to hide here.

Point-blank, there is not enough diversity in media.

The challenges of me being a father are just the same as any other father.

I think dating apps are keeping us apart.

I think that’s one of the greatest gifts that I have: that I can get someone to open up, and all you have to do is ask a question and not feel like you need a response.

The worst thing about our political system is that people debate; I wish our politicians were able to talk to each other rather than scream while trying to gain sound bites.

I always had an ability to listen and give people the space to open up and express themselves, and I was hoping it would translate on TV.

Meghan Trainor is my female crush because she’s just fierce.

It is important to remember that if we treat people who could be allies as enemies, we can only alienate them from our cause.

Bomber jackets, for me, are the new blazers. They’re something I can wear with suit pants or slacks – or I can go really urban with it. I think, as men, we don’t have the little black dress that women do to go from day to nighttime, but the bomber can be the LBD for men.

My father loved me and was devoted to me until he knew I was gay, and then our relationship went south. So I always make sure that I let my sons know that I will love them, no matter what they do or who they become, for the rest of their lives.

My background is in social work and psychotherapy.

I think it’s just so important that parents actually really study the apps on the phones and figure out what’s going on.

There’s a lot of ‘how to adopt’ books, but there’s no practical resource for, say, school supplies.

We live in a society that has a long history of not valuing people of color or women.

We must be vigilant in sharing our stories and our truths as queer parents of color at every chance we get if we hope to see art imitate real life.

Gay men must be more effective caregivers to the women in their lives.

Being an openly gay black man, unfortunately I’ve had experiences working with individuals who’ve tried to exploit my blackness or my gayness in a way that doesn’t make me feel comfortable, or they try to manipulate me into being a caricature of myself.