The name is Monique Jeannette Henderson. A six-foot-one, heavyset, wide-hipped and big-bottomed, beautiful young Black woman living in the city of Brockton, Massachusetts. I attend the University of Massachusetts-Boston, where I major in civil engineering. This right here of my tale of getting by in the city of Boston. It’s hard out here for a sister but I’m starting to realize that brothers have it just as tough if not tougher at times.
Take my man Andy Peterson for instance. This six-foot-four, broad-shouldered, chubby but still ruggedly handsome young black man is the captain of the men’s rugby club at University of Massachusetts-Boston. He’s popular, and a gifted student. Yet ever since we’ve been hanging out, I discovered just how lonely he was. Andy grew up in the Republic of Haiti and misses his homeland sorely. I can relate. I live in Brockton and commute to Boston. Bean town may be just a half hour away from the city of champions by car, but it’s a whole other world. I can understand the loneliness that Andy feels, believe me.
Life hasn’t been a bed of roses lately. A lot of things have happened in the world. America elected its first black president. Just a couple of years after the state of Massachusetts elected its first black Governor and the city of Atlanta, Georgia, elected its first black female Mayor. And now a black man is Governor of New York. Wow. Progress has been made. But the fight isn’t over. That’s what I try to explain to my fellow black college students these days. We have to keep working hard to make it. Our people are counting on us. Haitians. Cape Verdeans. African-Americans. Jamaicans. Africans. We’re all just one tribe. The sons and daughters of Mother Africa.
In Andy Peterson, I found a devoted friend and someone who shared my beliefs. He’s the first male friend I made at the university. The fact that he was also bisexual didn’t phase me one bit. I knew there were lots of bisexual black men out there. And as a bisexual black woman, I don’t have a problem with them. My policy is to live and let love. Andy was a really nice guy and I felt really comfortable talking to him. So I shared a painfully private tale with him as we sat down in the Healey Library one afternoon. Last year I was a freshman and got involved with this tall, slim and absolutely beautiful young Haitian woman named Rosa Joseph. She was fine as hell, and an out and proud black lesbian. I was drawn to her and we became friends. She showed me a world I didn’t know existed. The world of out and proud black gay men and black lesbians. Rosa was a member of the Haitian Gays and Lesbians Alliance. An organization based in New York which devoted itself to helping Haitians who happened to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual. Rosa became my mentor in this new world. And I fell madly in love with her.