Below PrideIndex and EBANMAN present our final group of Intriguing Black Gay Gentlemen. In this article, in no particular order, we bring our favorite authors, educators, and physicians to you.
Dr. Maurice Brownlee is a wellness & health services provider with broad expertise in internal medicine as well as the treatment of infectious disease. He is an Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner as well as an HIV Specialist (American Academy of HIV Medicine), and has a Ph.D in Healthcare Business Administration. Maurice is a passionate advocate for providing low-barrier access to healthcare resources, and cares deeply about building health equity for underserved populations, particularly people of color and the LGBTQ community. As a strong proponent of wellness care, Dr. Brownlee believes that preventative and behavioral health approaches are immensely important. His career in healthcare includes administrative roles in a wide range of environments, including hospitals, group homes, and geriatric care facilities. He is the Founder and Chief Wellness Officer of Baal Perazim Wellness & Health Services and the Medical Director of Wellness Home at Northstar Healthcare. He has a prodigious sneaker collection and goes by Dr. Mo.
Dr. Darien Sutton
Darien is a Medical Contributor at ABC News. He joined the network in March 2020. He worked as an Attending Physician at Norwell Health from July 2019 to July 2020. He also worked as a resident physician at N.Y.U. Langone Health. Sutton received his degree in biology from Binghamton University in 2010.
Darien’s twin brother, Desmond, is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist. According to published reports, the brothers are close.
His partner is Phillip Picardi, the former Editor-in-Chief of Out and a founder of Conde’ Nast’s LGBTQ-focused publication Them.
David J. Malebranche
David J. Malebranche, MD, M.P.H., is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician and public health activist with expertise in H.I.V. and sexually transmitted infection (S.T.I.) prevention and treatment and racial disparities research. The Schenectady, New York, native is known to go beyond routine care to fight for better support and empowerment for Black, same-gender-loving men.
He is a dynamic speaker and has shared his expertise on H.I.V. in the African American community for news organizations such as A.B.C., B.E.T., CNN, and T.V. One. Dr. Malebranche also served as a member of the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) from 2006 – 2008.
Dr. Malebranche has worked for the who’s who medical organizations such as; Emory University’s Department of General Medicine, University of Pennsylvania’s Student Health Center, WellStar Health Services, Cobb County Adult Detention Center, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the AIDS Foundation of Atlanta.
Derrick Tennial
Derrick Tennial (Ed.D) is an educator, entrepreneur, author, spiritual leader, and workshop clinician. A former k-12 English teacher and principal, Derrick is currently a college professor for several universities. In addition, he is a motivational speaker and workshop clinician and has presented throughout the United States on topics relative to HIV/AIDS education, spiritual health, diversity, and education. Derrick founded Let’s REThink That Narrative, Inc. in 2011, after publishing his first book independently to help others publish literary works to add to, challenge, or counteract existing narratives. He has published several books and contributed to magazines, blogs, and other publications.
Carl Clemons-Hopkins
Carl Clemons-Hopkins is a performer and stage artist best known for their breakout role as Marcus in HBO Max’s Hacks. In 2021, they made history as the first non-binary person to be nominated at the 73rd Emmy Awards.
Originally from the Atlanta area, Clemons-Hopkins has performed in theaters nationwide. They were nominated for a Barrymore Award for excellence in the Theater. In 2016, they appeared in the Chicago production of Hamilton.
Clemons-Hopkins recently appeared in Pulitzer winner James Ijames’ “The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington,” directed by Whitney White, at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago.
Kevin McGruder
Kevin McGruder is the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of History at Antioch College. He is the author of Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem, published by Columbia University Press in July 2021. The book follows the life of Philip A. Payton, Jr., who formed the Afro-American Realty Company in 1903, branded Harlem as a place where African Americans could live, and assembled investors to begin buying property in the then-predominately white neighborhoods.
Kevin earned a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University, an M.B.A. in Real Estate Finance from Columbia University, and a doctorate in U.S. History from the City University of New York. His interests include community development, academic and research, and African American and LGBTQ+ history.
Jericho Brown
Jericho Brown is the author of The Tradition (Copper Canyon 2019), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. He received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the winner of the Whiting Award. Brown’s first book, Please (New Issues 2008), won the American Book Award. His second book, The New Testament (Copper Canyon 2014), won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. His third collection, The Tradition, won the Paterson Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His poems have appeared in The Bennington Review, Buzzfeed, Fence, jubilat, The New Republic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, TIME magazine, and several volumes of The Best American Poetry. He is the director of the Creative Writing Program and a professor at Emory University.
Darren Walker
Darren Walker currently serves as the 10th president of the Ford Foundation, a private foundation dedicated to human welfare. In June 2020, Walker led the Ford Foundation to issue a $1 billion designated social bond to stabilize non-profit organizations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Walker is a Reimagining New York Commission member and co-chair of the 2020 New York City Census. In October 2021, Walker announced that the Ford Foundation would divest its investments from “fossil fuels and seek opportunities to invest in alternative and renewable energy in the future,” including investing in “funds that address the threat of climate change and support the transition to a green economy.
Before joining the Ford Foundation, Walker was vice president at the Rockefeller Foundation and C.O.O. of Harlem’s Abyssinian Development Corporation. He co-founded the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance and the President’s Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy. He serves on many boards, including the National Gallery of Art, Carnegie Hall, the High Line, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Square, PepsiCo, and Ralph Lauren.
Cedrick D. Bridgeforth
Cedrick D. Bridgeforth, EdD, is an ordained minister, author, educator, executive coach, consultant, public speaker, and the founder of 20/20 Leadership Lessons. A native of Decatur, Alabama, Cedrick is a U.S. Air Force veteran and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Samford University, a Master of Divinity Degree from the Claremont School of Theology, and a Doctorate Degree in Organizational Leadership from Pepperdine University. He is a former District Superintendent in the California-Pacific Conference of The United Methodist Church. He served as Director of Academic Programs at the Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies at the University of La Verne. Prior books include Thoughts and Prayers and 20/20 Leadership Lessons: Seeing Visions and Focusing on Reality.
Ravi K. Perry
Ravi K. Perry served the Department of Political Science at Howard University as Chair from 2019-2022. He is a Professor of Political Science. Previously, Dr. Perry was Chair of the Department of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University and was a faculty member at Mississippi State University and Clark University (Worcester, MA). Dr. Perry holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown University, each in political science. An expert on Black politics, minority representation, urban politics, American public policy, and LGBT candidates of color, Dr. Perry is the editor of 21st Century Urban Race Politics: Representing Minorities as Universal Interests, a book that discusses the efforts of African American, Latino and Asian mayors to represent the interests of minorities in historically White cities in the United States. His second book, entitled Black Mayors, White Majorities: The Balancing Act of Racial Politics, focuses on the challenges Black mayors face in representing Black interests in majority White, medium‐sized cities in Ohio. His third book, published with his mother, is The Little Rock Crisis: What Desegregation Politics Says About Us. In it, Perry and Perry frame the story of the Little Rock 1957 desegregation crisis through the lens of memory. Over time, those memories – individual and collective – have motivated Little Rockians to be social and political action and engagement. Currently, Dr. Perry is finishing a book introducing the lives and campaigns of Black and openly lesbian and gay elected officials in the United States.
Anaré V. Holmes
Anaré V. Holmes is an award-winning journalist and public servant. He has worked with CNN, B.E.T. News and PBS network affiliates to tell untold and under-reported stories about compelling characters that shape American life.
Holmes was honored with the Ida B. Wells Best News Story Award from the National Newspaper Publishers’ Association for his investigative reporting.
He is a firefighter, LGBTQ Liaison, and Assistant Public Information Officer for a metro Atlanta Fire Rescue department. He’s also a dynamic instructor who informs, inspires, and empowers diverse adult learners.
Aaron Foley
Aaron Foley is a writer and journalist from Detroit and resides in Brooklyn. Foley is the founding director of the Black Media Initiative at the Center for Community Media at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. The author and veteran journalist has contributed to American Life, The Atlantic, Columbia Journalism Review, Belt Magazine, Detroit Free Press, and more. He served two and a half years as the first chief storyteller for the mayor’s office. Today, he’s a senior digital editor at “PBS NewsHour.”
Frederick Smith
Born and raised in Detroit, Frederick Smith Is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and Loyola University Chicago. He worked as a T.V. anchor and reporter before making a career move to Higher Education and Student Affairs… and now fiction writing. A finalist for the P.E.N. Center Emerging Voices Fellowship, and a participant in the VONA (Voices of our Nations) novel seminar, he advocates for social justice and equity issues. Smith currently lives in the Los Angeles area.
Larry Carter
Larry “Phylle” Carter is an educator, activist, actor and recording artist. Lancaster, PA-born/Norfolk, VA-raised has resided in Atlanta since 2014. In 2021 he ran for city council for District 4. Currently Mr. Carter is the project manager at the U.S. Census Bureau, one of the most prominent data management government organizations in the United States. Before that, he was the diversity coordinator at the Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School and had a Master of Education (MEd) from Georgia State University. Larry’s extensive resume includes work with Yale University on male sex survivors and the Freedom to Marry for marriage equality.
He has appeared several plays and web series including Decisions (2021), Deficiency Notice (2016), Tiffany and Jones (2018), Boys Next Door (2014), WebLYFE (2014), and About Him. In 2007, Carter started Real Talk Music LLC, an independent record label.
Dr. Rondrick Williamson is an Atlanta, GA, area resident born in Mullins, SC. He and his two brothers were raised by a single mom in public housing. Despite his humble beginnings, he overcame obstacles to become a successful physician. He has appeared on multiple seasons of the television show The Doctors. In 2013 he was named one of the ‘Most Beautiful Doctors in America.’
Dr. Ron completed his undergraduate studies at Clemson University, earning a B.S. degree in Biological Science. He has attended the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine, ultimately receiving a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine degree.
He is currently a project manager for the U.S. Census Bureau. Before that, Carter served as President of the Ashview Height Community Association and the VICE Chair of the Neighborhood Planning Unit.
David Bridgeforth
David Bridgeforth is a force in the LGBT community of color. He is a celebrated public speaker, personal life coach, poet, television personality, Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of an award-winning national magazine, noted H.I.V. activist, and essayist.
His professional speaking career began at 16 when he caught the attention of Les Brown and was invited to tour nationally with the world-renown communicator.
At 22, Bridgeforth discovered his passion for writing when Maya Angelou affirmed his status as a poet when he presented her with a piece written explicitly by him to celebrate her 81st birthday at her North Carolina home. Since then, his writings and work have been greatly sought after and followed.
The Society of Intriguing Black Gay Gentlemen
The Society of Intriguing Black Gay Gentlemen Part 2: Chefs and Culinary Artist
