Introducing Ronald

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Each month, we shine a little love on a local African-American gay, bi or trans man.  Highlighting their career, interests, accomplishments, love life and overall profiles, we salute these men.  Feel free to cwilson [at] stopaids [dot] org (nominate someone.)

Ronald K. Porter
Academic, Arts Promoter, Mentor, Committed to Human Rights

Currently, I am a doctoral candidate at U.C. Berkeley. I’m in the Social and Cultural Studies in Education program with a Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory. While my dissertation research traces the intellectual history of African-American educational thought looking specifically at the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, and James Baldwin, my years at Berkeley have been packed with many other activities. I have been able to work with students as a mentor, and I’ve also developed a report for STOP AIDS project that focuses on issues of collaboration between HIV prevention researchers and community members.

I recently co-facilitated a community event sponsored by the San Francisco Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society and the Museum of the African Diaspora with former Black Panther Party member Ericka Huggins.
We discussed perspectives on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer history; the Black Panther Party's focus on gay liberation; and how to sustain activism across boundaries of gender, race, class, and sexual orientation.

I come from a family of educators who have taught in the Washington, DC and Baltimore City public school systems for over 30 years. Being constantly surrounded by educators, my childhood was continually transformed into a living classroom. I can remember being at a museum, nature center, or some type of science program just about every other weekend.

My mother and father were also very socially conscious, and exposed me to issues concerning African-American history, as well as the histories of other marginalized persons from around the globe, at a very young age. Unfortunately, my mother was HIV positive and passed away when I was twelve years old. Dealing with her death was an emotional struggle because I not only had to grapple with losing a parent, but I also had to confront losing that parent to a socially stereotyped disease in the early 1990’s. Nevertheless, my mothers passing also taught me that we are all here for a brief period of time, and we should take full advantage of the life we are given.

One of my favorite lines of poetry comes from Nikki Giovanni’s “Making James Baldwin”
- never refuse to hear the cry of the anguished nor the laughter in the
blues do it all because this one time you go round is the only time
to do it so be a stand-up guy who stands up first for yourself then all
the people who need an arm to lean on or a heart to hear a voice to
raise for the righteousness of it and maybe that would make you a
James Baldwin

Giovanni’s words are an integral part of my life. She gets at the importance of being authentic with oneself in this lifetime, and being open to the experiences that life has to offer. I guess one could say that is the lesson of my life thus far, and I am excited to see what the future brings.