And the Category Is…Queer Father Realness: Queer Black Male Mentors and the “Fathering” of Straight Black Male Students

Abstract

Fox’s hit TV show Pose creates a space for mainstream society to develop discussions surrounding the daily interactions of Queer New York citizens as they navigate the LGBTQ ballroom scene in the late 1980s. This show sheds light on the metaphorical (and sometimes, physical) “houses” that are created as spaces in which those in need of mentoring find solace and sanctuary. Similarly, there are Black Queer Men who have created spaces in higher education institutions for Straight Black Men to also find solace and sanctuary. This chapter provides the narratives of three Black Queer Men in higher education as they navigate the act of mentoring Straight Black Men who have deemed them their “Fathers.” The stories of these three Black Queer Men exemplify ways to renegotiate what mentoring looks like in educational spaces, to challenge heteronormative ideas of masculinity, to counteract the barriers that Black Men face in higher education, and to acknowledge the space in which they exist according to Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model (Zhang, J Int Stud 8: 1764–1782, 2018).