[DaddyzLilGrl]

I am not saying that Karamo is out there infecting women with HIV. But it is an epidemic in our community and I am trying educate my students about awareness, and Karamo is a hot topic on college camuses nationwide. It has been my own experience at an HBCU (not FAMU, but I have girlfriends who went there) which has helped me form my own opinions. I have seen both men and women stuggle with their own sexuality all the while keeping up appearances by dating or marrying someone of the opposite sex. It has also been my experience with the women I went to school with and played collegiate sports with, they have accepted their sexuality more easily and didn't feel it necessary to conform to society's views on who and what they should be..... they didn't hide it, they embraced it. The men I know who are gay, don't find it necessary to take go to such great lenghts to hide it. I love the fact that MTV has brought this aspect of homosexuality to its most popular show. I am also happy that Karamo outted himself, I just haven't seen him free himself. I feel sorry for him because I have watched Karamo go from rage, to elation, to depression and I think in part he knows that he has lost the very sense of masculinaty and security that he used to mask his sexuality. He seems to be struggling with his choices and I'm sure it goes deeper than anyone can presume to know. Every woman in his potential dating pool (or those he may have dated) know who is, and if he has been with women in the past can you imagine how they may feel now?

Basil (baz'el), noun. 1. African American male of exceptional good looks, but quietly prefers the comfort of male companionship privately and publicly prefers the companionship of exceptionally attractive women. Often athletic, and prefers athletic type males. Not comfortable with openly gay male friends in fear that it may blow his cover. 2. Type of male species who often try to overcompensate masculinity for social acceptance to mask homosexual tendancies or behavior (i.e. the fake gun episode). See E. Lynn Harris books (Invisible Life, Just as I am, And This Too Shall Pass, If This World Were Mine, Abide With Me, Not a Day Goes By, Anyway The Wind Blows, A love of My Own or Love is Stronger Than Pride).