When Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, reads a graphic passage from Not All Boys Blue: Memoir Manifesto Voice at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2023 – using his southern draw to recite a line in tone between theatres and light corn about lubes and sex – he may have been ashamed of George M. Johnson. But Johnson, the author of one of America’s most undaunted books, saw something else in full.
“It certainly influenced me,” they say. “But it also put the book where it never arrived. Someone there saw the clip, ordered the book, and found a story they didn’t need.”
Released in 2020, Not all boys are blue It was always meant to be more than a memoir. It was a manifesto, as the subtitles declared. “I knew it was special,” Johnson says. “But we couldn’t predict that would be central to a national conversation about censorship, education, and erasing strange black truths.”
George M. Johnson’s “Boys Are Not Blue”
The repulsion was quick and unforgiving. But that didn’t stop Johnson. Last September they released it Flamboyants, A vibrant reclamation of strange black historical figures that were only partially remembered. “It was exciting because I was able to find a hero for myself,” says Johnson. Johnson discovered people they hadn’t learned while growing up “because their oddity was erased.”
Flamboyants It is a time when it is rooted in the rich and radical heritage of the Harlem Renaissance, flattened too often in textbooks, stripped of its strange glow.
“Black queer people shaped the Harlem Renaissance,” Johnson said. “They were in literature, in music, in ways, but history disinfected that part.”
Josephine Baker to Gladys Bentley, Langston Hughes, Jimmy Daniels, Flamboyants Celebrating what Johnson calls “Our Avengers.” This is a strange black lineage of sparkles that is too strong to ignore. Daniels, a lesser known cabaret performer and actor in the harem arts scene, left the deepest impression on Johnson. “He was neither the first nor the most famous, but he opened the door,” says Johnson. “Many of the things I can do have been made possible by people the world never knew, and that’s what he represents.”
“Boys Are Not Blue” by George M. JohnsonVincent Mark
Looking at the elements of that legacy, the recent rethink at Met Gala this May was the theme of “Superfine: Tailing Black Style” (elements like Bentley’s Tuxedo and Baker’s Curls) and it felt like a moment of affirmation. “It felt like a perfect circle,” says Johnson. “And I can help people understand what they’re seeing.”
The sense of recovered memories and future lineage lies at the heart of Johnson’s work. “If you can’t connect it to the present, there’s no point in telling the past,” they say. “And if you can’t provide a vision for what’s next, there’s no point in talking about today.”
Johnson is not naive about the moment we are in. As non-binary writers, they have seen it in real time as the Trump administration and its allies try to completely strip non-binary and trans people of federal awareness. “It’s strange,” they say. “Erasing identity doesn’t erase people. They don’t seem to even understand what they’re fighting for.
But for Johnson, despair is not the end. It’s fuel.
“Hope can be passive. A hopeful action of power,” they say. “Stonewall didn’t happen because people wanted it to get better. They knew it wasn’t – unless they did something.”
Because of that philosophy and purpose, Johnson continues to write. Please remember. regain. Because no matter how many lawmakers try to shut them up, they won’t go anywhere.
“They can ban books,” says Johnson. “But they can’t ban stories, and they certainly ban us.”
This article is part of SupportersThe July/August 2025 issue is now available for newsstand. Support and subscribe to queer media – Or download the issue from Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader.
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
