CNBC contributor, MSNBC commentator, BET columnist and New York Times Best-selling author Keith Boykin came to Dickinson college to talk about his recent award winning book, For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Still Not Enough, and his life on Wednesday, Nov. 13 in Anita Tuvin Schlecter Auditorium. The event featured a lecture by Boykin, followed by a book signing and meet and greet.

Educated at Dartmouth and Harvard, Boykin served on six failed political campaigns before being appointed as a special assistant to Bill Clinton during his presidency. He says these experiences taught him about the “power in perseverance.”

During his talk, Boykin said that he realized he was gay during his second year at Harvard and recalled coming out to his mother not long after. He remarks that the process of coming out to people was scary, but then he realized that it was easier to be out then to come out.
“If you tell the right people, you don’t have to tell many other people,” said Boykin.

Boykin also discussed the power of courage in numbers. While a student at Harvard Law, he and classmate Barack Obama were angry at the lack of diversity on Harvard’s campus and decided to raise awareness of the issue. They rallied, protested and even chased a dean across campus in an attempt to discuss the issue with him.

“We realized we were stronger together than we were apart,” said Boykin. “I was the loud mouth and [Obama] was the serious student. But sometimes you need both to make a difference.”

Boykin left politics in 1999 to teach at American University and devote himself to LGBTQ advocacy. “For Colored Boys” is his most recent book and features the writings of more than 36 black gay and transgender voices from media representatives, scholars and activists. It addresses longstanding issues of sexual abuse, suicide, HIV/AIDS, racism and homophobia in the African American and Latino communities, and more specifically among young gay men of color. The book tells stories of real people coming of age, coming out, dealing with religion and spirituality, seeking love and relationships, finding their own identity in or out of the LGBTQ community and creating their own sense of political empowerment.

“The anthology was inspired by the tragic stories of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, Jaheem Herrera, Raymond Chase and Joseph Jefferson,” said Boykin in an interview with Ebony magazine.

Walker-Hoover and Herrera committed suicide after relentless anti-gay bullying in 2009. Chase and Jefferson were openly gay students who committed suicide in late 2010. Their deaths happened around the same times as the case of Tyler Clementi, the 18 year old Rutgers University student who jumped to his death in September of 2010.

Boykin also addressed the complexity of identity and the ways that his experiences crafted his own identity.

“I have a very unusual life and because of that unusual life I have been able to carve my own path…among other things I worked in the LGBTQ community but that wasn’t all I was…I don’t know anyone who’s gay whose just gay…the same goes for blacks or women who just identify as women or men as men”.

Overall, the lecture was met with positive reception from those in attendance.

“The importance of Keith Boykin’s lecture is that he addresses the intersectional identities of people of color and challenges us to seriously ponder the necessity of diversity on campus and in the world,” said Crystal Moten, post-Doctoral fellow in History.

For more information on Boykin’s work and writing, visit his website at keithboykin.com.