I started taking lessons from personal observation and logic. questioning my views and seeing if my old view still stood.

at one point, my life focus was embracing and living in accord to afrikan tradition. for example, one reason I'm vegetarian today is because I internalized llaila o. afrika's assertion that we are nutritional uncle tom's and we've wholely accepted the europeans' diet. much of who i am today is about trying to be a better afrikan. but for the longest, I was about embracing tradition without criticism or regard as to whether all tradition was really "right".

i started to question my views on homosexuality when I saw the struggles my best friend and his family were having. his little brother is gay — not because of european influence and emulation, diet, abuse, molestation, school or friends. dude just gay. quiet as kept, everybody always knew that shit. seeing them struggle with his "issue" and their attempts to "straighten" him, just didn't feel right to me. they didn't want him to be true to self. there were a couple of other examples but i'll stop with that one.

later, i came to the realization that those of us trying to embrace african-centered ideals are much like the evangelical right in the sense that most of us endorse a narrow path that won't allow others to walk their own path without criticism, judgment and ridicule if that path isn't to our liking. i realized that, truth is, everybody ain't the same. i realized that truth trumps tradition and that sometimes tradition can be wrong and oppressive.

these days, I don't consider homosexuality anti-african — just anti-tradition. i don't consider it immoral that gays live out their sexuality as freely as we live out ours. we got an obsession about who other people partner with or how they have sex. i'd consider that a display of low moral character if I were to try to get in the way of someone else's pursuit of happiness, particularly when their quest doesn't interfere with my pursuit or the pursuit of my people. shit. many gays ARE our people. I'd consider it a display of low moral character if I were to participate in efforts organize against people's right to have their relationships recognized with the same respect that I expect mine to be recognized. truth is people are different and i believe they should have the freedom to be who they are. that's consistent with the principles that caused me to search for and embraced my culture in the first place.

that's pretty much what happened. hope this answers your question.

-----------------------
"I'm so glad I got my own
I'm so glad that I can see
my life's a natural high
the man can't put no thing on me" (c) Curtis Mayfield