For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Still Not Enough: Coming of Age, Coming Out, and Coming Home

In 1947, playwright Ntazake Shange published a choreopoem called For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. The story would go on to inspire legions of women for decades and would later become the subject and title of a hugely popular feature-length movie. While the film was selling out movie theaters, young African-American and Latin gay men were literally committing suicide in the silence of their own communities.

In response, Keith Boykin has put together For ...