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Countee Cullen was gay and had a really hot BF named Harold Jackman. But wait, there’s more! Cullen’s adopted father was gay too. When Cullen married DuBois’s daughter, he went on a honeymoon in Europe with his BF *and* dad AND LEFT HIS WIFE BEHIND! They were gone for months. https://twitter.com/terryngrams/status/1338840273124732931
In his letters, Langston Hughes wrote about sitting with the other gay gurls at Countee Cullen’s wedding and laughing the whole time. LOL.
This is Harold Jackman, Countee Cullen’s really hot BF. He was known as “the most handsome man in Harlem.” Cullen dedicated several poems to him, just using the initials HJ.
Also! Jackman was the best man at Countee Cullen’s wedding! Yolande DuBois divorced Cullen like a year later when he finally admitted to her that he was gay and had been getting dicked down by Jackman WHO INTRODUCED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. Our ancestors were whores, y’all.
I learned all of this in grad school while doing research for a long poem written in the voice of Countee Cullen at the end of his life, thinking about his relationship with Harold. The poem will never see the light of day, BUT THE TEA LIVES ON.
