ERICKA HART By Jessica Innis with Temar France
A Journey of Decolonizing My Queerness and Blackness “Do I like girls? Do I want to have sex with them?” Ericka thought. “Lesbian didn’t quite fit. ‘I’m bisexual,’ I said. ‘Or am I pansexual?’ There were too many labels, so I decided to stick with queer,” Ericka determined. Ericka had always been very flirtatious and vocal when it came to matters of sexuality. While attending prep school in Puerto Rico, Ericka exclaimed, “We need to talk about sex and pregnancy.” Later on, Ericka attended UMiami
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Florida, a predominantly white institution, where she was able to explore her own sexual identity, especially in regards to women. Previously, Ericka had only dated cis men. She had met her first boyfriend in an AOL chatroom using ASL in Baltimore. Unlike today, they were not many “coming out” stories. Ellen was the most wellknown, but younger, queer people of color were not visible in mainstream media. Many people were “out” but
