Jay-Z's mother gives moving speech about coming out to her rapper son

Rex
Martin Coulter7 May 2018
The Weekender

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Jay-Z's mother delivered a moving speech at an LGBT awards ceremony after coming out to her son.

In April, the rapper revealed he cried "tears of joy" when mother Gloria Carter came out as gay, saying he was happy "she was free".

His song 'Smile', featured on his latest album '4:44' closes with a poem read by his mother.

Receiving a Special Recognition prize at the GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), she said: “Love gave me the courage to take the power that I allowed other people to have over my life for fear of them revealing my secret that wasn’t really a secret.”

“Here I am. I’m loving, I’m respectful, I’m productive, and I’m a human being who has a right to love who I love...So everybody, just smile, be free.”

The 48-year-old rapper opened up on My Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman earlier this year.

He said: “Imagine having lived your life for someone else. And you think you're protecting your kids.

“For my mother to have to live as someone that she wasn't and hide and like, protect her kids — and didn't want to embarrass her kids... for all this time.

“For her to sit in front of me and tell me, 'I think I love someone'. I mean, I really cried.”

Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, told how he was already aware of his mother’s sexuality, however, they hadn’t had a conversation about it until eight months ago.

He explained: “I knew. But this was the first time we had the conversation.

"And the first time I heard her say she loved her partner, like, 'I feel like I love somebody'. She said, 'I feel like'. She held that little bit back, still.

"I don't even believe in crying because you're happy. I don't even know what that is. What is that?"

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