Karamo Brown Explains Why He Opened Up About His Suicide Attempt

Karamo Brown is speaking out in the October 2018 issue of Gay Times, out now.

Here’s what the 37-year-old Queer Eye star had to say…

On why he chose to open up about his suicide attempt: “We need to get to a place where we feel very confident about talking about this, because the lack of discussion, and the lack of openness is what’s killing us…me sharing my story is to save someone else, so that someone doesn’t feel like they’re lost, like they have to overdose, that they want to commit suicide, because I am a poster child… I’m a mental health professional, who lost his way. Anybody can lose their way. Because mental health is something you have to constantly work on and get support on. So if I can lose my way and feel like life is dark and there’s no importance of living, then I also can find my way. And I wanted people to know that they can find their way as well if they’re going through it.”

On being cancelled from an American Radio talk show, and starting 6in10.org: “I wanted to talk about this epidemic, and they cancelled me, and I asked why and they said ‘Because we don’t care about this topic,’ and so my first thought was: Do you not care about Black people? Do you not care about people infected with HIV? Or do you not care about LGBTQ people? And either way I’m going to cuss your ass out! And they got really uncomfortable and hung up the phone, and I started the organization a day later.”

On fighting stereotypes: “I’m constantly having to fight against these stereotypes of what people think it is to be a father or to be a strong man…Black [queer] folk have been raising your children, and raising the children of the world forever. I just do it with a lot of love and compassion.”

For more from Karamo, visit GayTimes.co.uk.