Orville Lloyd Douglas - Biography

Biography

Orville Lloyd Douglas was born in Toronto, Ontario to Jamaican-Canadian parents. He graduated from York University with two Bachelor of Arts degrees. He completed his first Bachelor's degree in History and the second Bachelor's degree with honours in Sexuality Studies. Douglas' work focuses on the tensions and intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality.

He has contributed to several Canadian and international publications, including The Guardian, ColorLines, Word Magazine, The New Zealand Herald, Georgia Straight, The Toronto Star, Xtra!, NOW, Library Journal, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Douglas' first volume of poetry, You Don't Know Me, was published by TSAR Publications. It is no longer in print. Douglas was "depressed and distraught" with the quality of his poetry collection. The book explored many polemical issues such as death, drug abuse, male prostitution, suicidal idealization, suicide, depression, identity, love, homophobia in Caribbean culture, and gay racism.

In 2007, Douglas' fifteen minute radio documentary "The Good Son" was broadcast across Canada on the CBC Radio One program Outfront. The first section of the documentary was an interwoven quilt of Douglas reading his poetry and interviewing his father. The second part of the documentary was a monologue as Douglas talks about his frustrations. He explores issues such as homophobia in the black community, the pernicious hypocrisy and gay racism in the homosexual culture, heterosexual marriage, family discord, and racism against black men.

Douglas' poetry has been featured in the The Maple Tree Supplement, Wilderness House Literary Review, SNR Review, The Vermilion Literary Project,Pedestal Magazine. His poetry has also appeared in the Seminal (2007), the first anthology of gay male Canadian poetry, published by Arsenal Pulp Press. His verse has also been featured in The Venomed Kissed, an Incarnate Muse Press anthology exploring issues of childhood emotional and psychological abuse.

In the essay "Shades of Blackface", published in The New Zealand Herald, Douglas criticizes Angelina Jolie for taking the female lead in the film A Mighty Heart. Douglas argues that since the real Mariane Pearl is what he terms a "bi-racial" woman an actress of similar heritage such as Thandie Newton should have had the role instead of a white actress. Pearl, a multi-racial woman, is the daughter of a Dutch-Jewish father and an Afro-Chinese-Cuban mother.

He expands his thoughts about Hollywood racism and sexism against black women in The Georgia Straight opinion article "Is White the New Black?"

The essay "Is Madea A Drag Queen?" appeared in the July/August 2009 issue of ColorLines. Douglas perspective is Tyler Perry's movies parrots a black gay aesthetic, reinforcing racist and sexist stereotypes about black heterosexual women and black gay men.

The article "Same Sex Marriage's Colour Bar" published in The Guardian, challenges the stereotype that the gay community is a monolithic group. He argues it is hypocritical and racist for the white gay elite to complain about homophobia in the mainstream culture, yet discriminate against gay people of colour.

In the piece "The Slighting of Serena Williams" featured in The Guardian, Douglas argues that the white American tennis establishment has a history of disrespecting African American tennis champion Serena Williams . His perspective is, the hostility the white media have towards Serena Williams is rooted in racism and sexism because she is a black woman dominating women's tennis, which is still a white sport.