“I’ve long held the belief that waiting for the powers that be to tell our stories would turn up fruitless, so once I was done complaining, I decided to take action.”

That’s how Darian Aaron, 31, Atlanta, Georgia, explains what motivated him to use his passion for social justice and his various creative skills for the sake of showing the world a positive picture of black gay men not often portrayed in the media.

Darian’s blog, “Living Out Loud with Darian, was born, he explains, “out of a need to diversify the blogosphere. … At the time, … in 2006, there were, and still are, very few blogs [focusing] on LGBT people of color. Sure, there were plenty of blogs that celebrated our bodies, but there were very few blogs that spoke to the issues that were affecting our lives outside of the bedroom. My goal was to create a blog that celebrated our full humanity and examined race, religion, homophobia, HIV/AIDS, and entertainment from a black gay male perspective.”

By Heidi Mann, Associate Editor

Rev. Heidi Mann serves as Associate Editor, copy-editor, "Someone You MUST Know" feature author, and all around "God send" for 10,000 Couples. She is also a freelancer and owns Final Touch Proofreading and Editing, LLC. Heidi has been something of a wordsmith in various contexts throughout her life, from junior high, when she first started writing poetry; through high school, college, and graduate school, where writing skills came in very handy; and on through 13+ years of ministry as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), a role in which she wrote regularly for sermons, newsletters, and correspondence. Heidi lives in the tiny and delightful town of Hendrum, Minn., with her husband, 2 young sons, and 4 mischievous cats.