I had no idea Frank Ocean was gay and didn’t care to look for it in his songs even after he came out. I can’t say it truly mattered or made a difference in how I saw him musically, because his music sounded no different. It was hard for me to understand why, in this decade, any of this mattered to listeners as a whole being that many of the great artists of our time were gay but the outrage was easy for me to comprehend.

This was the first artist of our generation to come out in the unabashed matter that he did. Even in the cryptic word choice and story he used, we understood exactly what this moment meant not only for him but for his fans. What was mildly hilarious to me was the reaction of his black male fans, a demographic that refuses to accept that a fair amount of their favorite athletes and artists are probably gay as well, could not and would not listen to any more of his music assuming that every mention of love and sex on Frank’s part was a subliminal mention to his relations with a man. All of the thought pieces celebrating his coming out and shaming those that did not accept him were nice, but I could not help but ask myself why any of this still mattered?

Frank is not the first, and will surely not be the last, artist in music to be gay. It is, however, worth noting that he is the first black artist to come out and still be successful. I made sure to track all of the black men on my Twitter timeline who swore they would not listen to his male love stories anymore, and to no avail, they are still Ocean fans. The only famous artist I can think of that was allegedly gay and black was Luther Vandross.

After he passed, his assistants and close friends all turned to the media divulging how difficult it was for him to live in the closet for the entirety of his career. The fear that he would lose all of his money, fame and the ability to share a talent cemented in history was too heavy for him. He spent his entire life channeling this burden through an unhealthy fluctuating weight issue that eventually claimed his life. What is most profound in the way Vandross was ‘outed’ was the matter in which it was done. His closest friends and confidants took it upon themselves to share this very intimate secret after he had died and could not come to his own defense. There is power in telling your own story from your own mouth and not allowing anyone to speak for you and Vandross could not do that. Frank coming out and not waiting until it is too late to tell his own story makes him different from the rest; it gives other black men in any industry an example of someone who was courageous enough to take control over his life and not let his life control him.

That is what should be celebrated – that is what should matter. I refuse to typecast black gay male musicians as not being able to come out because of their “circumstance,” which in other words means their race. However, something is to be said for the fact that it must be psychoanalyzed when black men come out, but when Anderson Cooper did the same thing he was still just Anderson Cooper. While race has something to do with it, it only holds power because we continue to let it.

As a society, we must stop giving immaterial matters so much power and clout over our lives and the lives of others. The thought pieces and overanalyzing of Frank’s sexuality were overwhelming to say the least, and distracted us all from the fact that his debut album was coming out, not just him. The hype that the internet built has died down just as fast, as expected, and while I’m glad that young black gay men and closeted celebrities now have an example to live by, I hope that if their talent remains the same our view them does too.