Knowledge of Jason Arday’s race alone provides little insight into his lifetime pattern of deception and ultimate suicide. However, if you consider his gay qualities, as in LBGTQ, the picture of his life and death comes into sharp focus. Let me start with the way that he ended his life and work backwards.
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Ask yourself this question. Have you ever known a straight black man to take his own life? I thought so. Straight black men as a group are not inclined to commit suicide. Statistics bear that fact out. The suicide rate for black males is half that of white males, which is surprising given that the black male homicide rate is fourteen times greater than the white male rate. They are no stranger to violent behavior, but their psyche does not permit them to turn it inward.
Not so with gay men, black or white. The suicide rate for gay men is at least double that of straight men, with some studies suggesting a rate that is four or five times as much. The disparity is even more stark when one considers their motivation for committing suicide. Gay men are drawn to the narrative and imagery of a tragic icon suffering persecution leading to a premature death. For this reason, the image of Princess Di, Marilyn Monroe, and Judy Garland play a central role in gay culture. I cannot say what Jason Arday was thinking prior to ending his life, but his last words to friends and supporters hint at a perception of himself as a tragic persecuted figure in need of release. You may chalk it up to him being a drama queen or a melodramatic theater kid that never grew up. I think it is his gay gene expressing itself.
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So how else did his gay gene express itself while he was alive? There is a reason that so many gays are drawn to the theater. It gives them license to exercise their love of make-believe and acting. For those that don’t have the theater as an outlet, and some that even do, this tendency to embellish their existence can take grotesque form. With Jason, I don’t even think that his acting was over the top. He was just reflecting an image of what middle aged white liberal women wanted to see in him. To the very end, he was playing the part of a disadvantaged African who could overcome societal racism, if not in life, then through his death. Fine theater, all of it.
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