Welcome to DBQ. This publication, now entering it’s15th year was established to not only document the culture, experience, and work of LGBTQ+ people of color, but to affirm, celebrate and o garner visibility for community.
Photographed by Eric Hart Jr.
Photographed by Eric Hart Jr.
Photographed by Eric Hart Jr.
Fifteen years after its first issue, DBQ Magazine returns—not to revisit where we left off, but to begin again with everything time, survival, friendship, disappointment and purpose have taught us.
Founder, publisher and Editor-in-Chief Dave Bridgeforth appears across three commemorative Summer 2026 covers photographed by Eric Hart Jr, marking both the return of DBQ Magazine and Dave’s reintroduction into the public conversation.
Inside the issue, Dave joins actor, artist and advocate Jussie Smollett for A Walk in the Park—a deeply personal three-part video conversation accompanied by photographs of the two longtime friends walking together and speaking candidly about visibility, survival, creativity, public perception, friendship and the decision to keep moving forward.
This issue begins a new season for DBQ Magazine, told through film, photography, personal essays, cultural commentary and live conversation.
Over the coming days, the Summer Issue will unfold with:
Jussie Smollett: A Walk in the Park
A three-part video conversation with Dave Bridgeforth about identity, visibility, survival, creativity and moving forward.
The Private Ache
Dave Bridgeforth confronts the private pain and unsustainable lives we build to avoid what hurts.
The Silent Emergency
Dr. Avery Carter M. Walker examines the mental-health crisis too many Black gay men are carrying in silence.
Living Legend: Stanley Bennett Clay
An intimate conversation with the celebrated actor, director, playwright, author and longtime DBQ mentor.
Explore the first cover. RSVP for the live conversations. Return as the complete Summer 2026 issue unfolds.
DBQ Magazine
The 15th Anniversary Summer Issue
What I’ve come to know is that everybody is carrying something. Some of it is personal. Some of it is political. Some of it is economic. Some of it is racial. Some of it is sexual. Some of it is inherited. Some of it is happening in the body itself. We are trying to survive a culture that exhausts us, a public life that keeps people on edge, an economy that keeps ordinary living under pressure, and systems that make wellness feel like a luxury instead of a basic human right. Even food has become part of the ache. Too many people are trying to nourish themselves in a system that offers cheap convenience, poor quality, chemical burden, and very little real care. People are tired, inflamed, under-rested, overworked, and calling it normal because normal has been distorted.
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The return of DBQ Magazine extends beyond the page and screen. Join us for two live community experiences centering mental health, wellness, culture, honesty and the conversations too often left unspoken.
Thursday, August 6, 2026
Renaissance Harlem
New York City
A live conversation about mental health, sex culture, identity, healing and what lives beneath the lives we present publicly—followed by an intimate conversation with Jussie Smollett.
Thursday, August 13, 2026
Oakland Museum of California
A community wellness conversation created for men of color across generations, identities and experiences, with a focus on physical health, sexual health, mental wellness and living fully.
What I’ve come to know is that everybody is carrying something. Some of it is personal. Some of it is political. Some of it is economic. Some of it is racial. Some of it is sexual. Some of it is inherited. Some of it is happening in the body itself. We are trying to survive a culture that exhausts us, a public life that keeps people on edge, an economy that keeps ordinary living under pressure, and systems that make wellness feel like a luxury instead of a basic human right. Even food has become part of the ache. Too many people are trying to nourish themselves in a system that offers cheap convenience, poor quality, chemical burden, and very little real care. People are tired, inflamed, under-rested, overworked, and calling it normal because normal has been distorted.
READ ALL NEW WORDS FROM BRIDGEFORTH
In 1990, at the age of 23 with two small children my mother, Jill Jones, was dianogsted with AIDS and given less than 6 months to live. Today almost 30 years later at the ripe age of 51 she shares her remarkable story. Listen in on our raw conversation about her journey towards healing.
CLICK TO EXPLORE THE 2019 LOUD 100 LIST
