Malik Yoba Responds To Fraternity That Kicked Him Out Over Allegations Of ‘Inappropriate Relationship’ With Trans Teens
Days after penning a viral Instagram post defending his attraction to trans women, Malik Yoba stopped by Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club on September 11 alongside LGBTQ activists David Johns, Nala Simone and Carmen Carrera, where the group discussed issues concerning the transgender community.
Since the post, Yoba has received tons of support from members of the LGBTQ community who have applauded him as an ally who is helping to remove the stigma that comes with cisgender men loving trans women. But some believe the actor’s declaration wasn’t just out of the blue.
The Why Did I Get Married? star has been accused of soliciting sex from underage trans teens by trans woman Mariah Lopez Ebony, who claimed the actor paid her for sex when she was a minor. Ebony added that she believes Yoba posted the seemingly brave Instagram essay to “get ahead” of the story before the allegations became public.
Yoba has since denied the allegations, but some are distancing themselves from him nonetheless. This includes the historically Black fraternity Phi Beta Sigma Inc., where Yoba was an honorary member and a spokesperson for the organization's Sigma Beta Club program, which focused on providing mentorship to "pre-teen and teen-aged males" through social, cultural and educational enrichment.
On September 5, the organization sent out a memo to its members detailing its decision to remove Yoba from the position following the allegations. "Those reports allege that Yoba had been previously involved in an inappropriate relationship 20 years ago, allegations that Brother Yoba denies," the memo reads. "This is a serious issue and the allegation is inconsistent with, and a distraction to, the focus of the Sigma Beta Club. ...the National Sigma Beta Club Foundation...has determined it to be in the best interest of all concerned that Brother Malik Yoba no longer serve as the National Spokesperson for the Sigma Beta Club program."
In response to their decision, Yoba criticized his former "brothers" for failing to have his back in this moment and further called them out for allegedly making poor decisions regarding an LGBTQ-identifying member's safety.
"My former fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma, we had an executive director that was murdered," he said on the radio show. "He was gay, he was running for public office in Louisiana — because we don't have a culture, even within an organization like Phi Beta Sigma, you have a gay leader that has to then go live in the shadows, make poor choices based on that and he was murdered. No one stepped up as brothers. As I've gone through my storm recently, those brothers didn't step up for me — they stepped away."
Take a look at the full interview, below, where he also declares that he feels like "the freest n***a in America" after his recent revelation:
