Jeremy Pope examines masculinity as a gay Black Marine in ‘The Inspection’
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On August 11, 2019, Black Marine, Jada King, went to the hospital in San Francisco for the first of two surgeries to remove the tumor she had been battling for six months. King’s surgery was not a standard procedure, nor was her treatment as well researched.
“It’s crazy,” she says of how the surgery is a “routine procedure.” But when it comes to surgery, King has lived by a few rules. She has never undergone an abortion. In her 20s she has been a full-time activist and an organizer for Black women, and she’s taken to the streets when Black women’s movements are in jeopardy.
She has never drunk and she’ll be “staying abstinent” on the day of surgery. And that’s because, for the past three years, she has not had sex, and she is not likely to in the near future. The last time she was intimate was with an older, white gay man, when she was 20. He was on the verge of calling her a “hussy.”
Jada King in The Inspection
In this interview, King describes her decision to remain at home two months after her surgery, and her hope for the future.
“I want it to be my choice, my decision”
The first surgery came as a “spiteful attack,” said King, who describes herself as “sexually and mentally disabled.” She fought the doctors when they cut her uterus to remove the tumor. “To have the surgeon say: ‘You have to have a hysterectomy,’” said King, “it’s like, ‘Why are you being so mean? You’re just being mean to me.’ You need to realize that’s not what we’re really asking for. We’re not asking for an