After going viral for recently coming out as trans-attracted, Malik Yoba has been doing radio interviews to further explain his stance on the stigmas surrounding men, especially Black men, who find transgender women attractive.
In an interview with Atlanta’s V-103 on Wednesday, Yoba explained to host Big Tigger that he doesn’t consider himself a homosexual because he doesn’t find men attractive.
“I don’t live for other people’s labels,” Yoba said. “I’m not gay, I’m not attracted to men, that’s first and foremost. And for the record … trans women do not date gay men 99 percent of the time. I say I’m heterosexual. I love women.”
The actor also talked about how there are plenty of other men—”Black men, Latino men, White men, athletes, rappers, politicians,” he said—who love trans women “on the low,” but most will never come out publicly and admit to their trans-attraction because they’re ashamed and afraid of being judged by the world.
In a separate interview with Claudia Jordan on Smooth R&B 105.7 in Dallas, Malik said he was as young as 15 years old when he first started having “feelings” for trans women.
“At 15, [I was] trying to figure out ‘What is this feeling?'” Yoba recalled “I [had just seen] a picture in a magazine of a person that has breasts and a penis.”
But, as Yoba explained, “Trans is not about genitalia,” it’s moreso about the person, he said, noting that popular culture over the years hasn’t the done the best job at representing transgender women.
Yoba was also asked about the allegations that he paid a teenage transgender girl for sex 20 years ago, which he adamantly denies.
Listen below:
