R Derek Black, the child of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Don Black and former ambassador to the white supremacist movement, has quietly come out as transgender.
DailyMail.com can now exclusively reveal that in the epilogue to Black’s new book, The Klansman’s Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Anti-Racismthey come out for the first time as a transgender person who uses their pronouns.
Black, 35, was already a well-known figure by age 10, when they appeared on talk show The Jenny Jones alongside white power leaders of the notoriously racist Westboro Baptist Church and homophobic.
And as a child, Black contributed to a children’s section of Stormfront.org – the neo-Nazi hate site run by his father.
But now, Black writes that attending the famously liberal New College in Sarasota, Florida, starting in 2010 contributed to their “emerging understanding of my gender identity” and their disillusionment with the white supremacist movement.
“The culture (of New College) and the people I met there helped me accept that I had a place under the trans umbrella,” Black says.
Black reveals that their ideological evolution continued when they began dating a Jewish woman, despite the fact that the Black family was “some of the most famous anti-Semitic activists in the country.”
Through long, often difficult conversations with Allison Gornik – Black’s current wife – they began to tentatively distance themselves from the neo-Nazi movement. And in 2013, Black wrote a letter renouncing white nationalism.
Black people – who renounced white nationalism in 2013 – say they ‘now fit into the category of trans’
As a child, Black played a key role in promoting and defending Klan policies.
Black’s father is the former Imperial Wizard of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (pictured wearing costume)
Black also expresses support for other trans people “whose rights are now under vicious and vocal attack in Florida.”
“I can’t imagine how horrible it would have been to grow up in today’s political environment as a child who, until puberty, was quite happy to often be seen as a girl, and then hid this part of myself,” they said. to write.
When they were kids, Black said, they left their hair long enough to “put it behind my ears” and enjoyed the fact that strangers constantly mistook them for a girl.
“I liked the confusion between the sexes, except in public restrooms, where grown men always took it upon themselves to compliment my appearance before telling me I was in the wrong room.”
“After puberty started, I kept my hair long, but I was able to use the bathroom in peace and was relieved to no longer receive inappropriate comments,” says Black.
Don Black (center, in white) is flanked by armed guards during the climax of the burning of a cross at a 1982 Klan recruitment rally.
At the age of 10, Black appeared on the Jenny Jones show to defend the policies of the KKK.
Don Black addresses white hooded KKK members at a rally in 1979
R Derek with their father, KKK Grand Wizard Don Black, at Christmas, aged about four or five
Derek wears a Confederate uniform for Halloween – the costume was sewn by their mother
When it came to choosing a college, Black jokes that New College consistently ranked among the Princeton Review’s top ten schools with the “most liberal students,” “most LGBT-friendly,” “most weed-friendly” and “wearing Birkenstocks, Tree.” – Vegetarians kissing and smoking cloves.
After Black was admitted, they tried to keep their history of white supremacy a secret, but it only took a semester before it was “outed” on a college discussion board.
At the time, Black was on a study abroad program in Germany and his godfather, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan founder David Duke, came calling.
“David Duke came from his home in Austria to visit me for the day,” Black writes. “I met him at a beer garden and he gave me an impromptu tour of the highlights of the early days of the Nazi movement.
Duke reassured his godson that he too had been “reported” at the university.
David Duke, founder of the Knights of the KKK and Black’s godfather, took him on a “Hitler tour” of Germany.
Black reveals that attending Sarasota’s famously liberal New College starting in 2010 contributed to “a better understanding of my gender identity”
The culture and people Black met at New College helped them “accept that I fit into the trans box”
It had been for the best, Black recalled, because Duke was then free to build on his white nationalist activism.
“Dealing with the outrage of your fellow students was the forge I needed to truly become the most effective activist.” I should really take advantage of the opportunity to learn how the enemy thinks and how intolerant he can be, he told me,” Black writes.
However, upon their return to Sarasota, rather than doubling down on their extremist politics, Black began to assimilate even more with Jewish and minority students and even regularly attended Shabbat dinners at a friend’s dorm room.
In 2013, in a letter to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Black finally apologized for their past activism, saying they could no longer support white nationalism, “after going beyond my bubble, talking to the people I touched, read more widely, and realized the necessary impact my actions had on people I never intended to harm.
Black admits they rarely speak to their family anymore.
Black’s father – who served time in prison for planning an invasion of the Caribbean island of Dominica in 1981 – still runs Stormfront.
Black and Gornik married in 2020.
“We had doubts about what marriage symbolized,” Black writes. “It had been almost nine years since we met…We hadn’t had a first date because we had gone so ambiguously from acquaintances to friends who could talk for hours to friends who stayed in the same bed almost every night.
“During the first few months of the year, our biggest concern was how to keep a wedding small and relatively private without offending our families.”
Then, the lockdown provided the excuse the couple needed.
“At the end of April, when everything around us remained still, we knew we wouldn’t be able to invite relatives or friends to an in-person wedding anytime soon.
Black people renounced white nationalism after long conversations with their now-wife Allison Gornik
Black married longtime friend Allison Gornik in an unconventional wedding ceremony in 2020
“So we found a large cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, suddenly vacant during what was normally the peak spring break season, and had several days of our own private wedding ceremonies, lying on couches and chairs. chairs, writing letters to each other, writing our own vows, and cataloging the ways we mean so much to each other.
Black and Gornik registered and sent an announcement to friends and family.
“Allison came into my life at a time when I felt least like someone worthy of trust or love. I already knew that my loyalty to the community that raised me had led me to betray all the people who had chosen to be close to me.
“It is impossible for me to imagine the story of my own life without his intervention. She showed me that I could love others fully and without fear, and I showed her how big the world is and that we could experience it all together.
The Klansman’s Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism by R. Derek Black is published by Abrams Press on May 14.
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