A few weeks prior, social media users found themselves in a frenzy over a steamy sex scene on the hit Starz series P-Valley. When Lil Murda (played by J. Alphonse Nicholson) took Big Teak (played by John Clarence Stewart) on a passionate journey to sexual bliss, he took us, too. Most fans praised the scene for humanizing Black queer men and how we love, but others were less than enthused.

The ensuing outrage is to be expected. Of course, some folks refuse to liberate themselves from internalized white supremacy, which manifests as homophobia — and that isn’t surprising. What’s most shocking is that the same criticisms, dripping in discrimination, aren’t applied to other storylines on the show. In that same episode, we saw the series’ leading lady Mercedes (played by Brandee Evans), having sex with her benefactor’s wife. We’ve also seen bouts of physical violence, colorism and much more, yet an intimate scene between two Black men is where the line is drawn? It’s the hypocrisy for me.