Tonex' Opens Up About His Sexuality

Always considered a maverick and controversial, Anthony C. Williams, II, best known to the gospel world as Tonex' with a list of gospel hits under his belt including "God Has Not 4Got" and "Make Me Over," opened up to talk show host Lexi on the season premiere of the Lexi Show - which aired nationally on the Word Network. The interview dealt with the hard questions and reflected back on familiar territory including the jaded events surrounding The Naked Truth, child molestation and his four-year marriage. On the show, Tonex', who has always been embattled with rumors about his sexuality, addresses the subject by confirming that he is "attracted to the same sex."

Amidst the tough responses and disgruntled viewers that remain disappointed at Tonex's decision to open up about his life, he spoke about the hypocrisies of the black church and its unfair treatment towards the LGBT community. "The church has completely faggotized everybody who's gay, sends them to hell over the pulpit and the church literally screams "hooray" and are happy about that. And yet, we celebrate the pastor who has a clean record and a clean look, but yet he is still doing the same thing that the same gender loving people are doing."

He also raised a powerful piece of logic "People can say 'See, I knew it all along," Tonex muttered. "If you knew it all along, this is the same guy who was taking you into the presence of the Lord. This is the same guy that wrote those songs. I'm no different."

Previously, on many occasions when addressed about his sexuality, Tonex' denied the rumors. "I take ownership of that," Tonex' now admits.

Several online media journalists are already labeling Tonex' has being the only gospel artist to date to speak out about their homosexual tendencies. The information is inaccurate. In 2008, Ray Boltz, a popular Contemporary Christian/gospel singer and Dove Award winner, came out the closet. But Tonex's views and decision to speak out openly on the matters are entirely different from Donnie McClurkin or even Terrell Carter (a Tyler Perry co-star who recently was outed online by an ex-boyfriend with several personal pictures depicting an intimate relationship, but has yet to address the allegations in the media). Tonex' instead becomes transparent and finally delivers a honest and courageous thing; something most gospel recording artists are too afraid to do.

Cell phones and Twitter pages should be blowing up right now. Surely, Tonex' should be commended for blowing the whistle on what we knew all along about the gospel industry, but were too afraid to talk about. Certainly, the hypocrisy from closeted preachers, ministerial actors, homophobic-and-hateful ministers of the cloth still possess a mighty dominance in the house of God. And that shouldn't be so.

Tonex's (now spelled Ton3x) last album, released on Battery Records and distributed through parent company Zomba, received some attention for its subject matter and mature lyricism, but is considered by critics to be one of his safest pop-oriented albums to date.

Watch Part II of the interview below.


Parts I and III can be viewed at Lexi's YouTube channel page.

[COMP-LEXI]
Lexi Television Channel (YouTube)

WATCH: Gospel Star Tonex Confirms Rumors and Same Sex Attraction (Rod 2.0)

Madea Actor Terrell Carter Caught in Media Spin (PRAYZE Report)

Madea Actor Terrell Carter Caught in Media Spin

The rumor mill ran abuzz this week when Terrell Carter, a star in Tyler Perry's stage plays and featured actor in the famed Madea movie blockbusters, was outed this past weekend by an alleged ex-boyfriend who posted photos on the Internet featuring Carter and him together. Alex Cortez, the boyfriend, began posting pictures on networking web sites and on his profile pages at Twitter and MySpace while also writing about the scorn of the aforementioned relationship going wrong. In his words, Cortez wrote "Hell yeah i’m angry!…there are fucked up ppl out there no matter how nice they seem to be & it’s their fault, ppl they harm are bitter!"

Since the outing, black gossip blogs, gay news sources and other media outlets including MediaTakeOut, Rod 2.0, Sandra Rose, Advocate and PerezHilton have been lit up with hundreds of comments from Carter's supporters and some of Perry's hardcore fans. Sandra Rose, who reported last year that Carter was suspect, didn't help much when she wrote that "99 percent of the actors in Tyler's movies are gay."

The actor is also an indie soul artist who has released three albums, according to CDBaby. Along with his background in Tyler Perry gospel plays like Meet the Browns and Madea's Class Reunion, Carter was a background singer for Fred Hammond and Yolanda Adams.

No correspondence or a press statement from Carter's camp has surfaced since the rumored allegations hit the fan. Maybe he's hoping all of this will die down until the next Madea movie announces casting calls.

J MATT'S COMMENTS:
Since I have been heavily criticized for running a rumor mill at my gospel e-zine and blog (Keish, hope you're reading this), I wanted it to go on record that this blog entry was only submitted because no other gospel web site won't touch it. I was also questioned by the media about the immediate reaction from the faith community. I personally felt it was newsworthy because other news outlets have covered it and it also raises a lot of questions.

Will Carter press charges against Cortez for defamation of character?

When a gospel-related star is in trouble, why do the gospel web sites choke up?

And when issues of homosexuality arise, why is it the church gets louder and the gospel community goes silent?

These and other issues are bound to make you wonder if we are really being effective in our outreach of Christian evangelism. I hate that Carter is now the victim of a bitter, heartbroken drama-king, but the popular, yet paranoia-like proverb remains a careful reminder to our decision-making. It is also a title to one of Perry's stage plays in which Carter was also cast: "What's done in the dark...shall come to light."