B5 singer Dustin Michael Breeding came out as gay and revealed he is in a “very beautiful relationship” with MTF transgender director D. Smith.
Dustin, 35, came out in a video on Instagram Tuesday.
“I’m in a very beautiful relationship with someone who makes me very happy,” he said in the video. “She’s very sexy, very talented. And most of all, she has a beautiful kind of spirit, which I love. My girlfriend, she is transgender. Her name is D. Smith.”
Grammy-nominated director D. Smith is pictured center with the cast of the 2023 Sundance trans documentary “Kokomo City”, starring MTF trans Koko Da Doll, also known as Rasheeda Williams (2nd from left). Williams was shot and killed in Atlanta last month.
Dustin explained that Williams’ murder “hit me close to home because I feel as men, Black men, we’re not allowing ourselves to love who we want to love openly without fearing being judged and shamed publicly.”
“After Koko’s death, I wanted to make it very clear to (D. Smith) that she has a place that she can feel safe and free with and basically feel seen and loved without any conditions. I don’t want to be one of those men benefiting from a trans woman in private and I celebrate her publicly.”
Smith reposted Dustin’s video, along with the caption:
“I’m so proud of you. We’ve known each other for almost 10 years now and every moment with you was always validating. So many men only dream of being as brave as you are. Thank you for being the example of a human just loving a human. I’m so grateful for your heart, ambition and spirit! I love you.”
Dustin said Black men are taught as boys that being sexually fluid or gay is wrong and “that we learn to suppress certain feelings, but we don’t ever grow up and really learn to deal with them.”
He continued, “Sometimes that emotional trauma can basically lead to violence or death, which brings me to why I’m doing this video.”
Dustin and his brothers, Carnell (left), Patrick (2nd from left) and Kelly (right) formed the group TNT Boyz as youngsters in St. Petersburg, Florida. They were raised by their single mother, who encouraged her sons to pursue singing careers.
The family relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, where the boys renamed themselves B5. They signed a record deal with Sean Combs’ Bad Boy Records after youngest brother Bryan (in forefront) joined the group.
B5 is pictured with Bobbi Kristina Brown at her birthday party in Atlanta on March 5, 2005.
