Local teen honored for courage and leadership

BY JAMILA A. JACKSON

Seventeen-year-old Cedric Davis walked confidently to the podium. His honey-toned skin was illuminated by the camera flashes of his proud and glowing mother and other audience members.

The flashes reflected off of the arched glass sculpture he was presented with by his neighbor, Wayne Sherwood, who said, "I would be glad to have him a role model."

The award, which was given to Davis by the Men Can Stop Rape organization, has a Ghanaian symbol meaning "strength used with gentleness and humility" etched on it.

More than 200 people came to honor Davis and two other outstanding African American men with the Frederick Douglass Men of Strength Award. The award celebrated what Men Can Stop Rape call "being powerful without overpowering others."

This award was a culmination of all of the many leadership roles that Davis has embraced. Cedric Lamont Davis is the president of the Gay-Straight Student Alliance, a diversity workshop leader, a student organizer, a volunteer, a choreographer, and a guide and role model to other teens.

Davis was born in Washington, D.C. in 1985. His parents then moved him and his two older brothers to Takoma Park just a few years later. Davis' parents separated and divorced just as Davis was becoming a pre-teen.

Davis' father's absence did not lead to the typical defiance that young boys use to get attention after a parent leaves the home. "I wasn't a rebellious type of person," Davis said. "I just tried to keep my mom happy. She never gave me a reason to rebel."

Without a man in the house, Davis felt that he had comfortable space and time to identify and accept his sexual orientation. "I realized my feelings toward other boys when I was 13," Davis said. "I didn't have a father stressing masculinity, and his absence allowed me to be comfortable with what I was feeling."

Close to the end of Davis' sophomore year at Montgomery Blair High School, his mother experienced some financial problems and moved in with a friend in Glenmont. Davis told his good friend Pam Larson that he didn't want to go to Glenmont, because finals were quickly approaching.

Larson and her husband, Art, had become friends with the Davis family, after she was his Takoma Park Neighborhood Youth Soccer coach for four years.

"She said, ‘you can stay here as long as you want, as long as it's okay with your mom,' and I've been there ever since," Davis said.

He has continued attending school and sees his mother weekly. "I think it made our relationship closer," he said of his mother.

Cedric and his proud mother.

"I want what's best for Cedric," said his mother, Tina Davis. "My schedule at that time was really hectic."

Because of her work schedule, she was not available to monitor his homework and school attendance.

"Pam had a better schedule for him," she said.

"I feel like I'm still his coach," Larson said. "I try to point out to him where he has his strengths and where he needs to work to achieve his goals."

The Larsons have taken on more than the responsibility of a room and board. They have supported Davis as if he was their own child, covering virtually all of his expenses.

"We earn a generous income that we are happy to share," Larson said. "His mom shares as she is able to. Cedric is covered under her health insurance."

"Pam deserves all the credit in the world for taking in an adolescent," said Maria Tokic, who serves double duty as Davis's former English teacher and mentor. "His life was unstable, but he has steadily improved academically and socially once he was in a stable environment," she said.

"Cedric's mom did a good job raising him," Larson said. "I could tell, because at 9 years old he was very articulate and polite. He is more fun for us than he is responsibility."

Soon after Davis moved in with Pam, he was ready to come out, or share his sexual orientation, with his brother, T.J.

"I decided to come out to one of the biggest loudmouths that I know," Davis laughed. "I knew that I had to tell my mom soon. I didn't want her to find out through my brother, because she would see it as a major betrayal."

Davis called his mother at work, and he shared the news.

"I wasn't expecting it at all," his mother said. "I was in a state of shock."

Davis thought that his mother was a little uncomfortable, but as he had hoped, she has come to accept that aspect of Davis as well.

"I support him," she said. "He's my son, and I'm going to love him for as long as I live. I accept him for who he is, no matter what."

Once Davis came out to his family, the next step was to come out to his friends. A school assembly introducing students to the Gay-Straight Student Alliance (GSA) came right on time.

"I went to a meeting, and asked about how I could help gays and lesbians feel more comfortable and accepted," Davis said. "I wanted to see if it was okay to come out to this group of people."

Once Davis identified the GSA as a safe group, he became progressively more comfortable intermingling with straight students who knew he was gay.

"When he involved himself in the GSA, it was clear that he was more content," Tokic said.

As a GSA member, then as its president, Davis began organizing events and workshops that promoted equality and acceptance, and that discouraged harassment and the perpetuation of stereotypes.

Davis is part of a group of students that hosts a diversity workshop for tenth grade students. The three-hour presentation, which lasts for two class periods, educates students about diversity and makes them aware of how comments that they think are innocent can be prejudiced and insensitive.

"The idea is to get the words out and process them," Davis said. "We hope that students will think more before they insult or harass someone."

Davis was also a student organizer for the Gay-Lesbian-Straight Education Network, and he traveled to California for a training conference. The training prepared him to lead workshops, to use improvisation theater as a tool to discuss harassment, and to maximize time with the GSA.

The annual Day of Silence is a campaign hosted by the United States Student Association to recognize the silence that gay and bisexual students have to overcome, because their sexual orientation is not accepted. Cedric helped organize students to unite in silence.

"We are silent for the whole day," Davis said. "The teachers are pretty understanding."

Davis has volunteered with the Takoma Park Folk Festival for the past five years, and he traveled to Chile for one month with a non-profit organization called Hogar de Cristo, or "Place of Christ," to renovate and paint homes.

Davis also danced with the Liz Lerman Teen Exchange for two years. During this time he choreographed and performed an expressive dance that he called "Am I Man Enough?"

"I was tired of people saying that you have to be this and that to be man enough," Davis said.