6 January 22 - 28, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents ▼ LGBTQ RESPECT TO YOUR MOTHERLAND DALLAS-BASED ORGANIZATION QUEER MOTHERLAND IS CREATING COMMUNITY FOR LGBTQ+ PEOPLE WITH AFRICAN HERITAGE IN NORTH TEXAS AND BEYOND. BY CHRISTINE ODWESSO Olive Okoro has always questioned every- thing. Like much of Gen Z, she was raised on the internet as a child of the Tumblr era. Similarly, like many Nigerians, she was also raised in church. Despite her religious up- bringing, her queerness was never a ques- tion for her. At the age of 8, she’d already found a home in a digital world where queerness was celebrated. To her, ho- mophobia was bizarre. For some, a journey toward self-accep- tance is wrought with a desire to adhere to social norms, but Okoro has never cared much for convention. She says her irrever- ence for the status quo might be due to her upbringing. While some families adopt a pa- triarchal structure, Okoro’s mother was the breadwinner. Being raised in a family with mostly women, and being feminine present- ing herself, meant that no one ever seemed to consider that Okoro might be queer. Regard- less, her coming out was met with curiosity. “My family is so deeply matriarchal,” Okoro says. “It’s not so ‘traditional’ that I feel constrained. When I started doing more queer stuff online and more advocacy work, my parents just told me to be safe.” Okoro’s family prioritized working to build a prosperous life. They didn’t have time to fret over who she was dating. Okoro laughs as she recalls the conversation. “They said, ‘OK, you want to date a woman. Are you gonna be rich? Are you still going to school?’” she remembers. Three years ago, in her junior year of col- lege, Okoro decided she would be rich. She’s always been a social media person; when she started making TikToks in 2022, she quickly built a following discussing anything from human rights to financial literacy. Now she has over 600k followers across all her social media accounts. Okoro has used her TikTok platform to land brand deals, book jobs and speak at con- ferences. This year, she was invited to speak at a nonprofit conference about liberation for the LGBTQ+ community. She chose to speak about queer Africans, and her months of re- search for the topic led her to create her own organization, Queer Motherland. When launching her organization, Okoro lev- eraged her social media platforms to build an in- ternational team. Queer Motherland has board members in Ghana, Houston, Chicago and Dallas. It launched last March and has amassed more than 14,000 follow- ers on Instagram. “It’s just spiraled,” Okoro says. “Bet on your- self a little bit, and you’ll be surprised.” One of her primary goals for the organi- zation is to dispel the myth that Africans can’t be queer. The organization is founded on the African philosophy of Ubuntu: “I am because we are.” “Queer Africans have always existed,” Okoro said. “There are always gonna be queer Africans, because Africa is the foun- dation of humanity.” Okoro says generalizing all Africans is a disservice to the continent’s diversity. “A lot of people think of Africa as a mono- lith,” Okoro says. “There are different coun- tries, and tribes upon tribes with different languages and different traditions.” Walking Away From Shame Z ewd Adeb, who uses they/them pro- nouns, began to reckon with their identity after moving from Ethiopia to the United States. Leaving home at 18 granted them the space to deconstruct their long-held belief system. Although they were deeply in- volved in their Lutheran church in Ethiopia, they always harbored doubts and nagging questions. In their community, queerness was publicly demonized, forcing them to swallow their questions in fear of shame. After hearing similar messaging in Ameri- can churches, Adeb walked away from the church altogether. Releasing their shame al- lowed them to embrace their identity. They initially came out as bisexual and non-binary before ultimately coming out as transgender. At the height of the Black Lives Matter Movement, Adeb learned what it meant to be Black in America and considered how their Black and queer identities intersect. Earlier this year, as a newly licensed ther- apist, Adeb was seeking resources to create mental health programs for queer Africans. Then they found Okoro’s TikTok. Now, Adeb serves on Queer Motherland’s board by organizing events and coordinating men- tal health and immigration programming. “We’re trying to create a community for people to process some of the hardships of experiencing the intersectionality of being queer and African,” Adeb says. “There’s a lot of isolation and a lot of harm people are expe- riencing today. We’re trying to find programs that could link them to immigration re- sources and provide mental health resources through different languages.” Delving deeper into queer African history helped Adeb realize that homophobia in Af- rica is not traditional; it’s a colonial construct. When Adeb was in seventh grade, former President Barack Obama visited Ethiopia. Dungeons and Dallas Dallas has rental dungeons, which means you can ball-bust on a budget with these kink-BnBs. BY ALYSSA FIELDS D on’t let all the churches fool you, the city’s fascination with kink is one of our best-kept se- crets, though it doesn’t take long before newcomers figure out their neighborhood is rife with swingers. Dallas knows how to get down. And you don’t have to wait until the annual Fetish Ball spurred by the aptly named alternative night- club The Church to get tied down to a cross; you can be bound and gagged year-round if you know where to go. We’re not here to pretend like this is breaking news. Dallas has loads of mem- bers-only swingers clubs. Most of them are equipped with the standard bowl of rubbers and a couple of mattresses, mak- ing them great for exhibitionists dipping their toes into the freak-o-sphere. But the advanced, looking for a place to play with all the toys and gadgets you could imagine, will have to find a more tailored experi- ence. Dallas’ primary dungeon, the DFW Dungeon, hosts weekly events ranging from kinky yoga to Dungeons and Dragons (DnD ... and D). But maybe you’d like to keep your sadomasochism between you and your submissive. In that case, not ev- eryone in Dallas has millions of dollars to build a custom 50 Shades of Grey-style dun- geon with a wall of whips and prods, though there are plenty who do in our fine city of fortunate freaks. For those who can’t yet soundproof a windowless room with stain-resistant floor- ing and wall-to-wall mirrors, Dallas has quite a few rentable dungeon options, and even one that comes to you, pun intended. All of these spaces are available by appoint- ment only, and typically staged out of an Airbnb, although we can’t imagine that’s why the City Council was considering when they tried to ban short-term rentals three years ago. Without further ado, here’s where you can rent a cage for the night without having to drop thousands on a sexy side- quest. Lock & Key, Alternative Bed and Breakfast Lock & Key is a rentable kink space near Downtown Dallas. The space — $100 per hour or $500 for the night — comes with a spanking bench, a leather swing, a massage table and more. The space is curated by local dominatrix Miss Sweet and guarantees pri- vacy. If you’re into suspension, the space even has a hook and provided ropes. Now that’s what we call hospitality. Dom to Your Door, Curbside Dungeon Service We live in an era of convenience. In mere hours, you can have whatever your heart de- sires delivered to you, including a dungeon. The Mobile Dungeon, a fully converted RV, will park in your driveway for two hours for $200, with additional delivery fees. It fea- tures state-of-the-art kink technologies, in- cluding a holding cell and a handcrafted, custom-built stomping table for those who enjoy a good ball-busting experience. You can even take the bus on a joyride for a city tour you’ll likely never forget. Texas Boudoir SpaHome, Naturalist Retreat Ever see an Airbnb and think, “What a strange mirrored ceiling in the bedroom?” Get a load of this rental property located in Northwest Dallas. We’re not calling it a kink den; it’s more the perfect destination for a holistic wellness stay-cation. Enjoy full- body redlight therapy in one of the home’s relaxing swings designed to deeply stretch your hip flexors. Or oil up in a nice massage after taking a dip in the indoor pool and hot tub. And don’t mind the picture of feet and the men in assless chaps on the wall. Or do, if that’s what’s speaking to you. The home, with 8-foot fences surrounding the back- yard, is around $715 a night. Vera “Velma” Hernandez Christine Odwesso Queer Motherland founder Olive Okoro at Pan-African Connection. ▼ Culture If this is your idea of a casual Tuesday look, then you’ll enjoy these kink- friendly spaces.
