Gee Smalls Tells All—His Journey to Success and Self-Worth

Greg “Gee” Smalls has an electric energy, even through the filter of a video conference. He joined our Zoom call with a vibrant smile and a warm greeting flavored with a hint of a Gullah Geechee accent. There’s a polish to him, evident in his flawless skin and manicured hands, but his full-sleeve tattoos and blonde beard reflect the edge in his personality. Smalls introduced himself with the ease of a person who knows exactly who he is. There’s no doubt about it—he is deeply comfortable in his skin.

Getting to that level of comfort has been a journey. Smalls was born to a white mother and a Black father in Charleston, South Carolina. As a mixed-race, light-skinned child, he often felt like the odd one out in a Southern town where most people were monoracial. There was also very little queer representation for Smalls to reference as he figured out his own sexual identity.

It was only after Smalls moved to Atlanta that he began to find his footing. The city held up a mirror to his soul and allowed him to walk more confidently in his identity as a Black man, a queer person, an entrepreneur, and a changemaker.

“In Atlanta, there were so many types of Black people … [And] there’s such a diverse Black LGBT community here. You see yourself. And I think that was really important for me along my journey,” Smalls said.

Just as the A has made its mark on Smalls, he’s leaving his fingerprints on the city as well, both as an entrepreneur and a community activist.

Along with his partner, Juan, Smalls created The Gentlemen's Foundation. It’s a nonprofit organization on a mission to “promote the holistic development of Black men in the Same Gender Loving (SGL) and LGBTQ community.” Smalls is also a restaurateur. He is the co-owner of The Breakfast Boys and Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen and Bar.

Smalls is the executive chef at Virgil’s, a restaurant that honors his history and heritage. It’s named after his father, and the menu is rich with the Gullah Geechee cuisine that Smalls grew up eating and cooking. Virgil’s three locations have not only enriched Atlanta’s soul food scene but also helped push one of the oldest Black cultures in America to the forefront.

“We have all these opportunities to teach, especially because the [Gullah Geechee] culture has been struggling for a while, from land struggles to the culture kind of dying out. But now there’s this big movement across a lot of the southeast to really preserve and bring awareness to the culture,” Smalls shared.

While Smalls is proud of the influence his foundation and restaurants have had, he’s not overly obsessed with his personal legacy. When asked what impact he hopes to leave on the world, he says he’s most focused on making sure his son inherits great values and financial security. But Smalls is confident that he’ll be remembered by others for living authentically, unapologetically, and without shame.

It’s that authenticity that led him to pen his first book, Black Enough, Man Enough: Embracing My Mixed Race and Sexual Fluidity. The memoir is a fearless exploration of Smalls’ story, from the little boy who grew up fearing that he wasn’t enough to the man who has learned to live all his truths out loud.

Few subjects are off limits in the pages of Black Enough, Man Enough. Smalls details his childhood traumas and his racial and sexual confusion. He shares the joys and struggles of marrying his high school sweetheart and navigating divorce after coming out. He’s vulnerable about his relationship with his husband and his challenges with fidelity and sexual performance. Smalls dispels the notion that the experiences that shape us—good or bad—are something to be ashamed of.

“I needed it to release me,” Smalls said about baring his soul in his book. “Aside from coming out, that was the second thing that liberated me.”

Smalls believes that his story can be a pathway to liberation for others, too. For many queer and Black people who feel uncertain and unaccepted, Smalls’ story is a beacon of hope. But he expects Black Enough, Man Enough to resonate with anyone who is trying to navigate the complexities of identity.

“Everything that I experienced, all the emotions and the trauma, the trials and tribulations, are not because I’m a biracial, sexually fluid man. It’s because I’m human. We’re all going through the same journey to self-worth and self-love at the end of the day,” Smalls said.

That is the crux of Smalls’ story and his philosophy. The goal, he asserts, isn’t to belong. It’s to be yourself, whatever that looks like, and trust that your tribe will find you.

Smalls has certainly found his tribe in the community he’s built in Atlanta and in Juan, his partner with life and business. Together, Smalls and Juan have navigated entrepreneurship, recovering from a fire that closed one of their restaurants, and running their nonprofit. Their relationship is unconventional, but it works.

“At the end of the day, if we want to talk about work at 9:30 pm because we have an idea, then we do. Because this is of love. It’s all melded together. It’s just our life, and it helps us to connect on so many levels,” Smalls noted.

Smalls’ marriage, like many parts of his life, is a reflection of his willingness to adapt and follow through. His memoir bloomed out of an exercise that was meant to inspire a relationship guide for his life coaching business. His restaurants evolved from a plan to open a Black gay dive bar. Smalls’ ventures have always been bigger than he ever imagined because he’s allowed life to lead him, and he’s followed with authenticity and purpose.

“That’s a thing I completely live by—go with the flow. You have to go with the path of least resistance,” Smalls advised. “Be in the moment, and go where you feel your real truth.”