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Health & Fitness

A Midtown Minute with Dwight Eubanks

Purple Door Salon owner and former Real Housewives of Atlanta' star Dwight Eubanks on coming out, gay bullying, homeless youth and more.

On Wednesday, I caught up with Dwight Eubanks, owner of the Purple Door Salon on Edgewood Avenue and former star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Eubanks was at for CNN Dialogues: LGBT.

"I thought it was very informative, and I'm very pleased that I came out," he said.

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On Midtown's LGBT community:

"We need support for these types of things [CNN Dialogues], not just in our community, but in all communities for us to move forward. We have to have dialogue and conversation because we are so segregated. We're still very divided. We have a lot of work to do."

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On gay bullying and homeless youth in Georgia:

"Bullying happens at home, in our community and at school. We have alarming numbers of gay homeless youth here in Georgia, and it happens at age 13. How do we have such a large gay population and no outreach center in Georgia? Hopefully we will see some changes very soon to address those issues."

On coming out:

"For the black community, coming out is hard. It is very different for black Americans to be out because we are not comfortable with our sexuality. We don't want to talk about it in church, in school, and we most definitely don't talk about it at home. We learn about our sexuality out on the street."

On HIV & AIDS:

"A new generation of parents have to become comfortable with sexuality and talking about it. We would not have the problems of HIV and AIDS in our community if we talked about it. We act like it doesn't exist."

On The Real Housewives of Atlanta:

"I do not miss being on that show particularly," Eubanks said when I asked if he missed being on The Real Housewives of Atlanta (he was phased out last season).

"I did not watch it last year but I do hear a lot of comments about it. It was fun and footsteps in the direction I was going in. I'm still great friends with them and love them all, but I feel that when you know better, you do better.

"Being on television was great, it had its advantages and disadvantages, but it's not over yet. There's a whole lot behind this door that America has not seen. It seems as though reality TV isn't going anywhere, but let's have some substance."

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