Over the summer, Lena Waithe made waves when she chopped off her signature locs. "I felt like I was holding onto a piece of femininity that would make the world feel comfortable with who I am," she says. Now the Emmy-winning screenwriter and actress is getting real about representation, or lack thereof, of lesbians who present as masculine.

As reported by Essence, on the latest episode of LeBron James' HBO series The Shop, Waithe speaks candidly about growing up gay in a black household.

"Masculine-presenting lesbians don’t see themselves a lot," Waithe says. "It’s just such not a part of, I think, black families’ thought process. They don’t think about it. The word doesn’t even come up until you have to say it out loud and you’re almost frustrated that you [have to]. I was frustrated that I even had to come out. I was like, 'What did y’all think this was?' But...you do."

Waithe also says she believes segregation and desegregation impacted her mother’s journey of accepting having a gay daughter.

"My mom was born in 1953, which [means]—as I always try to remind people—that she was born into a segregated America. And…we’re not that far away from that," she says. "So, for her, what it meant to be a good, black person was to not make white people uncomfortable. And, I think me being gay made her feel like, 'Oh, you gon' make white folks real uncomfortable.'"

You can check out episodes of The Shop on HBO.

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