Nate Knows Nada

The New York Times Magazine has this article about African American men on the “Down Low” — men who have sex with other men but who don’t identify as “gay.”

Some quotes:

• …[U]ntil recently the only popular representations of black gay
  men were what William calls ”drag queens or sissies.” Rakeem takes a
  hit from the bowl. ”We know there are black gay rappers, black gay
  athletes, but they’re all on the DL,” Rakeem says. ”If you’re white,
  you can come out as an openly gay skier or actor or whatever. It might
  hurt you some, but it’s not like if you’re black and gay, because then
  it’s like you’ve let down the whole black community, black women, black
  history, black pride. You don’t hear black people say, ‘Oh yeah, he’s
  gay, but he’s still a real man, and he still takes care of all his
  responsibilities.’ What you hear is, ‘Look at that sissy faggot.’ ”

• Later he adds: ”It’s easier for me to date guys on the DL.
  Gay guys get too clingy, and they can blow your cover. Real DL guys,
  they have something to lose, too. It’s just safer to be with someone
  who has something to lose.”
  Paging Foucault…

• ”I’m masculine,” as one 18-year-old college student from
  Providence, R.I., who is on the DL told me over the phone. ”There’s no
  way I’m gay.” I asked him what his definition of gay is. ”Gays are
  the faggots who dress, talk and act like girls. That’s not me.” That
  kind of logic infuriates many mainstream gay people. To them, life on
  the DL is an elaborately rationalized repudiation of everything the gay
  rights movement fought for — the right to live without shame and
  without fear of reprisal. It’s a step back into the dark days before
  liberation, before gay-bashing was considered a crime, before gay
  television characters were considered family entertainment and way, way
  before the current Supreme Court ruled that gay people are ”entitled
  to respect for their private lives.” Emil Wilbekin, the black and
  openly gay editor in chief of Vibe magazine, has little patience for
  men on the DL. ”To me, it’s a dangerous cop-out,” he says. ”I get
  that it’s sexy. I get that it’s hot to see some big burly hip-hop kid
  who looks straight but sleeps with guys, but the bottom line is that
  it’s dishonest. I think you have to love who you are, you have to have
  respect for yourself and others, and to me most men on the DL have none
  of those qualities. There’s nothing ‘sexy’ about getting H.I.V., or
  giving it to your male and female lovers. That’s not what being a real
  black man is about.”

• ”Mainstream gay culture has created an alternative to
  mainstream culture,” says John Peterson, a professor of psychology at
  Georgia State University who specializes in AIDS research among black
  men, ”and many whites take advantage of that. They say, ‘I will leave
  Podunk and I will go to the gay barrios of San Francisco and other
  cities, and I will go live there, be who I really am, and be part of
  the mainstream.’ Many African-Americans say, ‘I can’t go and face the
  racism I will see there, and I can’t create a functioning alternative
  society because I don’t have the resources.’ They’re stuck.” As
  Peterson, who says that the majority of black men who have sex with men
  are on the DL, boils it down, ”The choice becomes, do I want to be
  discriminated against at home for my sexuality, or do I want to move
  away and be discriminated against for my skin color?”

• Many AIDS organizations now say that frank, sexy prevention
  messages that use the masculine imagery of hip-hop culture are the only
  way to reach men on the DL. In St. Louis, for example, a $64,000
  federal grant financed a billboard campaign — depicting two muscular,
  shirtless black men embracing — aimed at raising AIDS awareness. But
  Mayor Francis Slay called the billboards inappropriate and ordered them
  taken down.

I’m not qualified in any way to talk about black culture. But two points seem relevant and dealable.

First,
there is racism within the white gay community. It shows up everywhere
from the bars to the push for marriage rights. The whole marriage/civil
union push can be read, in at least some sense, as affluent white gay
men trying to secure for themselves some of the last major legal
protections denied them. But concern for the rights and welfare of
women, racial minorities, homeless gays, and most especially
transgender issues get pushed to the side. I’ve had conversations with
people from the Human Rights Campaign (aka as the Gay Marriage
Battalion) who aren’t even sure that we should be addressing racial or
transgender issues, as those don’t really seem part of “our fight.”
Once we get some sort of civil union protection, I seriously doubt that
the “gay community” will put as much effort into these other issue.

Second,
this portends a massive public health crisis. It’s already bad, and
it’s gonna get worse. Public health often plays the stepchild of
Medicine, and our failure to do what it takes to address the epidemic
spread of AIDS in the black community (how is one of three women and
one of three MSM even close to acceptable?) will haunt and accuse us
for years to come.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, 2 August 2003 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Politicks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.