Meagan Anthony

Research Post 1

Stigma of Being Gay in the Black Community

The gay and black communities have a reputation for not intersecting positively. This attitude seems strange considering the state of them both within the dominant culture, as minorities. The purpose of this research post is to investigate this reputation: is it true that blacks are more conservative to the idea of homosexuality than whites, what is the root of the prejudice, if it exists, how do these two communities combine in a single individual, and how does black literature and gay literature fit together under the heading of minority literature.

Hunter, in his article "All the Gays are White and all the Blacks are Straight: Black Gay Men, Identity, and Community," discusses the polarizing identities of the black community and the LGBT community for gay black men. He shows how the values of the black community towards homosexuality and the values of the LGBT community can oppose each other, and how there is little scholarship researching the interconnectivity between the minorities, in this case, black and gay. Hunter uses the example of Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban in California, as a major example of the two communities differences, “black voters hugely favored the measure with approximately 70% voting in support of the ban,” this support led to the passing of the ban. Hunter posits three identities that branch off from the combination of these two communities, “(a) interlocking identities, (b) up–down identities, and (c) public–private identities.” The first identity is the marriage of the two communities. The individual in question does not value one community above the other, but strives to exist as both simultaneously. In the up-down identities model, the individual chooses one community to value over the other, e.g. “gay then black,” and not the other way around. Public-private identities cast race into the public realm and sexuality into the private realm, segregating their identities from each other. With this research Hunter shows that the identities of gay black men range greatly depending on how the individual chooses to align himself: black vs. gay, black and gay, “blackgay.” This scholarship sheds light on the question of how the black communities and the LGBT communities interrelate.

Kenneavy discusses in her article "Support for Homosexuals' Civil Liberties: The Influence of Familial Gender Role Attitudes Across Religious Denominations," that the reasons behind a person’s beliefs in regards to marriage and family relations are tied to her or his notions of gender roles as relegated by religion. It is the goal of the article to explore “whether attitudes toward the 'traditional' roles played by males and females within families, informed by the content of particular religious denominations' traditions, are correlated with attitudes toward the civil liberties of gays and lesbians.” Kenneavy finds that Black Protestants' views on civil liberties in general are quite liberal, but in regards to homosexuals the Black Protestant is more conservative their White counterpart: “in a recent study examining opinions regarding same-sex marriage, Sherkat, de Vries and Creek (2010) discovered declining opposition [to homosexuals] among whites, but steady opposition among blacks.” Also the more frequently a person attends services the more conservative her or his views on homosexual civil liberties, because the church continually reaffirms the idea of traditional gender roles.

      In his article, "Black-White Differences in Attitudes Toward Homosexuality and Gay Rights," Lewis recognizes the prejudice of the black community against the LGBT community and points at that prejudice as a reason for the “slowing mobilization against AIDS in the African- American community […] and as a challenge to the legitimacy of the gay rights movement.” However, Lewis finds that there is little evidence to support that this prejudice exists in a greater extent with the black community than with the white community. Lewis points toward the potential reasons for a difference in attitudes between whites and blacks in regard to homosexuality. Black men are more likely than white men to believe that their neighbors think that homosexuality is wrong. Also, the tendency to equate the black rights movement with the gay rights movement conflicts with the values held by many in the black community who do not agree with homosexuality. Lewis compares research data to analyze whether blacks and whites actually do have differing attitudes towards homosexuality: “blacks are 11 percentage points more likely than whites to condemn homosexual relations as ‘always wrong’ and 14 percentage points more likely to see them warranting ‘God’s punishment’ in the form of AIDS, but no more likely to favor criminalizing gay sex.” Lewis finds that the studies are inconsistent, as more blacks are likely to condemn gays morally, but more whites are likely to punish gays criminally.

      Bergman writes in his article, "Do We Need Gay Literature?", that gay literature is important as it is a member of the minority literature genre. Gay literature has become like women’s literature, because it is important for the voice of the minority, but the author may suffer in their reputation for being linked to minority literature. Bergman argues that gay literature is to be valued in today’s culture, because though the world is seen as more tolerant of non-heteronormative lifestyles: “antigay prejudice may be more harmful and clearly formed now than ever before.” Gay literature is necessary to humanize gay people in the eyes of the prejudiced. The gay community has come far, but Bergman believes that it is the domestic, quiet gay lifestyle that has been tolerated: “it is not the truly queer, genre-bending work that has found acceptance, but the low mimetic form of the domestic comedy and melodrama” (like Will and Grace for example). Bergman points to two downfalls for the failure of gay literature, the publishing industry as a whole and the gay marketing machine. Gay literature is necessary to challenge society and to seek truth.

Bergman, David. “Do We Need Gay Literature?” Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide 17.1 (2010): 22-26. Humanities Full Text. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.

Hunter, Marcus Anthony. “All the Gays are White and all the Blacks are Straight: Black Gay Men, Identity, and Community.” Sexuality Research & Social Policy 7.2 (2010): 81-92. SpringerLink. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. <http://libproxy.uhcl.edu:2111/content/dt2534320754457n/>.

Kenneavy, Kristin. "Support for Homosexuals' Civil Liberties: The Influence of Familial Gender Role Attitudes Across Religious Denominations." Social Forces 90.4 (2012): 1347-1375. Project MUSE. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Lewis, Gregory B. “Black-White Differences in Attitudes toward Homosexuality and Gay Rights.” The Public Opinion Quarterly 67.1 (2003): 59-78. JSTOR. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3521666>.