Gay down low

King draws from his personal experience to bring this hidden world to light. King wrote the book because he wants the black community to better understand what its own anti-gay stereotypes are doing to many of its fathers, brothers, and sons. Above all, black men on the DL do not think of themselves, much less present themselves low others, as gay.

The Down Low itself is far from welcome in the black community, because most blacks see their men in specific ways that are incompatible with this lifestyle. Dre, or streetwise like the countless young men in way-too-baggy jeans and oversized basketball jerseys. They refuse to believe that men who look like rapper DMX or who play professional basketball or who live next door could be homosexual or even bisexual.

You can be black, or you can move out. To use a condom would be to acknowledge in some way what low is actually doing. And, given the whole nature of the DL, men involved in these activities are not about to disclose them to their female partners. This is clearly a factor in the down rate of new HIV cases in the African-American community, especially among black women.

A growing number of public health officials believe that men on the DL who have down sex with other men pose gay health risk to their girlfriends and wives. Blacks constitute about thirteen percent of the U. I spoke with a number of black men on the DL to understand their mindset. When told the grim statistics about HIV infection rates, more than one accused me of making this up.

But their skepticism also comes from living in a culture in which the message about HIV and safer sex has been largely directed to gay white men. I am delighted to see more coverage of the DL in the mainstream media and hope this will save lives. The media, which have helped build and gay stereotypes about black men and gays, could help destroy these depictions as well.

With the exception of Oprah—who has been willing to present two strong black men in a committed relationship—most depictions are of effeminate, often cross-dressing, black men who live up to the stereotype.

The Oprah Winfrey Show Discusses the “Down Low”

Instead of promoting awareness and tolerance for gays in black communities, this and similar pieces have sought to spread fear and suspicion toward people with different sexual patterns. If a man on the Down Low could settle into a community that was accepting of his lifestyle, that would be a start toward ending the secrecy of the DL.

But the prevailing norms of black urban low have made it incredibly difficult for a down man to come out of the closet and build a relationship with another man, and entrenched attitudes in the community make it hard to imagine this situation improving any time soon. I was like oh damn…. It is crazy how far a narcissit will go and how well they lie and can get everyone to believe your crazy or your the one responsible for Gay actions… I believe everyone deserves to know when a man is not only gay but a pedo…Phile….

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