A Douhle Edged
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Sword
By Marcus D. Harvey
mharvey@email.unc.edu
Mike, a black college student, makes
no bones about it. He dislikes homo
sexuals and wants nothing to do with
them. "If I found out that one of my
friends was one I would stop speaking
to them," he said. Ask Mike why he
reacts this way and he might reply that
homosexuality is abnormal or pervert
ed. His answers might become vague,
tinged with an emotional overtone of
fear and anxiety. Mike is a victim of
homophobia.
Mike is an intelligent man, yet when
pressed for a rationale behind his atti
tudes towards gays it is neither sound
nor new. Would he react the same if he
found out that one of his friends was
diabetic, or suffered from cancer?
Probably not, because he might under
stand those conditions and not feel
threatened by them, threatened by the
fear of the unknown.
Mike is not alone. An overwhelming
number of blacks suffer from homo
phobia - a fear of homosexuals.
Homophobia, as in other phobias, is
rooted in the fear of the unknown.
People generally fear something which
escapes their understanding or which
they lack sufficient information to ade
quately judge. The over-abundance of
erroneous information on homosexual
ity only serves to further confuse and
complicate the issue.
The importance of masculinity and
the role of the family appear to be the
underlying causes of homophobia in
the black community. These issues
deserve further exploration.
Masculinity, or machismo, is highly
valued in the black community as an
indication of the male sex role. In a
recent interview comedian Richard
Pryor said, "Straight black people often
have a hard time dealing with gays. All
my life I've seen that macho sh*t in the
black neighborhoods, where you try to
eliminate someone mentally, to get out
of dealing with them by saying, "Oh,
you're a faggot, you don't know from
nothing." In a recent article John Soares
wrote, "Too many believe that (the
street sissy) is the only gay role avail
able to them because it is the only one
they are fully aware of."
A large percentage of black males see
homosexuality as a threat to their mas
culinity. According to gay men, straight
males are very insecure in their mas
culinity and assume that being gay
automatically makes them less of a
man and detracts from their maleness.
On the other hand homosexuality
need not affect one's sense of masculin
ity. Sexual preference is but one charac
teristic constituting the total person.
Soares writes, "Perhaps too many reject
being gay as a real option because their
cultural screen prevents them from see
ing that 'gay' is defined by sexual pref
erences only, and not any particular
lifestyle."
It seems the very concept of what
constitutes masculinity is on very
shaky ground. Adherence to sexual
stereotyping and rigid sex roles is par
tially responsible for the fear of homo
sexuality.
The issue concerning the affect of
homosexuality on the structure of the
black family is also a concern. The fam
ily holds an important role in the com
munity.
Among members of the black com
munity there is the contention that
homosexuality is detrimental to family
life. The idea of procreation is very
important in the black family.
Black gay activist Billy Jones said,
"Many Blacks see the whole Gay move
ment as a means of destroying the
Black family. When they talk about Gay
men they see it as unmanly, weak. They
don't think of Gays as being family
people, as having children."
Within the community homosexuals
are seen as degrading. Many blacks not
only cannot see them as having chil
dren but also as providing negative role
models for black youth.
However, when one investigates
individual families a different picture
emerges. In direct contrast to the larger
community, the family is more accept
ing of family members who announce
their sexual orientation.
On an individual basis "Black fami
lies tend to be very accepting of family
members who identify themselves as
sexual minorities. They really make an
effort to try to understand them and the
love stays there," said Jones. Although
in middle-class families there is a cer
tain amount of difficulty in the accept
ance of gay family members. For the
majority of working-class black people,
gay lovers and steadies are accepted by,
or even into, the family with a lack of
flag-waving and statement making.
When confronted with homosexuali
ty in their own families blacks are far
more understanding and accepting
than on the larger scale of the commu
nity. And the homophobia subsides as
individual famihes begin to under
stand the unknown.
Whether we like it or not, right or
wrong, black homosexuality is not
going to disappear across the horizon.
As black people continue to struggle
for their basic human rights they can
not afford to ignore the basic rights of a
group within their own ranks for sexu
al preference. Divesting themselves of
the irrational fears and ignorance on
the issue of homosexuality, they will
discover there are far fewer differences
in their brothers and sisters apart from
a failure to mirror the larger communi
ty's sexual preferences.
May 2001
12