In 1993, when the subject of admitting gays and lesbians into the military was being nationally debated, the contributions and the important legal precedent of Sargeant Perry Watkins, an African American who had successfully litigated his discharge on grounds of sexual orientation, were largely ignored by activists and the media. All too often, white gay activists reinforce this belief by projecting a white image for the gay community and by refusing to incorporate black leadership and culture. Since many blacks do not realize that their own friends and relatives may be gay, they have no reason to change their negative outlook, and they resent the gay movement's appropriation of the civil rights movement's tactics and rhetoric as an attempt to divert attention from the cause of African-American liberation. Perhaps the most crucial element in the black community's homophobia is the widespread assumption that gayness and gay men are white ("the white man's weakness" as Amiri Baraka termed it in 1970). A notable example is civil rights activist Bayard Rustin's dismissal from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in the early 1960s, due in part to concern over his homosexuality. They fear it is an embarrassment to the larger black community, which is trying to overcome white stereotyping of black crime, immorality, and sexual excess. Many African Americans who tolerate private same-sex conduct oppose public affirmation of homosexuality. Black militant politics has often had a homophobic side, a famous example being Eldridge Cleaver's attack on James Baldwin, and numerous militant cultural figures, such as rap musicians, have included antigay slurs in their work. Ironically, large numbers of black men, particularly those in prison, have same-sex contact but remain strongly antihomosexual and refuse to consider themselves gay. At the same time, the black church's music, ritual, and message of love and community have served an important nurturing role for the many gay men who retain a strong bond with their church and community.Īnother example of homophobia is the traditional disdain of homosexuals as effeminate. For instance, in 1993 black minister Eugene Lumpkin, a member of San Francisco's Human Rights Commission, referred to homosexuality as an "abomination." (He was forced to resign soon after.) The same year, conservative black ministers in Cincinnati played a crucial role in overturning a local antidiscrimination ordinance covering sexual orientation. First, the black church, as an important and historically independent institution, has had great prominence in African-American life, and its ministers and clergy have traditionally evinced a patriarchal, homophobic stance. Various explanations have been propounded for the black community's response to homosexuality. However, black gays and lesbians experienced the large increase in poverty, drug addiction, homelessness, and other ills that afflicted other blacks during the 1980s and early 1990s moreover, they have been plagued by antigay violence and by the epidemic of AIDS.Īlthough black civil rights leaders and elected officials have sometimes pushed for legal protections for gays and lesbians, homosexuality was not and is not generally accepted in the black community, which shares white society's negative attitudes toward sexual minorities. These circumstances have led to a broader range of black gay identity becoming visible and have reduced in some respects the stigma on such activity. At the same time, relatively relaxed attitudes toward sex have prevailed in contemporary society. On the one hand, the post – World War II economic boom and the gains of the civil rights movement have contributed to increased financial stability and social mobility for many black Americans.
Rather, it is a troubling and often painful story of the attempt to find an identity and build a visible community within the white and heterosexual power structures. The history of African-American gay men is far from a linear progression in status from social pariahs to more or less accepted and acceptable members of both the black and gay communities.