Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-17T09:46:25.069Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

ARTICULATING A POLITICS OF (MULTIPLE) IDENTITIES1

LGBT Sexuality and Inclusion in Black Community Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2010

Mignon R. Moore*
Affiliation:
Departments of Sociology and African American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
*
Mignon R. Moore, Departments of Sociology and African American Studies, UCLA, 264 Haines Hall, Box 951551, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1551. E-mail: moore@soc.ucla.edu

Abstract

This work examines the strategies Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people use in Black environments to proclaim a gay identity that is simultaneous with a Black identity. It identifies three distinctive features of LGBT protest in Black communities. Black gay2 protest takes on a particular form when individuals are also trying to maintain solidarity with the racial group despite the threat of distancing that occurs as a result of their sexual minority status. Black sexual minorities who see their self-interests as linked to those of other Blacks use cultural references to connect their struggles to historical efforts for Black equality and draw from nationalist symbols and language to frame their political work. They believe that increasing their visibility in Black spaces will promote a greater understanding of gay sexuality as an identity status that can exist alongside, rather than in competition with, race. The findings of this research have implications for larger discussions of identity, protest, and gay sexuality in intraracial contexts.

Type
State of the Art
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

This research was funded by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Center for Health Improvement of Minority Elderly/Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research, under NIH/NIA Grant P30-AG02-1684, the Joan Heller-Diane Bernard Fellowship in Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York and the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA. Darnell Hunt, Ana-Christina Ramon, Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Aisha Finch, Maylei Blackwell, and the members of the Southern California Women of Color Writing Group read and provided helpful comments on earlier drafts of this work. Three anonymous reviewers from the Du Bois Review also provided comments that helped strengthen this paper. Gary Gates provided tabulations of data from the 2007 California Health Interview Survey that are important to this work. I thank Yardenna Aaron, Jasmyne Cannick, Lisa Powell, Jeffrey King, the Here to Stay Coalition and the Black LGBT community in Los Angeles for granting me access to their lives and experiences and for supporting this research.

References

REFERENCES

Battle, Juan J. and Bennett, Natalie D. A. (2005). Striving for Place: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) People. In Hornsby, Alton Jr. (Ed.), A Companion to African American History, pp. 412445. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beemyn, Brett (1997). A Queer Capital: Race, Class, and the Changing Social Landscape of Washington's Gay Communities, 1940–1955. In Beemyn, Brett (Ed.) Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories, pp. 165182. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bérubé, Allan (2001). How Gay Stays White and What Kind of White it Stays. In Rasmussen, Birgit Brander, Nexica, Irene J., Klinenberg, Eric, and Wray, Matt (Eds.) The Making and Unmaking of Whiteness, pp. 234265. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boykin, Keith (1996). One More River to Cross: Black and Gay in America. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Cohen, Cathy (1999). The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comstock, Gary David (2001). A Whosoever Church: Welcoming Lesbians and Gay Men into African American Congregations. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.Google Scholar
Crichlow, Wesley (2004). Buller Men and Batty Bwoys: Hidden Men in Toronto and Halifax Black Communities. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Dang, Alain and Frazer, Somjen (2004). Black Same-Sex Households in the United States: A Report from the 2000 Census. New York: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute and the National Black Justice Coalition.Google Scholar
David, Steven and Knight, Bob G. (2008). Stress and Coping Among Gay Men: Age and Ethnic Differences. Psychology and Aging, 23(1): 6269.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawson, Michael C. (1994). Behind the Mule: Race, Class, and African American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, Michael C. (2009). Black and Blue: Black Identity and Black Solidarity in an Era of Conservative Thought. In Abdelal, R., Herrera, Y. M., Johnston, A. I., and McDermott, R. (Eds.), Measuring Identity: A Guide for Social Scientists, pp. 175202. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Emilio, John (1983). Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
DiMassa, Cara Mia and Garrison, Jessica (2008). Gays, Blacks Divided on Proposition 8. For Many African Americans, It's Not a Civil Rights Issue. Los Angeles Times, November 8. Available at ⟨http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/08/local/me-gayblack8⟩.Google Scholar
Egan, Patrick J. and Sherrill, Kenneth (2009). California's Proposition 8: What Happened, and What Does the Future Hold? Unpublished paper commissioned by the Eveyln and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund in San Francisco. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.Google Scholar
Gameson, Joshua (2005). The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, The Music, The Seventies in San Francisco. New York: Henry Holt & Company.Google Scholar
Garber, Eric (1989). A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem. In Duberman, M., Vicinus, M., and Chauncey, G. (Eds.), Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, pp. 318333. New York: New American Library.Google Scholar
Gates, Gary, Lau, Holning, and Spears, R. Bradley (2006). Race and Ethnicity of Same-Sex Couples in California: Data from Census 2000. Unpublished Report, The Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, UCLA School of Law. February 2006.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving (1963). Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Gonzales Ruddell-Tabisola, Ché Juan (Ed.) (2009). At the Intersection: Race, Sexuality and Gender. Washington, DC: Human Rights Campaign.Google Scholar
Grad, Shelby (2008). 70% of African Americans backed Prop. 8, exit poll finds. Los Angeles Times, California Local News on-line edition, November 5. ⟨http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2008/11/70-of-african-a.html⟩ (accessed February 13, 2009).Google Scholar
Hawkeswood, William G. (1996). One of the Children: Gay Black Men in Harlem. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herek, Gregory M. and Capitanio, John P. (1995). Black Heterosexuals' Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men in the United States. The Journal of Sex Research, 32(2): 95105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, Darnell (2010). Dreaming of Black Los Angeles. In Hunt, D. and Ramon, A. (Eds.), Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities, pp. 120. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Hunter, Marcus Anthony (2010). All the Gays are White and All the Blacks are Straight: Black Gay Men, Identity, and Community. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 7(2): 8192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Daniel M. and Campbell, Rex R. (1981). Black Migration in America; A Social Demographic History. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, E. Patrick (2008). Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South, An Oral History. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Jones, B. E. and Hill, M. J. (1996). Black Lesbians, Gay Men, and Bisexuals. In Cabaj, R. P. and Stein, T. S. (Eds.), Textbook of Homosexuality and Mental Health, pp. 549561. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, Gregory B. (2003). Black-White Differences in Attitudes toward Homosexuality and Gay Rights. Public Opinion Quarterly, 67: 5978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Los Angeles Times (2008). Overcome the Animosity. November 18. ⟨http://latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-prop8-18-2008nov18,0,2814712.story⟩ (accessed January 25, 2009).Google Scholar
McQueeney, Krista (2009). ‘We are God's Children, Y'All:’ Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Lesbian- and Gay-Affirming Congregations. Social Problems 56(1): 151173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Mignon R. (2006). Lipstick or Timberlands? Meanings of Gender Presentation in Black Lesbian Communities. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 32(1): 113139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Mignon R. (2008). Gendered Power Relations among Women: A Study of Household Decision-Making in Lesbian Stepfamilies. American Sociological Review, 73(2): 335356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Mignon R. (2010). Black and Gay in L.A.: The Relationships Black Lesbians and Gay Men have with their Racial and Religious Communities. In Hunt, D. and Ramon, A. (Eds.), Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities, pp. 188214. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, Mignon R. (Forthcoming). Invisible Families: Gay Identities, Relationships and Motherhood among Black Women. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newport, Frank (2008). Blacks as Conservative as Republicans on Some Moral Issues. Gallup, December 3. ⟨http://www.gallup.com/poll/112807/Blacks-Conservative-Republicans-Some-Moral-Issues.aspx⟩ (accessed June 6, 2010).Google Scholar
Pattillo, Mary (2007). Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Barbara (1999). Blacks and Gays: Healing the Great Divide. In Brandt, Eric (Ed.), Dangerous Liaisons: Blacks, Gays, and the Struggle for Equality, pp. 1524. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Stokes, J.P. and Peterson, J. L. (1998). Homophobia, Self-Esteem, and Risk for HIV among Black Men Who Have Sex with Men. AIDS Education & Prevention, 10: 278292.Google Scholar
Thorpe, Rochella (1996). A House Where Queers Go: African American Lesbian Nightlife in Detroit, 1940–1975. In Lewin, E (Ed.), Inventing Lesbian Cultures in America, pp. 4061. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Tolnay, Scott and Eichenlaub, Suzanne C. (2007). Inequality in the West: Racial and Ethnic Variation in Occupational Status and Returns to Education, 1940–2000. Social Science History, 31(4): 471507.Google Scholar
Vick, Karl and Surdin, Ashley (2008). Showdown: Proposition 8. Most of California's Black Voters Backed Gay Marriage Ban. Washington Post, November 7.Google Scholar
Warner, Michael (1993). Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Yoshino, Kenji (2006). Covering: The Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights. New York: Random House.Google Scholar