Are Blacks More Homophobic?

By Keith Boykin, in sexuality
Wednesday, September 10 2003, 9:27AM

I get this question all the time. "Are blacks more homophobic than whites?" "No," I answer reflexively. "All the evidence suggests that blacks are no more homophobic than whites." That's what I've been saying for the past 7 years. But recent events have forced me to reconsider that answer.

Yesterday a reporter from the Village Voice called to interview me for a story about black homophobia. I quickly rattled off my standard answer to the charge that blacks might be more homophobic, but when I hung up the phone I started rethinking what I had said.

A few weeks ago I got word of a new song from rap artist DMX called "Where the Hood At?" In the song, DMX says:

Last I heard, y'all niggaz was havin sex,
with the SAME sex
I show no love, to homo thugs
Empty out, reloaded and throw more slugs
How you gonna explain fuckin a man?
Even if we squashed the beef, I ain't touchin ya hand
I don't buck with chumps, for those to been to jail
That's the cat with the Kool-Aid on his lips and pumps
I don't fuck with niggaz that think they broads

I'm told the video to the song is played on Black Entertainment Television (BET) regularly, but aside from the grumblings of black gay men, I haven't heard anyone in the mainstream black community condemn those lyrics. Instead, I read on BET.com that a group of black leaders is organizing a boycott of rapper Nelly because of his new energy drink called "Pimp Juice." So we can boycott a rapper's energy drink but remain silent when another rapper threatens to kill homosexuals?

Another incident took place a few weeks ago when R&B recording artist Jaheim appeared on New York's WQHT (Hot 97) radio. When host Jimmy Marr asked if the singer was gay, Jaheim reportedly became infuriated, asked Marr the same question and then began destroying microphones and equipment in the studio.

Is homosexuality that threatening on black radio? Apparently it is. Actor Michael K. Williams was accosted recently on Hot 97 about his role as Omar, a gay drug dealer on the HBO series "The Wire." DJ Sway, who is also an MTV personality, complained about a steamy love scene Williams had enacted with Ernest Waddell, who plays Omar�s on-screen lover Dante.

�He ambushed me with his homophobia,� Williams told The Advocate. �He said that he was personally repulsed by the scene and said it was morally outrageous. Then I got the same thing from callers in to the show. One guy who was Jamaican called me a batty boy.� Apparently it's okay to play a drug dealer but not to play a gay man.

Perhaps the antigay sentiments grow out of the backlash against increasing gay visibility in society, especially after the Supreme Court decision legalizing sodomy in June and a summer filled with gay and lesbian issues and imagery on television. Polls indicate that black support for some gay issues has declined during this time period. A poll taken in July, for example, showed that black support for gay marriage had dropped sharply from 58 percent in May to 36 percent.

A less scientific poll conducted by BET.com in August found more than half of respondents said gays should not be allowed to marry, but more than half also felt gays should be able to do whatever they want in the privacy of their own homes.

The poll numbers, while alarming, should not come as a huge surprise. Almost every major poll I've seen about these issues in the past 20 years has shown two clear, but seemingly contradictory, conclusions. First, blacks support civil rights for gays and lesbians just as much, if not more than, whites do. Second, blacks don't support gay marriage or civil unions as much as whites do.

In my first book in 1996, I wrote: "The one issue where blacks expressed more conservative views on homosexuality than the general public was the question of legalization of homosexual relations, where blacks were nearly evenly split between those who oppose legalization (49 percent) and those who favored legalization or had no opinion (51 percent).

On every other gay issue, blacks have been very supportive. The disconnect seems to reflect that blacks are politically progressive but socially conservative. Much of the social conservatism, no doubt, derives from our experience with religion.

The white right knows this, and for the past 20 years they've been busy trying to drive a wedge between blacks and progressives. Recently they've hired Walter Fauntroy as their front man in the effort to win a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Before Fauntroy, they employed Alveda King, the distant niece of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to argue that blacks and gays should not be compared.

Gays did not have to sit in the back of the bus as blacks did, Alveda King used to say. Well, not exactly. Actually, gays and lesbians did have to sit in the back of the bus too because some blacks, of course, were gay. But even if they didn't have to, King's comment misses the point. No group should have to prove that it suffers exactly the same way that blacks did to win their equal rights. It doesn't matter which group was first oppressed or most oppressed. What matters is that no group should be oppressed.

There's little reason for blacks to be threatened by gay civil rights, but it's understandable why blacks would feel that way when the gay community is most often depicted in the image of a white man, the very embodiment of the black oppressor. But white men are also paying off black religious leaders to win their support in the so-called culture wars.

Last fall, black ministers' alliances in Tacoma, Washington and Miami, Florida fought unsuccessfully against gay rights bills in those cities. Last month, an article from the black newspaper association, NNPA, explained how black churches are struggling to accept gays and lesbians without "accepting the lifestyle." The "lifestyle" word is a red herring because there is no uniform "gay lifestyle" anymore than there is a uniform "straight lifestyle."

The argument that the black church is more homophobic than the white church is based on a huge generalization. Religious leaders are conservative among whites too, but nobody would judge white homophobia based on the comments of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

Remember after September 11, Falwell blamed "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle."

As is the case in the white community, many black religious leaders are supportive of gay civil rights. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Joseph Lowery are just a few examples. The leadership of the black civil rights community has also been supportive. Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King III, Dorothy Height and NAACP president Kweisi Mfume are among the supporters.

Gays and lesbians were deeply involved in the 40th anniversary march on Washington last month. �We are here because our lesbian and gay sisters and brothers are being subjected to persecution, discrimination and violence because of their sexual orientation,� Martin Luther King III told the crowd. �Let me say this. Homophobia is nothing but fear and hatred. That has no place in the beloved community.�

Black political leaders are also supportive. The Congressional Black Caucus is the most gay supportive demographic group in the House of Representatives, according to openly gay Congressman Barney Frank.

And of course, black people are still supportive of gay civil rights in poll after poll. But if blacks are so supportive, why are blacks considered so homophobic. Why, in the words of Whitney Houston, does it hurt so bad?

Part of the answer seems to come from expectations. We expect the black community to be a place of refuge but often it's not. That shatters our expectation of support. There's also an expectation from the larger society that blacks should be progressive on every issue, so it's a big deal when a black "leader" speaks out against homosexuality.

But in the same way we don't condemn all whites for the comments of a few white leaders, we should not condemn all blacks for the comments of a few black leaders.

Recent events have convinced me that homophobia is a growing problem in the black community, but I'm not yet convinced that it's growing any faster than in the white community. Let's fight the homophobia in our community but let's not fight the truth while we do it.

Comments (61) reveal

Comments conceal

B. D
September 10 2003, 1:06PM

I personally don't feel that Blacks are more homophobic than whites. I do feel that a lot of the hip-hop music is homophobic, misogynistic, and anti-monogamy. I'm more disturbed when I go to the Houston clubs and seeing these Black and Latino homosexuals bouncing and dancing to these lyrics that insult them.

This does not excuse the white society. I personally have been discriminated by white gays as many other Blacks have.

Peace,

Keep up the work Keith!

Roger Pollard
September 10 2003, 1:29PM

Homophobia is present within every community. It is incumbent upon us all to combat it within our own communities and cultures. Is one community more homophobic than another? Does it really matter? Is someone getting first prize?

lynne
September 10 2003, 1:34PM

Hmm...
What to say? What to say? I remember, in my early twenties, going out one night with some girlfriends and looking for a club to attend. It was really late, and the only clubs open were gay spots. Well, when asked if they were gay, one of these chicks became very offended and made a comment, so the bouncer basically told her to bounce. Then the other chick says, see how can gays want to be accepted but then are not inclusive? I retorted with, the majority of clubs are not safe spaces for homosexuals...therefore this is there safe space and they are ensuring that it will continue to be a safe space. Our argument went back and forth for awhile. She just didn't get that and I still can't get her to get this, and so though we stay in contact...I've known her since high school, we don't really speak anymore.

It often reminds me of racism. It's just this deep-seated confounded ignorance. The same chick, one year I'm telling her about Pride. And she was all like, "So you're out now?" What does attending pride have to do with being out? She tells me she knows no straight women who would attend pride. I tell her I see many and their boyfriends all the time at such events. She tells me the boyfriends must be DL and dragged their girls there. I ask, "Don't you think they could be supporting friends, family, or just be really relaxed and cool about their own sexuality?" She says no, they must be into that freaky stuff.

I feel like I'm talking to a racist and this is supposed to be a progressive black thinker...but then she does have light skinned dark skinned issues too.

OK nuff ranting about my personal. Black, by and large, I think, are more vocal about it. More ready to cut someone off b/c of it. Though there is always someone in the family who is gay, that everyone speaks in hushed tones about. I know so-called lesbians who are homophobic of gay men. It's all just really intriguing. Everyone still believes that all gay men are pedophiles, and other sorts of sexual predators. Sometimes I say education will free the minds, but that's not the answer. It's not even about black in high places coming out of the closet to make it more acceptable. It's an ism in our society, a chasm. For whites to be accepting of black gays is an entirely different issue...it for some reason enables them to be less threatened by the black male. But for blacks, it's just so hard to swallow b/c minister said it just ain't right.

Keith, I don't know that things are ever going to change but I do believe that having these discussions open up the opportunities to bring about enlightenment and understanding.

Will
September 10 2003, 2:46PM

"Is one community more homophobic than another? Does it really matter?"

Hell yeah it matters! If our community is divided and filled with hate and contempt for another group within our own community because of ignorance, we as a whole will never ever be able to move forward.

A few weeks ago, I attended Sunday morning service with a buddy of mines. His church is one of the bigger more popular churches here in Washington DC. I have been there before, but have had the privilege of hearing the Bishop speak, but this particular Sunday he was out of town, and his wife, who is the co-pastor of the church spoke. Imagine my surprise when she spoke on Gays on TV. What she seen on CNN about the Gay Bishop, Boy meets Boy on Bravo and the Queer Eye on Bravo. Mannnnn, this woman was PISSED! That is the only way I can put it. At one point I didn't feel like I was in church but that I was in some bar hearing some "ghetto-fied" woman who had one too many drinks go off about homosexuals. But what really upset me the most, wasn't her babblings, but the congregation. The section I was sitting in, most of the people were "Amening" and yelling out "keep it real co-pastor". But half way through her sermon, she switched gears and spoke about no sin is bigger than another. Sin is sin, so don't think because you are straight you are better than anyone else with your drinking, drug using and so one. Oddly enough, there were no co-signing from the area I was sitting in. All the folks that were "keeping it real" when she was doing her gay bashing schtick now all of sudden have gotten deaf and dumb. At that point, I got up and left, making a mental note to send the church an email to let them know how inappropriate I thought her sermon was, because I usually go to church to be uplifted for the week, not come out pissed at my black folk.

Then I started thinking, that was a prime example of why there are so many brothas on the low or getting married knowing they are not feeling it on the heterosexual level. I mean, if there was some young brothas there that have been working things out in their head about their sexuality. Listening to not only her but all the people around them. Why would they want to come out of the closet or even just be cool with it within themselves? I mean, we were in church and it didn't seem like a place of love as in God Is Love to me.

As time goes on and I hear more and more Black folk go on and on with their ignorance on Gay issues, the phrase united we stand, divided we fall plays in my head over and over again. It makes me sad as hell.

Man, is one community more homophobic than another and does it really matter?

Hell yeah it really matters!

Kola Boof
September 10 2003, 2:56PM

Let me tell you all something....

Homophobia is most DEFINITELY more prevalent in the Black community. I don't even know how a bunch of black gay men could sit up and question it.

It seems to me that blacks in general have a heightened sense of "Social Correctness" and are harder--more judgemental--on their own for anything...whether it's you "embarrassing US" in front of white people by BEING GAY....or "embarrassing US" in front of white folks for being too black and ashy to wear such a SKIMPY bikini with such big hips and tits....or "embarrassing US" for having an abortion (as I did)...or having NAPPY HAIR and not getting a relaxer like any decent woman would.

The black community takes these things much harder...because they pride themselves on a MORAL SUPERIORITY over the whites. OH NO...we blacks don't have abortions....we blacks don't kiss our pet animals (I agree with that one)....we blacks don't eat fried chicken and watermelon in PUBLIC.....we blacks don't PRODUCE homosexuals. That's the WHITE MAN who came up with that perversion.

As I've been so hated for speaking publicly about the ancient homosexual Nilotic tribes of the Cushitic Nile Valley for years...I know all too well the LIE that homosexuality is a "disease" caused and perpetuated by WHITES and that we in Africa have never had that kind of magic. IT'S BULL. Everything under the sun that has ever been done....Africans did it first. In fact, like the people of INDIA...WE CELEBRATED HOMOSEXUALITY and had special deities and angels who were gay....our "good luck" children, the gatekeepers, were GAY....this is all, of course, BEFORE Christianity and Islam invaded authentic African culture and religion.

But remember...there was a time before our enslavement...when the darker you were, the nappier the HEAD (in fact female heads were always kept shaven, even in ancient EGYPT, to denote femininity--the women wore elaborate "religious" wigs)...and the blacker and nappier you were, the MORE desirable and "superior" you were thought to be.

OF COURSE now...we've lost our natural ways and our natural connection to NATURE. Europeans are not natural people. They came from an ice hell, so they feared the elements and they feared anyone who was "happy".

Most definitely we blacks have become Europeans in America. We've adopted their rules and beliefs, and more importantly....we COMPETE to prove that we are more MORAL they are. We try to be blonder than them...lighter than them...speak better FRENCH and play better Golf than them.

We also want to be Straighter and more MANLY...since the black man hasn't got much else these days to toot his horn about. His big THANG is his one pride and joy. And then for the black woman...there's no one to love her. She's not white, so she has FAILED us. Therefore, she hates GAYS, too, because gays represent some men she could have married instead of being alone--(the thinking goes).

Black people (straight AND gay--ie. Donnie Mclurkin) detest the STAIN of homosexuality on their much stigma-ed collective reputation. Don't kid yourselves.

Will
September 10 2003, 3:35PM

PREACH Sista Kola Boof!!!!!!

Keith Boykin
September 10 2003, 4:04PM

Kola,

I agree with almost everything you said except your first statement. The fact that blacks are homophobic does not prove that blacks are MORE homophobic than anyone else.

bryan
September 10 2003, 4:34PM

Yes blacks are more homophobic than whites and i am not exactly sure why.
I think a large part is a survival mentality. i was talking with a few black women the other day and they felt threatened by black men who were gay in the same way they felt threatened by black men who date interacially. it seems that black gay men are destroying the race by being gay and not making babies with black women. by not being masculine (many assume that gay men are not)they are not completing the tasks that men need do. in the conversation the women made black gay men equal to black men in jails. they stated that it decreases the amount of good black gay men around. as a college student i have heard this theory a lot..."your smart, attractive, but gay", as if being gay eliminates my prospect for being a good man or as a candidate of leadership in my community.
I think it is fair to assume that the white mass does not feel the need to be unified and to survie together in terms of reproduction the same way blacks do. they are not constantly forced to think about the negative aspects in their communities, and if they do think about what is negative around them it often falls on blacks as being thier fault.

Kola Boof
September 10 2003, 4:50PM

Keith,

I maintain that blacks internalize and attach more SHAME over certain things...than whites of a similar like-mind seem to.

Just as blacks take Church worship to new heights--impressing whites with their "spirituality"....I Have sat with black people, disgusted by the notion that I MYSELF might be "lesbian", which I'm not, but who can tell?.....annoyed by my support of gay rights (because I'm African--which to some Afrocentric American blacks denotes SaintHood)....and admonishing me....that we cannot afford to have gay rights or a gay movement in the Black community, because we already have enough "strikes" against us.

That's ludicrous thinking, but I have noticed that White men I've dated do not feel the need to be so vulgar and violently "homophobic" when the subject of gay people comes up....as the macho Black men I've dated.

My own lover, the father of my kids, is terribly HOMOPHOBIC and accuses me of pushing our sons to be "sissies". Which isn't true. I simply don't give a darn if they happen to be gay is all. I don't push them to be--I just don't want them to be afraid of ANYONE...racially, intellectually, spiritually or sexually. Sex is not that complicated. People and their desire to CONTROL it make it complicated.

This is why prostitution is looked down on--because MEN want to control women's bodies. That's why we have to stay virgins (for men's respect)..get married...and die without much experience as sexual beings. SO that men have control over the sexual realm. Notice how straight men bend the rules...if it's 2 women getting it on? Even preachers will cheer that action on. Because females are considered LESS valuable than men in the first place.

I personally feel that I have experienced much more vocally charged "gay hatred" from socializing with Straight Blacks. Even in the black church, I've heard the "fg" word spoken casually during sermons. I've heard people nod and "Amen" to a minister defending a black man who beat another black man at Morehouse College in the shower. "He had it coming...fg!" "Amen!"

And these were the black kids!

Maybe I'm wrong, Keith. But I really do think that our community is far MORE SEXIST than the white community (I really do)...and is more homophobic. Rap music also, for 20 years now, has referred to bw as "b&h"....Dorothy Height has gotten no support from men or women to stop it...it's been 20 years.

How do we explain the PIMP being a bigger icon than the Minister? Our whole culture's...."coolness".....comes from misogyny and Big Black Manlihood.

Our community is more SEXIST and more HOMOPHOBIC. Sorry folks. I believe that. I really, really do.

AFRICA IS EVEN WORSE. MUCH WORSE than here.

David
September 10 2003, 4:58PM

Although the black community as many see it is putatively more homophobic than the white community, my experience has taught me otherwise. Perhaps it's because I attend college in the Midwest but it does appear that white communities can also be much more homophobic than black ones.
When the president of the black student's organization was "outed" by a school publication that's notorious for its racist viewpoint, everyone stood by him. Nobody really cared as long as he was doing a fabulous job. He would even crack jokes about his sexuality at meetings and everyone would laugh in a surprisingly accepting manner. However, the campus-wide attitude towards homosexuality at this predominantly white school is not accepting, despite the college�s claims to intellectual freedom. Every time GLBT posters go up publicizing a gay-friendly event or party, they are ripped off before daybreak. GLBT meetings are held in semi-secret and some fraternities have openly anti-gay chant songs. Unsurprisingly, the past two presidents of the GLBT group are black.
I am secretary to the black student�s organization this year and a few days ago, at the executive board meeting, I mentioned my affiliation with the GLBT group. Apart from a few looks of surprise, no one batted an eyelid. Business went on as usual.
I�ll conduct one more test before I form an opinion. A black gay man is coming to campus in a couple of weeks to lecture about the importance of diversity in international business and his picture is presently plastered across campus. I�ll personally make a rough survey of those in attendance and see what communities show more support, black or white. I�ll see if this man�s skin color will propel the black community to attend his speech like they have done for other black speakers in the past and if the man�s sexuality will keep many white folks away.
While I think Kola Boof�s contribution is awesome, I do have one correction to make to her comments. There is no one single �authentic African culture and religion�, now or in the past. Africa represents a plethora of cultures and religion, often contradictory, that cannot be conveniently put into one box.

Derrick
September 10 2003, 5:12PM

I usually don't involve myself in dichotomous discourse (us vs. them) because it is at the root of so many of America's problems. However, I found this topic very interesting because I truly believe that black people are more homophobic than white people from an empirical perspective. The reason I say this is because I am in a black setting and the distance of white people is still a reality for me. I can read about Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) stating his case for the Federal Marriage Amendment and get infuriated by his blatant homophobia, but it is much different from me walking out of my front door and hearing "look at that faggot ass motherfucker." Laughs. Geers. Etc. Or me and a friend at the store being unduly atagonized by straight black men for simply being us and having a gun pulled on us. This is certaintly not a new phenomenon and I have definitely developed the skin necessary to cope. The point is, why do I HAVE to develop this skin? Hip-Hop, the music I once adored, I am now alienated from because I listen to it with a critical ear. I am not one of those gay men who say: "they are not talking about me." They are talking about me..you..us (Even COMMON, who is suppossed to be a progressive, says some of the worst things I have ever heard). With the white community, it is still about racism and it is difficult for me to involve myself with white gay organizations because they want to deal with identity politics only and I want to deal with identity politics, racism, and sexism(the root of most homophobia). I can see and hear the homophobia of the white community, but I can FEEL the homophobia in the African-American community and the later hurts worse. Will, you are right brother. It matters.

wes hurley
September 10 2003, 5:46PM

Keith, just one more good thing you forgot to list in your article -- the only presidential candidates who support full marriage rights are black. In fact both of them do.
And yeah, I do think that a lot of that attitude (the attitude I'm talking about is blacks being more homophobic) comes from people's expectations about black people. I do expect black people to be more accepting. Just as I expect gay people, Jews or feminists to be more understanding of race issues. I also think it is a rational expectation on my part. The most disguisting, evil and stupid thing in the world is people who whine about their own oppression and then show the same kind of bigotry towards other groups. Nothing is more infuriating.
Keep up your great work.

lynne
September 10 2003, 11:06PM

All I have to say is that there is too much hate in the world and not enough compassion. If being religious were truly being spiritual...then there would be love for all and there would be compassion. This does not exist.

So for the most part I am not concerned with whether white or blacks or more homophobic, I am more concerned with people's lack of right mindedness and compassion. I think a lot of self-hate, breeds judgmental viewpoints, etc. If folks did not in some way experience some form of self-hate, then they would realize that as we are matter and energy we are all connected and therefore to hate on one person is to hate on self. But this lack of love, for self, for land, for others, and the list goes on, breeds this intolerence, breeds wars, breeds...

Keith, I do not mean to say that this question is unimportant...it is very important. Yet at the same time, when there is so little love in the world...and whites and blacks are in this boat...do we wonder why there are so many acts of cruelty and so many thoughts of displeasure.

It's funny about DMX's lyrics, much like that of many jamaican dancehall artists, sometimes I wonder if the preoccupation or supposed uncomfortability isn't just a mask for someone's own insecurity. You know, like in Hamlet, "Me thinks the lady doth protest too much!"

Maurice
September 10 2003, 11:45PM

I read your article Keith. I thought about it before I jumped to comment. I returned to read some comments by others.

Maybe it is the word that we all do not like - homophobia. Negative it is. And loving one another the way we do, it is hard to ascribe negativity to our love.

But that is the best word that comes to mind and the word accurately describes what goes on in our community. Is it worse than in other ethnic communities? I don't know and frankly don't care.

I however do care that we, Black people, harbor and act out on feelings of insecurity and hatred against same gender loving men. More than care, I am deeply troubled by it. We have to do something about it.

Why isn't there a demand for a boycott of any station that plays DMX? Why isn't this a topic on Tom Joyner, Russ Pharr, Tavis Smiley and the others?

nOva
September 11 2003, 5:47AM

This is something I think about everyday, although I've never experienced any rash display of homophobia, from black people or white. But it really does feel like blacks are more homophobic. I don't want to be redundant, a lot of the earlier comments illustrate the same feeling. But I'll leave you with this one little tidbit:

I've noticed from time to time on the radio the DJ will bleep out the word "nigga" but not the word "faggot" in the same song. Is the "n" word the lesser of two evils?

Nloco
September 11 2003, 10:46AM

OK....what to say? First of all, as much as I hate artists that bash gays, they have the right to say what ever they want. If DMX hates gays, well let him. He probably wants dick and feels so bad that he has to bash it. I am sure if you go into his closet, you will find enough lesbian porn with some dick thrown in it....you get the point. I think that as an African born gay man, I can attest that homophobia is different from one culture to the other. First and for most, this country needs to get its racist mentality corrected before we even begin to deal with the gay issue differing from black to white thing.

I don't personaly feel that blacks are more homophobic. As crazy as this may sound, I believe that homophobia comes from ignorance and most people don't become homophobic from their own perspective but from collective behavior and believes...i.e. relegion, and other collective social groupings. I wish someone will do a fucking (sorry) survey on homophobia between people's educational ranking.

People are going to be people so let them, and tell DMX to come over my place since he is so interested in talking about guys fucking. I will tear his ass up right and give him somehting to realy rap about....LOL

peace out...
natan

Mario
September 11 2003, 10:58AM

Of course blacks are more homophobic than whites. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of mainline predominantly white congregations that are pro-gay today, yet very, very few of them are predominantly black. Moreover, many white clubs welcome gays and have mixed sexual orientations partying together. Not so with black clubs.

Not one of my white male heterosexual friends has a problem with my homosexuality and feel comfortable even going on double dates with me and my partner. My black male heterosexual friends seems much less comfortable with my homosexuality than my non-black friends.

Mark
September 11 2003, 11:12AM

Yes, I think blacks are GENERALLY more homophobic than any other group. Of course, there are many whites, Asians, and Latinos who are homophobic but generally blacks are the most homophobic ethnic group. Part of the reason is that blacks have the highest affiliation with conservatie, fundamentalist religion of any group. Whites are split between conservative religion and progressive, pro-gay religious groups. Moreover, blacks tend to be more unaccepting of individuality than whites. WHites tend to believe more in do your own thing than blacks. Blacks tend to have strong, narrow notions about what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman, what types of recreation we engage in, what types of food we eat, etc. Blacks still are holding on to ancient, rigid notions of gender identity, whereas whites have more flexibility and integration of gender roles. WHites and Asians are allowed much wider latitude to be distinct, adventuresome, cutting edge than most blacks. We are not the most adventuresome, daring people.
Finally, I think blacks are sadly less influenced by the thinking of the intellectual elite than whites. Whites know about and are influenced by academic thought on social issues much more than blacks. For instant, most white gays I know can cite research on sexual orientation and theological arguments about homosexuality much more than blacks. Research and polls show that people who go to college tend to be very pro-gay. Unfortunately, because we tend to go to college in much lower numbers, our community is not being as influenced by the progressive influences that other communities are experiencing. Blacks rely too much on old traditions and sentiment to justify their beliefs, instead of looking to modern science and intellectual experts for guidance.

Keith Boykin
September 11 2003, 12:18PM

I've read all the comments here but I have not yet seen any data to show that blacks are MORE homophobic than whites. Of course, blacks are homophobic, but that is not the question. The question is: Are blacks more homophobic?

Many of us have significant and valid experiences to share of homophobia we've witnessed in the black community, but that alone does not prove that homophobia is WORSE in the black community than in the white community.

On every poll question except same-sex marriage, black people support gay civil rights in percentages equal to or greater than whites do. If we're MORE homopbhobic, how do we explain that?

jazzbro
September 11 2003, 1:03PM

Homophobia has no place in any society, especially the church, and yet both continue to be infested with it. Surely this society sends mixed messages to its children. Why is a movie, TV show, a music video that features killing maiming and senseless violence, tolerated, even applauded, yet a kiss between two same-sex individuals deemed shameful or controversial? When is love, any love, more threatening and less unacceptable than death and violence? Why were there young children carrying signs outside the Harvey Milk School, using words like “fags” and “abomination”? Why are they being carefully taught to hate someone who is different? It appears America is raising yet another batch of homophobic tots.

On most any schoolyard or neighborhood block, the worse thing kids can think to call each other is “a punk faggot”—and suddenly they are ready to fight. My own nephews have used that phrase a few too many times for my comfort, and finally and I had to correct them and put them in check. My own brother is guilty of spreading this poison to his sons. It is shameful and saddens me deeply because he knows that I am homosexual. For this and other reasons we barely speak today. When my nephews are older and mature enough to handle my truth, I will tell them proudly, and let the chips fall where they may.

And yes, I do believe, for some queer reason, that Blacks are more homophobic than our white counterparts. I can tell you that I’ve experienced this first hand, as a child and a young adult, by my own people. Yet, I have never once been called out my name by a White person-- at least to my face. I think we Blacks as a whole (as was brought up here), fear and hate to be seen as anything other than shining and magnificent, tough or resilient. We despise anything and anyone that would cause us to be singled out in negative way, or embarrassed, and yet we embarrass ourselves daily with our lack of compassion, understanding and tolerance. As my dear wise Grandmother (bless her soul ) was known to say “We ain’t ready!”

As far as homophobia in hip-hop: It is to laugh. There are many entertainers who are gay and/or have had followings within the gay community. If it weren't for both, the entertainment industry would come to a grinding halt.

I’m out (in more ways than one)

jazzbro

Marcus
September 11 2003, 3:16PM

Keith,

I think we might not be able to readily find data that easily identifies that blacks are more homophobic than others. Perhaps the most likely evidence we can expect is what we get as we think about our experiences and the behaviors of our black brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, relatives and "friends", and as we�re open and honest with the persistent and virulent impact of homophobia in our communities not only on the GLBT black person but the black straight who would be open-minded.

Not only this, we should be alert to seeing if homophobia among blacks has stronger impacts on black GLBTs because of other issues in our lives like racism, fractious nature of gay black communities (a product of racism and a black brand of hyper-homophobia?).

Open-mindedness begins at home, and homosexuality is only one of many things that we blacks can be ignorant and closed-minded about.

Thanks for your articles.

Marcus

alicia banks
September 11 2003, 3:58PM

dear keith:

i love u...BUT
i still disagree vehemently

i have said for decades and will continue to say:

"i told u so my brother...blacks are indeed more homophobic than whites...EXTREMELY so"

falwell et al are rabid fools...but they are the exception among white pastors...not the norm

rabid gaybashing black pastors are the RULE

there is LITERALLY no comparison between gay bashing black reggae stars/dmx and his gangsta ilk etc and white musicians who gaybash...even eminem (enema) gaybashes as a wigga...

even in black films, one rarely sees a positive or realistic black gay character...yet wonderful white gay films abound

and i have never heard any white gaybasher tell a white gay they are not european because they have
a black gay illness etc...

YES....Y-E-S!!!!...nobody gaybashes like a dmx nigga or a church nigga etc....nobody!!!

no other race is as sexually insecure or abused as african americans either...especially phallic obsessed thugs like dmx

see much more on balck gaybashing at my site

i have many columns posted regarding black gaybashers and how they are DEFINITELY worse than any other brand of bigot

here is a quote from one of many:

"Murderous gaybashers exist and are religiously sanctioned in every human race. Yet, I remain convinced that racism and sexism combine to create a uniquely hot hatred of homosexuals within most black gaybashers globally. I have penned many columns, hosted countless talk radio shows, and engaged in heated debates with diverse friends on the subject of black gaybashers for decades. I have elaborated ad infinitum about precisely how racism and sexism combine and degenerate too many black men who regard themselves exclusively as life support systems for penises, and too many black women who regard themselves exclusively as concubines/breeders for these aforementioned black macho men.

This toxic combination of psychoses fashions turbo gaybashers in blackface, who passionately regard homosexuals as literal nullifiers of their very existences. Their twisted insecurities are expressed as fatal gaybashing/self-defense mechanisms in the paranoid and insane wars that their hatred fuels against sexual truths in general and homosexual persons in particular. Combine those toxins with the additional madness created by the oceans of blood awash upon the hands of droves of black pastors, who continue to preach lies about God and the bible to their mindless and robotic flocks. These evil and bigoted pseudo-christians truly regard gaybashing and murdering homosexuals as divine acts!!! Also, blend in the arrogant ignorance of uneducated masses who know and desire to know absolutely nothing about the universal scientific nature of homosexuality in literally every living species. All of these ancient ingredients mesh into a perfect and pervasive recipe for social poison that festers deep within the core of global black cultures and ferments into a potent emotional and psychic venom that is spewn by a diaspora of African gaybashers like legions of deadly cobras."

no justice
no reality
no peace
ab

nish
September 11 2003, 4:34PM

"Black Churches",and the lack of a "quality education" I believe is the prime source of homophobic views in the black community. i say this because I am a graduating college senior,preparing for law school, work and pay my own bills, but deemed a failure in my family and community because i am a lesbian.
I grew up in the black church, sung on the chior and participated in many activities. my first relationship was with a female in the church, and when our relationship went sour, the whole church found out and condemned me to hell.
my parents told me that they disowned me, and that they didn't want me in or around their home, not even to call my brother and sister. they stopped paying my tuition when i was a sophomore, but i have made it any way.
some blacks rely on the church to think for themselves, whether they are spiritual reasons or political. some believe everything that the pastor says. some blacks who are caught up into the church have no sense of history. these people lack knowledge, so they are uninformed about the anatomy of sexaulaity.
some of these people only know a couple scriptures, but know every sermon the pastor has preached since the year began. (well that's my family) they live on the standard that, if the pastor said it, then it must be the truth. they compare everything to the bible, and have never read another book.
i really use to have a deep christian spirituality until these series of events happened with my family and church. i became discourage about the christian religion, and began lookin at other religions. i have just resolved with loving myself and others, and believing in a supreme diety. church has turned my whole perspective around. i never ever want to go back to church.
our people need a quality education in order to learn more about life. these prejudice ways are so hateful and hurtful that alot of our young gay and lesbian youth are trying to hide in the closet to keep from being a victim of discrimination.
Blacks need to stop saying that all you need is Jesus.........cause our people are lacking knowledge. i truely believe indifference is worse than hate. as long as our people are taught these hateful biased christian beliefs, how will we ever succeed. blacks are more homophobic. especially uneducated blacks.

Kola Boof
September 11 2003, 6:34PM

Thanks Nish for pointing that out. One thing I've always noticed about the black community...is that because we're so PROTECTIVE of the BLACK reputation (and for good reason)....we often tend to not hold our own selves accountable for what LOUSY people we can be.

Seriously. We insist on claiming a Moral Superiority over the people who enslaved us. That's our #1 delusion.

And can we be honest?

1. Aren't blacks, generally, more uneducated (and I've noticed some superstition with regard to $2 bills...spilled salt and SEX amongst blacks)...generally more uneducated (by RATIO comparison) than whites?

2. Someone on this board, I think MARK, said he is an African born man. Then has he noticed that WE Black Americans (I've been here over 20 years) are generally LOUDER and more aggressive in public than Whites (and Africans back home?).

3. Can we agree, that because we are SO abused and insecure as a Race...and so sexualized because of our "animal magnatisum" status...that we tend to put more value into being RIGHTEOUS...even if being right means choosing the wrong ideals? I mean gay isn't the only Phobia target...the word "Black" in literature and language literally means EVIL and we have a phobia about black flesh and black looks, too. MORESO than whites--IMO.

4. Are white straight men more attracted to Grace Jones than Black straight men are? Hell yeah! By about 90% Why don't we analyze that and figure out why. **[Blacks are notorious protectors of "normalcy". Until WHITES ordain something as "normal"....blacks stay away from it and they react almost violently to it.]

5. Someone said that blacks hold onto ANCIENT precepts about "manhood" from AFrica. That's BULL.

Ancient African religion and society was CRAWLING with homosexuality--Priests masturbating together, the Women in the Goddess religions going off to sexual healing retreats with one another. We had gay tribes on the Nile (don't know about other areas as much). SO...I would say that Christianity and Islam being introduced (forced really) on Africa has caused this Homo-Phobic notion of manhood/womanhood to occur.

LET US NOT FORGET THE EGYPTIAN Hiru PRINCIPLE: "Man and woman are two halves of the same thought...and when combined in one body...represent the Sun".

Remember...the level of respect reserved for "she-males" in ancient North African, Indian and Persian culture? Much of our art is testament to the hieroglythia left behind.

Keith's right....we are not INATELY more homophobic. Of course not. BUT.....

we are MORE homophobic (because we are more SEXIST) than the dominant White European culture...mainly because we espouse to OUT-DO them at their own ideals.

We, as a society, are always trying to PROVE that we are equal and just as good as they are....so we take their RULES and try to follow them FAR BETTER than whites follow them themselves. If White man is macho...Black man has to be twice as macho, Pimp daddy, etc. If white man objectifies women...Black man must upstage him by bolding calling women "HO" right to their faces--and teaching his SONS to do the same--AND THIS DOES impress White men. That's why they love Hip Hop culture so much.

How can we have 70% black children in single parent homes, completely blame the women for it...have the women STILL mostly standing in loyalty black men...and NOT BE A SEXIST community?

Any community that openly CELEBRATES sexism as ours does...has got to be more HOMOPHOBIC than the white community.

Whites have no shame in going to therapy/a shrink......BLACKS, for the most part, can still be counted on to say..."black folks don't need no therapy".