Friday, August 12, 2011

@11:00, 08/12/11 2

.
No changes.
My understanding of this set of problems starts here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/magazine/double-lives-on-the-down-low.html
"Flex is on the East Side, and it serves a mostly black and Hispanic clientele, many of whom don't consider themselves gay."
Evidence is that gay is not a choice.
"Today, while there are black men who are openly gay, it seems that the majority of those having sex with men still lead secret lives, products of a black culture that deems masculinity and fatherhood as a black man's primary responsibility -- and homosexuality as a white man's perversion."

"While Rakeem and William proudly proclaim themselves on the Down Low, they wouldn't have been considered on the DL when men first started claiming the label in the mid-90's. Back then the culture was completely under the radar, and DL men lived ostensibly heterosexual lives (complete with wives and girlfriends) but also engaged in secret sexual relationships with men."
" A lot of DL guys aren't going to put on a condom, because that ruins the fantasy.'' It also shatters the denial -- stopping to put on a condom forces guys on the DL to acknowledge, on some level, that they're having sex with men."
" ''The reason that so many young black men aren't so cavalier about announcing their sexual orientation is because we need our families,'' he says.( Glenn Ligon, a black visual artist who is openly gay ) ''We need our families because of economic reasons, because of racism, because of a million reasons. It's the idea that black people have to stick together, and if there's the slightest possibility that coming out could disrupt that, guys won't do it.''"
"In a black world that puts a premium on hypermasculinity, men who have sex with other men are particularly sensitive to not appearing soft in any way."
"In May 1986, Sandra Singleton McDonald showed up at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, eager to begin her research into diseases affecting blacks in the South.
''Well,'' said a young research assistant there, ''then you'll want to look into AIDS.''
McDonald laughed. ''Baby, you must have misunderstood my question,'' she said in her loving, motherly voice. ''I'm talking about African-American diseases.''
"''Yes, I know,'' the man said. ''Like I said, you'll want to look into AIDS.''
McDonald did, and what she learned floored her. ''This wasn't just a gay, white man's disease like we had all been told from the beginning,''"
"But while there was a mass mobilization around AIDS in the early 80's among gay white men, there was no similar movement among black men with AIDS, black leaders, politicians, clergy or civil rights organizations."

The discussion around:
Fighting H.I.V. Among Young Black Gay Men - Room for Debate
is before the fact.  First they have to be convinced that H.I.V. is their problem too.
Homosexuality is not a choice. 
H.I.V. is primarily sexually transmitted.
Condomes can stop it.  So can pills.
Ending unprotected exposure will end its spread.  Faith will not.


 

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