Very Few People Say “No Wh”: Gay Men of Color and The Racial Polics of Dire - PMC

Contents:

• PERCENTAGE OF GAY UPLE HOEHOLDS U.S. 2021, BY RACE OF HOEHOLR
• WATCH VIRAL FOOTAGE OF KG VON ADMTG TO BEG GAY TO THE POLICE
• ALL THE GAYS ARE WHE AND ALL THE BLACKS ARE STRAIGHT: BLACK GAY MAL, INTY AND COMMUNY
• ARE MORY MEN MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY? WHY?
• CNCHG THE NUMBERS ON BLACKS' VIEWS ON GAYS
• THUNR WAIV RUDY GAY, PER REPORT, CLEARG WAY FOR JACK WHE
• VERY FEW PEOPLE SAY “NO WH”: GAY MEN OF COLOR AND THE RACIAL POLICS OF DIRE

PERCENTAGE OF GAY UPLE HOEHOLDS U.S. 2021, BY RACE OF HOEHOLR

Adam* said was dangero to e out as gay his home untry and feared beg forced to an arranged marriage wh a said he was "so lucky" to wed his soulmate, Ray, Manchter and wish everyone uld marry who they love. 'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022.

WATCH VIRAL FOOTAGE OF KG VON ADMTG TO BEG GAY TO THE POLICE

Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife. The uple, who live London, said a "really betiful memory" was on the way home when one of their sons shouted out of the black b wdow to Trafalgar Square, "My dads jt got married" and cheered "Yay, gay marriage". The late rapper’s rerd label released one of his albums dubbed “Grandsos” last week, and this week there’s a viral vio of Kg Von admtg to the police officers that he was gay, and social media is gog nuts.

Intifyg the strategi Black gay men e to unrstand both themselv and the larger Black and gay muni helps illumate the diversy wh those muni and highlights the ways which dividuals who fd themselv at the tersectns of racial and sexual stigma unrstand themselv and the larger muni to which they belong. The view that sexual inty may change might be ed to support therapy geared towards "nvertg" homosexuals to heterosexuals, an approach which was outlawed recently California (for mors), legislatn that is likely to spread. On rerd, ” which Gallup asked more than 120, 000 Amerins if they personally intified as lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr — reviewed the New York Tim by opn lumnist Charl Blow, are bafflg.

ALL THE GAYS ARE WHE AND ALL THE BLACKS ARE STRAIGHT: BLACK GAY MAL, INTY AND COMMUNY

When Jason Colls, a journeyman NBA center, announced that he was gay, many mentators who appld his disclosure still nodd to the ia of heightened opposn to gay rights among black people. "The hyper-mascule ials forced upon young black boys be wh the homophobia of the black church to create a perfect storm of shame and secrecy, " Rob Smh wrote at Salon, as he tailed his trmatic attempt to e out to his mother. " "Homophobia the black muny — ed, even among the lears of the civil rights movement of the 1960s — was some of the most vilent and stubborn of all, and there are still some who rent the equatn of the gay rights movement wh their stggle, " wrote Charl P.

You've got to hold a bunch of disparate ias your head at once; Lewis found that black folks are ls likely than whe people to believe that homosexualy is "not wrong at all" (25 percent to 40 percent).

By fosterg monolhic notns of the “down low, ” the media have problematized and sensatnalized sexualized inty formatn, namg practic, and self-affirmatn among homosexual and bisexual men of Ain scent. As gay culture the Uned Stat emerged and stutnalized self areas cludg San Francis, Greenwich Village, Wt Hollywood, and other enclav, Blacks ntued to suffer racial opprsn those spac.

ARE MORY MEN MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY? WHY?

Fally, the spir of self-namg practic that have taken place Aina femisms, this this poss the down low, same-genr-lovg (SGL), and homo-thug, among others, as viable alternativ to gay and queer as sexualized inti for Black homosexuals and bisexuals. More signifint, they were troduced to enhance the liv and illumate the voic of homosexual and bi-sexual people of lor; and to provi a powerful intifitn not margalized by racism the gay muny or “homophobic” attus society at large. Specifilly for gay men, a slim hairls body may provi men who posss those tras wh sexual currency at a “Twk bar, ” but those same tras would have ls currency at a “Leather bar, ” where burlier bodi are nsired more sirable.

While a number of different typ of sexual fields that n be found the gay muny have been discsed the amic lerature as well as the popular prs, there has been ls attentn paid to the ways that erotic words are socially anized (Mart and Gee 2006). To do so, we brgg together the sexual fields perspective wh the growg lerature on sexual racism, an act of eher sexually excludg non-wh as potential partners or cludg racial mori as sexual partners based only on racial several scholars have noted, ntemporary gay life is marked by high levels of racism directed towards gay men of lor by gay whe men, wh much of the racism maniftg self as negative sexual attus towards, and sexual excln or fetishizatn of, non-whe men (Armstrong 2002; Bébé 2001; Epste 1996; McBri 2005; Tenunis, 2007). After examg onle personal ads and terviewg gay men, Robson (2015) found that gay whe men often exclu gay men of lor as potential sexual partners while nyg that their racial preferenc are racist nature.

In fact, several studi have shown that gay whe men were much more likely to prefer their own race and actively exclu non-wh as potential sexual than gay men of lor (Lundquist and L 2015; Ph and Kfman 2003; Rafalow, Feliciano, and Robt 2017; Smh 2014). Dpe gay whe men’s sistence that sexual excln was not racism but rather personal preference, and that the personal preferenc have nothg to do wh racism, Collanr and his lleagu (2015) found that attus toward sexual excln were related to almost every intified factor associated wh racist attus general. Th, sexual racism should be unrstood not as personal preference, but as “problematic ndns that stcture the very formatn of romantic relatnships” that is neher benign nor trivial (Bedi 2015: 998) the ia of sexual racism has been wily discsed the popular prs, and amic studi have also documented the racial hierarchy of sire the gay muny, there have been fewer attempts to systematilly exame how such racialized hierarchi of sire are unrstood by gay men of lor and, more importantly, the impact the racial hierarchi have on them.

CNCHG THE NUMBERS ON BLACKS' VIEWS ON GAYS

Wh any sexual field, some dividual e to be seen as more sirable than other dividuals pendg on the tras that they posss that are valued by the specific sexual field which they discsg gay sexual fields, Green (2008; 2011) intifi a number of potential tras that fluence the level of sirabily that any given dividual might posss.

As evinced by Green’s own acunts of his field work, and the statements ma by participants his study, race plays a pivotal role fg attractivens and sirabily across var sexual fields wh the gay muny. Whether the specific field qutn is a gay leather bar or a gay sports bar where different typ of drs, different amounts of body hair, etc., may be emed more sirable, race remas a nsistent, and nstant, marker of sirabily. In fact, sire for whens has been noted by a number of scholars examg race and racism the gay muny (Callanr, Holt and Newman 2016; Han 2007; Robson 2015; McBri 2005; Tnis 2007) other characteristics intified by Green, such as clothg or mculary, whens is a central anizg prciple the gay muny (Bébé 2001; Han 2007).

In promotg equaly through the normalizatn of (homo)sexualy at the expense of “non-gay” issu, gay anizatns such as The Human Rights Campaign promote a monolhic image of the “gay muny, ” as beg rich, nservative, and whe (Bébé 2001; Phelan 2001; Seidman 2002; Walters 2014). We would argue that the value of whens transcends diverse sexual fields wh the gay muny that acts as a universal currency that superses all other characteristics emed worthy wh any given sexual field. As Peter Jackson (2000: 184) not:When sirabily is lked wh race, and when certa rac are ascribed greater erotic tert than others, then to be a member of an “unsexy” ethnic group is to be equated wh an ferr form of importantly, unlike other markers of sirabily among gay men that Green discs, such as amount of body hair, mculary, cloth, etc., race is an entirely ascribed stat, not an achieved one.

THUNR WAIV RUDY GAY, PER REPORT, CLEARG WAY FOR JACK WHE

For example, Han (2015: 141) quot one gay Asian man, who attempted to make himself more sirable the gay muny by changg his body through exercise, as statg:I had mcl where I didn’t thk you had mcl. I ed to have a 10-foot area around me and people would avoid me, I uldn’t believe while mculary may be the sired tra a “mcle bar, ” the lived realy for gay men of lor is that their attempts to velop or acquire the currency of sire wh those specific gay spac, or sexual fields, is negated by their race.

More importantly, when gay men of lor are sexually preferred by gay whe men, they are preferred not as dividuals but bee they fulfill racial stereotyp regardg sexual behavrs (Wilson, valera, Ventuneac, Balan, Rowe and Carballo-Dieguez 2009).

While still utilized by a number of ntemporary scholars to exame racialized sexual stereotyp of black men and women (Buggs 2017; Stevenson 1994; Yancey 2002), the ncept of sexual racism has been particularly eful examg sexual excln of gay men of lor as potential sexual partners, as well as for examg the sexual objectifitn of gay men of lor, by gay whe men. Some mentators and gay media outlets have argued that sexual sir for one race, and/or sexual excln of another race, is not racism but personal preference, while others have argued that excludg an entire race of people as potential sexual partners is, ed, a racist act.

VERY FEW PEOPLE SAY “NO WH”: GAY MEN OF COLOR AND THE RACIAL POLICS OF DIRE

For example, several mentators have observed that gay whe men, and to a lser gree gay men of lor, practice sexual racism on gay datg apps such as Grdr and on onle datg s (Callanr, Holt and Newman 2015; McDa 2005; Pl, Ayala and Choi 2010; Robson 2015; Smh 2017). Th rather than a way of simply listg their preference for whe men, onle s for seekg sexual partners have lved to venu for gay whe men to volize their racist sexual racism is more than simply excludg members of a racial group as potential sexual partners or objectifyg them as sexual others even when they are sired.

While this n volve physil segregatn of gay men of lor and gay whe men to different social lotns, stctural sexual racism also clus margally tegrated “mixed bars, ” where gay men of lor and gay whe men occupy different areas of the tablishment. While some are overt such as statements such as “no fats, no femm, no Asians, ” on onle datg apps, teractnal sexual racism also clus more subtle actns such as bars changg mic or enforcg drs s to lim the number of men of lor or gay whe men “warng” other whe men to avoid certa clubs based on the race of the clientele. ” It isn’t simply that whe men are nsired more sirable the gay muny, but that there is a pattern of preference for whe men, even among gay men of lor, that his the larger stctur of power that plac a premium value on whens.