All the Gays are White and all the Blacks are Straight: Black Gay Men, Identity, and Community

Abstract

The research on which this study reports was informed by the following questions: Do Black gay men identify more closely with a racial identity or with a sexual identity? What experiences influence the saliency of a racial or sexual identity for Black gay men? How do Black gay men use daily interactions to inform a sense of self? Essentially, how do Black gay men negotiate stigmatized identities? Based on 50 in-depth interviews with selfidentified Black gay men, the author highlights three emergent models of identity negotiations: interlocking identities, up-down identities, and public-private identities. Identifying the strategies Black gay men use to understand both themselves and the larger Black and gay communities helps illuminate the diversity within those communities and highlights the ways in which individuals who find themselves at the intersections of racial and sexual stigma understand themselves and the larger communities to which they belong.

The shifting landscape of LGBT organizational research

“…For example, a recent study on the occupational attainment of lesbians and gay men explicitly focuses on the significance of the age at which an individual became aware of his or her nontraditional sexual orientation-a temporal dimension of identity that has no direct counterpart in race or gender (Ueno, Peña-Talamantes, & Roach, 2013). Also, recent research on black gay men documents the diverse and unique narrative strategies they employ to navigate their racial and sexual identities (Hunter, 2010). As the list of sexual orientations and gender expressions grows from gay and lesbian to LGBTQQI and beyond (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, questioning, and intersex), the distinctiveness of these sub-populations begs to be better understood.…”

From Navigation to Negotiation: An Examination of the Lived Experiences of Black Gay Male Alumni of Historically Black Colleges and Universities

“…However, examining how people talk about a phenomenon-as Hunter (2010) has illustrated in his sociological research on Black gay men, identity, and communityuncovers how people consciously think about that phenomenon; how they want to present, understand, and live that phenomenon; and how that phenomenon has been socially constructed. Therefore, discussing the experiences of Black gay men at HBCUs can uncover some of the individual and micro-level processes employed to formulate and to articulate an impression and presentation of self.…”

“…This study uses the term Black to refer to the research participants because they share similar experiences and negotiations of identity due to the shared assigned tasks related to their racial or Black existence (Hunter, 2010;Woodward, 2004).…”

Decolonizing Sex: A Multicultural and Gay Affirmative Approach to Counseling with African American and Latino Men Who Have Sex with Men

“…Separately, AAMSM often encounter a combination of religious forces, political forces, and antigay attitudes and sentiments (Hunter, 2010) from their ethnic and cultural bases. In a demonstration of how managing a MSM and African American identity can be difficult, Valera & Taylor, (2011) quoted this participant's response, I think I just suppressed it.…”