Black Community Attitudes Toward Homosexuality The purpose of this research is t

The stereotypes of black sexuality have informed the sexual environment of the American black culture, and go to the interplay of psychological attitudes with sexual expression. Two principal features of the contemporary mainstream culture contribute to the difficulty that black homosexual men and women may have in expressing their sexuality in the black community. The first is the residue of cultural stereotypes that attach to the sexuality of blacks, and the second is the decisive impact of AIDS on the homosexual and heterosexual black population.

Blackwell cites the prevailingly negative images of black projected by contemporary mass media, which by and large portray black males as sexual predators, as "an irresponsible unwed father measuring his masculinity by the number of children he has fathered while not caring about providing financial support for them because 'they can get welfare'; as rapists brutally assaulting white women" (Blackwell, 19

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ary identity of black homosexual males. Cochran and Mays (1991) identify several factors pointing to the need for closer research into the experience of this group, particularly the sociocultural factors surrounding the emergence of what they term a "black gay male identity," sexual behavior of black male homosexuals, the use of alcohol and intravenous drugs, and the degree to which medically at-risk groups for AIDS overlap and converge in the black male homosexual environment. The examination by Cochran and Mays cites studies that show the culturally decisive--and frequently negative--impact of racism on the sexual manifestation of the black homosexual experience. Additionally, black homosexuality is qualitatively, culturally different from that of white homosexuality. Popular writings in past years by Black gay men describe the difficulty of finding other Black gay men for potential partners, the lack of a visible Black gay community, an absence of role models, and the dearth of Black gay male social or professional organizations (Soares, 1979; Beame, 1983). While gay bars, gay baths and public places existed where White gay men gathered, some of these were off limits to Black gay men either due to actual or perceived racism wi
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Approximate Word count = 2456
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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