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Cynthia Tucker: Blacks flee gays, can't flee AIDS
Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 3.14.04 | Cynthia Tucker

Posted on 03/13/2004 7:23:35 PM PST by mhking

Black America's casual homophobia hardly speaks well for a people who have experienced so much discrimination themselves. But this bit of knee-jerk bigotry is no longer a mere social failing. It is now also a killer, keeping black gays in the closet and contributing to the rise of HIV.

From the black church to the barbershop, a gay-bashing ethos is so prevalent that black men who have sex with other men refuse to admit that they're gay. Indeed, according to Dr. Helene Gayle, one of the nation's top African-American experts on AIDS, some black parents prefer to falsely accuse their HIV-infected sons of drug abuse rather than admit that the son is gay.

Just last week, a black Atlanta radio talk show host, Coz Carson, was on the air denouncing the push for gay marriage, claiming that support for same-sex unions promotes the increase in HIV among black men -- as if homosexuality, not HIV, were contagious. Carson has it backward. It is homophobia, such as that which he so proudly displayed, that promotes the spread of HIV.

Given the hostility they face, black gays and lesbians are less likely than whites to come out of the closet, to form support groups or to seek counseling about safe sex. Can it be any wonder, then, that black Americans -- men and women -- constitute a disproportionate share of HIV and AIDS cases?

While black Americans account for only about 12 percent of the population, they account for about 54 percent of all new HIV infections. And black women are 23 times more likely to have AIDS than white women. Just a few years ago, researchers discovered a primary reason for that alarming statistic: black men who engage in homosexual activity secretly -- or "on the down low" -- while continuing to sleep with their wives or girlfriends, who are then vulnerable to infection.

Now comes news that risky sexual activity -- usually homosexual encounters on the down low -- have brought about a high rate of HIV infection in black male college students in North Carolina. And there is no reason to believe those statistics represent some anomaly limited to that state. If the same test were used in Georgia, a similar rate of infection could well appear among Atlanta's black college men.

Atlanta has a well-developed network of down low clubs and organizations, according to writer Benoit Denizet-Lewis, who profiled that milieu in several cities last year for The New York Times. "For young black men, Atlanta is the hub of the South, a city with unlimited possibilities, including a place in its vibrant DL scene," Denizet-Lewis wrote, describing "clubs, Web sites, Internet chat rooms, private parties and special nights at clubs" -- all of which are designed to allow closeted gay black men to meet each other. He also describes several of the young black men he met, including 31-year-old Rakeem:

" 'We know there are black gay rappers, black gay athletes, but they're all on the DL,' Rakeem says. 'If you're white, you can come out as any openly gay skier or actor or whatever. It might hurt you some, but it's not like if you're black and gay, because then it's like you've let down the whole black community, black women, black history, black pride.' "

Dr. Walter Massey, president of Atlanta's all-male, historically black Morehouse College, says he has encountered young men struggling with their sexual identities as they try to fit traditional roles. "Above all, black men are taught and raised to be . . . men, to raise families, to be fathers . . . be a leader in his community and in his home. Any black male who is seen not to fit that kind of role probably suffers a lot of identity problems," he said.

After an incident in 2002 in which a Morehouse student assaulted another for allegedly looking at him too long in a communal shower, Morehouse started reaching out to its openly gay students, as well as teaching tolerance to its larger student body, Massey said. But the school still struggles to develop programs for "that other group of students" who have sex with men but don't wish to be called gay. "This is a new area for us," he said.

But no support group or safe-sex counseling would do those young men as much good as broad acceptance of homosexuality. If black America doesn't let go its bigotry, it may end up sacrificing what W.E.B. DuBois called its talented tenth.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aids; homosexualagenda; prisoners; riskybehavior
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1 posted on 03/13/2004 7:23:35 PM PST by mhking
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To: rdb3; Khepera; elwoodp; MAKnight; condolinda; mafree; Trueblackman; FRlurker; Teacher317; ...
Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

2 posted on 03/13/2004 7:24:16 PM PST by mhking
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To: mhking
Cynthia Tucker: Blacks flee gays, can't flee AIDS

Cynthia you nitwit of course they can! It's real simple. Don't used drugs. Don't sleep around.

Works 99.99999999998% of the time.

3 posted on 03/13/2004 7:27:46 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Proudly out of step with the majority since 1973)
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To: mhking
It is homophobia, such as that which he so proudly displayed, that promotes the spread of HIV.

And I thought all along it was unprotected anal sex...silly me. Didn't realize a way of thinking could give someone a disease...

4 posted on 03/13/2004 7:39:19 PM PST by ECM
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To: mhking
It is homophobia, such as that which he so proudly displayed, that promotes the spread of HIV.

And I thought all along it was unprotected anal sex...silly me. Didn't realize a way of thinking could give someone a disease...

5 posted on 03/13/2004 7:39:26 PM PST by ECM
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To: mhking
While black Americans account for only about 12 percent of the population, they account for about 54 percent of all new HIV infections.

Okay, but how many of those infections are related to homosexuality. I was aware that the HIV infection rate was higher in black america, but had always assumed it was because of poverty (can't afford condoms or something) and because a higher ratio of blacks live in cities. (isn't free love more common in cities? sorry, just small town prejudice, probably, but that's what I've heard)

6 posted on 03/13/2004 7:42:32 PM PST by sociotard (I am the one true Sociotard)
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To: mhking
"Above all, black men are taught and raised to be . . . men, to raise families, to be fathers . . . be a leader in his community and in his home. Any black male who is seen not to fit that kind of role probably suffers a lot of identity problems,"

Yeah, right. I guess that's the reason there are so few single mothers in the 'hood.

7 posted on 03/13/2004 7:51:12 PM PST by elmer fudd
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To: sociotard
There is a hidden habit of some black men to sleep with other men "on the down-low." They do not tell anyone about it because they did not see the need for anyone to know or see themselves as homosexual. They spread HIV to unknowing wives, girlfriends and their babies.

The author of this article is dumb to believe that anything would change if blacks were more accepting of the homosexual lifestyle.
8 posted on 03/13/2004 7:56:27 PM PST by Baby Bear
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To: mhking
The problem here is caused by the breakdown of the black family as originally caused by slavery and segregation. The government is not going to solve the out of wedlock birth rate and so on for black people. If anything, the government makes that problem worse.
9 posted on 03/13/2004 8:07:47 PM PST by rogueleader
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To: mhking
Acceptance of homosexuality won't cure aids, fact.
10 posted on 03/13/2004 8:11:41 PM PST by Trillian
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
"Cynthia you nitwit of course they can! It's real simple. Don't used drugs. Don't sleep around."

Need to be a bit more precise about how sleeping around is dangerous ... unprotected acts of sodomy with someone with AIDS gives you AIDS and will kill you. Dangers of heterosexual spread of AIDs were greatly inflated due to Political Correctness pressure to not get this labelled the 'gay disease'.

Indeed, Cynthia is a nitwit.



11 posted on 03/13/2004 8:22:22 PM PST by WOSG (http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com - Disturb, manipulate, demonstrate for the right thing)
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To: ECM
How can you ever hope to be a tolerant Liberal with such rigid fact-based logical thinking? tsk tsk.

If the facts make people feel bad, change the facts.

12 posted on 03/13/2004 8:24:12 PM PST by WOSG (http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com - Disturb, manipulate, demonstrate for the right thing)
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To: All
So Ms. Tucker is scolding African-Americans for not showing greater acceptance of gays. According to her logic, African-Americans must pay gay reparations.
13 posted on 03/13/2004 8:24:50 PM PST by Kuksool
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To: mhking
Anything written by Cynthia Tucker should be posted under humor.

Comedian Chris Tucker could write a better article than her.

14 posted on 03/13/2004 8:26:08 PM PST by ServesURight (FReecerely Yours,)
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To: Kuksool
Heh
15 posted on 03/13/2004 8:26:31 PM PST by Trillian
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To: Baby Bear
The author of this article is dumb to believe that anything would change if blacks were more accepting of the homosexual lifestyle.

This is Cynthia Tucker we're talking about here...
16 posted on 03/13/2004 8:29:07 PM PST by kenth
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To: mhking
If black America doesn't let go its bigotry, it may end up sacrificing what W.E.B. DuBois called its talented tenth.

Um, what the H was W.E.B. implying there?

17 posted on 03/13/2004 8:30:40 PM PST by hellinahandcart
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To: Trillian
Acceptance of homosexuality won't cure aids, fact.

You don't get it.

It's not acceptance of homosexuality as OK, it is acceptance that homosexuality exists, and in fact is fairly widespread among black males. And that they need to take measures to protect themselves and women in the black community who have no idea their men are living a double life, against the spread of AIDS.

18 posted on 03/13/2004 8:30:44 PM PST by Jorge
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To: rogueleader
breakdown of the black family as originally caused by slavery and segregation

The black family actually survived slavery and segregation fairly well. It was when the welfare state came and replaced the responsibility of the families (especially the fathers) to support and raise the kids with the government that everything fell apart. Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams have written extensively on this. The blame goes to FDR, LBJ and the poverty pimps running the modern civil rights movement.

19 posted on 03/13/2004 8:34:01 PM PST by JohnBovenmyer (I)
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To: WOSG
I try so hard sometimes, but I can never get it right...*sob*.

/sarcasm ;)
20 posted on 03/13/2004 8:45:37 PM PST by ECM
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