Fighting the sexual beast through image

Terrence Heath (who is black and gay and married to a white man) has another great and long essay, this time about homophobia in the black community. It's hard to discuss the topic because so many blacks insist dirty laundry should not be aired in public. That's an issue faced by all minority groups because they don't want to give their majority oppressors more reasons to oppress. But, Terrence says, washing it in public is much better than wearing the dirt in public, which is what is happening now.

For a good long time, black sexuality -- especially black male sexuality -- was seen as being insatiable, like an uncontrollable animal. A white men had to hide his woman so the black man couldn't get to her. Black sex was already queer (as in not normal). At least that was the common mythology. One way to fight that was for blacks to project a squeaky clean sexuality. And that meant making sure their gays stayed deeply closeted. Alas, that attitude is still being taught and it is killing the black community through AIDS.