Homosexuality and the Black Community: The Question of Why Blacks are Prejudice Towards Homosexuals

• In Event: 390 - Section on Race, Gender and Class Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 13. The Politics of Race, Gender, Class, and Sexuality

Abstract

This paper seeks to demonstrate the troubling relationship between African Americans and homosexuality. African Americans are a minority group that has been oppressed yet they also oppress the minority group of homosexuals. As is seen in the Proposition 8 votes in California, African Americans are the biggest supporters of banning same sex marriage. The literature reviewed in this paper indicates that African American’s resistance towards homosexuals is related to their strong religiosity. This paper will also take a look at how White Americans have perpetuated this negative sentiment as well by depicting African American males as emasculated in the past. A section of this paper is dedicated to looking at the intersectionality of being an African American lesbian in a White dominated society.

Author

• Stephanie Alvarez, Florida Atlantic University