Watch out for the man on the ‘Down Low’ there might be one near you! This warning was the last phrase from an article in a well known women’s lifestyle magazine. The writer was referring to a so called ‘new’ phenomenon in the United States of men being ‘on the down low.’

This term has appeared in the last fifteen years and there are more than a handful of books and articles about it. Even health professionals are now interested in these men! So what is it about men on the ‘Down Low’ that we should all be careful about? Dr. Cheikh Traore guides us through the maze of it.

First of all the term ‘Down Low’ seems to refer only to black men. Secondly, the ‘DL’ phenomenon is about black men who are sexually attracted to other men, and this is still a hugely controversial subject in certain communities. Another interesting observation is that the term ‘DL’ is used by ‘DL’ men themselves in classified sections of the US press, or online right here in the United Kingdom. The real question is why don’t these men call themselves ‘gay’ or ‘bisexual’? I asked Simon Nelson, a former UK health development worker with black gay men at The Terrence Higgins Trust. He feels, along with others in the sexual health sector, that the term ‘DL’ has not fully appeared yet in the UK’s popular vocabulary. So are the warnings in the women’s lifestyle magazines premature?

Maybe not. What is called ‘DL’ in the United States has always been with us and will probably always be with us. According to Simon Nelson, many men who are sexually attracted to other men in the black community will always choose to operate under cover out of fear of ridicule, attack or worse. They will do so not only because it is a safe option – but many of these men actually feel under pressure to have children and families, or may even want to become responsible fathers or be seen as fully deserving and contributing members of the community unlike their ‘gay’ counterparts.

So are UK black men who are sexually attracted to men rejecting terminologies and identities such as gay or bisexual? Again, according to many sexual health workers, the answer is a resounding, yes. Obviously this poses huge challenges for sexual health promotion which is used to targeting men who have sex with men through a network of bars, clubs and publications known loosely as ‘the gay scene.’ So how do you reach people who you call ’gay’ when they reject that term, and any lifestyle associated with it, in favour of a ‘black’ identity that may or may not be ostensibly ‘macho heterosexual’ and hiding in a closet near you?

Understanding this dilemma and the problems it poses for sexual health promotion to all sexually active men and women is not easy. To explain what’s happening, perhaps we need to look at how various sections of the black community define these issues. Part of the problem is that there is hardly any research on the sexual behaviour of black people in Britain. You can find all manner of social research on poverty, class, race, gender and even sexuality, but research on sexuality and ethnic minorities in the UK is very poor indeed.

We all know how difficult it can be to raise issues of sexual behaviour amongst black communities in Britain or elsewhere for that matter. Uganda is considering a law that would make being gay punishable by prison, or even death. An irrational fear or hatred of same–sex relationships in countries like Malawi does not stop men from having sex with other men. As a form of social control, like ridicule, homophobia only drives men into hiding who they are and what they do sexually with men and/or women. It is very interesting to note that all of the main musicians associated with anti-chi-chi-man lyrics (homophobic) have been criticised or ridiculed by the community for being gay early on in their careers. Now musician Buju Banton is looking at a lengthy jail sentence on drug charges in Florida. I wonder how that will go down with the prison inmates, if he’s convicted?

The problem with having to hide your sexual desires in a hostile environment is that it usually leaves you totally uninformed about the dangers of unsafe sexual practices as well as having you running around trying to prove by any means necessary, and to anyone who will listen, that you are really not who you truly are. Performed in paranoid privacy, shrouded in secrecy and guilt or not, unsafe sexual practices have the same detrimental effect on the long-term well-being of the entire community whether practiced heterosexually or otherwise.

Without realising the obvious links between the denial of sexual freedom and openness with the current rise in sexually transmitted diseases, many opinion leaders wrongly believe that discussing ‘gay issues’ is a complete waste of time. They seem to think that homosexual men and women are some identifiable mass out there unconnected to the people amongst their own family and friends. These opinion leaders will rely heavily on religion, the bible or the qu’ran to dismiss the subject or anything related to it.

The well-known musicians at the centre of Peter Tatchell’s campaign against homophobia in black music also rely heavily on the bible to justify their views of ‘burning’ the brothas simply because they love other men. As a race of disenfranchised people in the world, haven’t we more important things to be singing about than the killing of our own? Yet even the Anglican Church is now witnessing its own dilemmas on the subject of samegender love. During the ordination of the first openly gay Anglican bishop in New Hampshire, we heard a great many dissenting voices mostly from Caribbean and African church leaders. Just one country had a systematically different view: South Africa. Desmond Tutu and his successor, Njongonkulu Ndungane, are the only leaders who offered up support for the new bishop.

Exploring attitudes to same sex relationships in black communities is never an easy task. In Britain, perhaps the debate about the white gay activist, Peter Tatchell, and his campaign to ban the concerts of Jamaican reggae artists known to sing about ‘eliminating batty men’ and lesbians can offer up some clues.

The black press have largely reacted vigorously against this campaign and described it as racist. Similarly, the gay press is rife with citings of fascism and
homophobia, they ask, “How would the public feel if well known artists such as Madonna and Cher sang inflammatory lyrics calling for the shooting and killing of Black people or Jews?” It’s a very good point. The problem with this current debate is that the voice of black same-gender-loving men and women of Jamaican parentage is almost non-existent. Is it because they have nothing to say? Or is Peter Tatchell’s ultimate failing that he has been unable or unwilling to gain the public support of like-minded black men and women on the podium?

Amongst the ‘old-guard’ of our communities there is little doubt that many people view homosexuality as a ‘white man’s problem’ or a symptom of modern Western decadence. Most sane individuals wouldn’t dream of killing gay people. They do, however, feel affronted when ‘gay people’ try to ban musicians and music they love much more for the beat than for the lyrical content. The general view is of white gay rights activists trying to impose their white man’s ways and ‘immoral behaviour’ on our (innocent) communities. So maybe our community’s resistance to the gay rights ‘agenda’ is in fact similar to an anti-colonial struggle. Some might argue this point but there is an interesting irony that actually counteracts this view.

Homosexuality has been a punishable crime in Britain for centuries. The ‘anti-buggery’ laws, were only repealed as recently as 1967. Most former British colonies have not only kept these laws but they also enforce them. The punishment against same-sex relations is enshrined in the penal codes of almost all former countries of the British Empire. Any historical analysis of the punishment for homosexual behaviour in African, Asian or English-speaking Caribbean countries will see a clear legacy of the British Empire at play. So are our views on the subject a result of a colonised mind? Maybe not, and then again, there will be many right now who will be reaching for their bible.

With the global spread of HIV-infection and other sexually transmitted infections, can we really afford to remain Victorian about our attitudes to people’s sexual habits and talking honestly and openly about sex? The ‘DL’ phenomenon is nothing new. Black men have been disguising their sexual attraction to other men for years. What is new is a combination of the fear of AIDS and its association, a perceived homophobia within certain communities, an inability or unwillingness to connect with ‘gay culture’ and, finally, the role of the internet in letting like-minded people know that they are not alone. This is probably why the ‘DL’ phenomenon is a subject of research and interest from health professionals in the USA and UK. The fact that many women are warning each other about ‘DL’ men could also be related to this same anxiety about unprotected sex, disease and death. HIV infection rates are rising fast amongst African American women. The HIV epidemic in the UK may not be comparable to the US situation, but we do have a serious and rising problem of chlamydia and gonorrhoea right across London.

The health issues are a warning that it is high time for a (calm) debate amongst black communities on the subject of sexuality. The debate will never be constructive if our only starting point is AIDS, gay rights or racism. Maybe we need to start from the basics, and acknowledge that love, sexual attraction and desire is given to mankind whether poor or rich, gay or straight, black or white, male or female. Men on the ‘DL’ looking for other men on the ‘DL’ may just be seeking love and affection, or even if it’s just sexual gratification, who are we to legislate against consenting adults attracted to each other?

It may be a long time before we have a good and rational debate in public but in the meantime, we can all have a rational internal debate in our own minds. So…before we move off to our next money making venture, perhaps we could all stop and think for a second, “What is it that makes us sexually attracted to another human being?”

Related Reading:

1. Are Black Women Destined to be Single?
2. Issues in Black Mental Health
3. I Ain’t Yo Nigger!
4. Say My Name (Now Showing)
5. If only Gareth Thomas was a Footballer

About the Author:

StaffcloseAuthor: Staff Name: Jack Dee
Site:
About: See Authors Posts (31)