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Edited on Fri Feb-20-04 08:19 AM by Truth Hurts A Lot
One black guy I know is "homophobic" because a pedophile attacked him as a child. He ended up generalizing that type of behavior to all gays. Also, many black women perceive a "shortage" of black men in the community. This causes many women/community leaders to be irritated with men who are gay. Others choose not to support gays because of their religious backgrounds, still others resent how gays try to tie the experience of black Americans to the gay movement. So basically, its a combination of MANY different factors that causes the gay issue not to resonate in many black communities. I think among those factors, religion plays the greatest role (note that most black politicians have strong ties to the church).
There is a growing number of A.A.s that are accepting of gays, as the mystique is increasingly disappearing (i.e., more and more black people are coming out of the closet). In the past, the only people who were really out of the closet were the people who came across as being way over the top-such as overly feminine men, and overly masculine women. As more so called "normal" people come out the closet, the understanding of gays will increase further. Also, there is way more media inclusion of gays than there was in the past. You also have to keep in mind that A.A.s are also the product of the American culture--an overwhelming amount of Americans in general do not support gay marriage, etc. When the overall culture changes, then overall A.A. views should change as well.
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