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Deconstructing Sodom and Gomorrah: A Historical Analysis of the Mythology of Black Homophobia

Poston, Lance E
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1536608616555175

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, History (Arts and Sciences).
This dissertation challenges the widespread myth that black Americans make up the most homophobic communities in the United States. After outlining the myth and illustrating that many Americans of all backgrounds had subscribed to this belief by the early 1990s, the project challenges the narrative of black homophobia by highlighting black urban neighborhoods in the first half of the twentieth century that permitted and even occasionally celebrated open displays of queerness. By the 1960s, however, the black communities that had hosted overt queerness were no longer recognizable, as the public balls, private parties, and other spaces where same-sex contacts took place were driven underground. This shift resulted from the rise of the black Civil Rights Movement, whose middle-class leadership – often comprised of ministers from the black church – rigorously promoted the respectability of the race. This politics of respectability included the demand by religious and activist leaders that all members of the black community meet the outward expectations of an upstanding, heteronormative citizen. This shift is grounded in the deep history of mainline black Christian denominations as sites of resistance against slavery and white supremacy, institutions that presumed individual respectability was prerequisite for the struggle for full citizenship. Over time, this led to publicly preaching homophobic sermons even while tolerating private queerness in the pews and choirs. This dynamic of Sexual Plausible Deniability, where queerness was tolerated as long as it went unnamed, gave rise to the so-called Down Low phenomenon—referring to black men who have sex with other men without adopting a gay identity—that gained public notoriety during the worst years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The final chapter explores the oral histories of black queer men who describe their experiences after the Civil Rights Movement, illuminating that queer expressions in black spaces continued to exist but the pre-1950s potential for open conversations about queerness was gone. This lack of community dialogue fueled the widespread perception that black communities are the most homophobic sites in the US and exacerbated the HIV crisis in particular.
Katherine Jellison (Committee Chair)
Steve Estes (Committee Member)
Brian Schoen (Committee Member)
Kevin Mattson (Committee Member)
Barry Tadlock (Committee Member)
196 p.
Gender Studies; History
queer; Bayard Rustin; Aaron Henry; sexuality; black; African American; LGBT; race; oral history; down low; sexual plausible deniability; civil rights movement; gay

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Poston, L. E. (2018). Deconstructing Sodom and Gomorrah: A Historical Analysis of the Mythology of Black Homophobia [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1536608616555175

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Poston, Lance. Deconstructing Sodom and Gomorrah: A Historical Analysis of the Mythology of Black Homophobia . 2018. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1536608616555175.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Poston, Lance. "Deconstructing Sodom and Gomorrah: A Historical Analysis of the Mythology of Black Homophobia ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1536608616555175

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.