“…And Then there is the Down Low”: Introduction to Black and Latino Male Bisexualities

“…And Then there is the Down Low”: Introduction to Black and Latino Male Bisexualities

Although a current expansion of media has drawn awareness of “the brand brand new Down minimal event” (presumably “secretive” homosexuality among married Black males), reasonably small studies have explored bisexual behavior and identification among cultural minority guys in the usa or elsewhere. Even though the research of bisexuality in Ebony and Latino males is significant in its right that is own prices of HIV/AIDS among these guys result in the current dearth of systematic information more urgent and concerning. In this unique area, we now have put together a diverse selection of empirical and theoretical views on Ebony and Latino male bisexualities. an extensive variety of information regarding the person, social, and intimate life of those males, and possible relations to risk behavior, are presented. This informative article presents this body that is new of while offering ideas for future research instructions for culturally appropriate interventions for Black and Latino bisexual males.

Introduction

On April 16, 2004, an episode that is new of Oprah Winfrey Show, “A Secret World of Intercourse: Living in the ‘Down Low’”, had been broadcast on tv displays all over the world. A trailer for the episode warned people, “It’s a shocker. It is called regarding the ‘Down Low’. Guys with wives and girlfriends sex that is secretly having other males. One guy blows the lid off this sexual” that is undergroundoprah.com, 2008). Presenting the episode, Oprah claimed “J. L. King had been a joyfully hitched dad of two but had been maintaining a dark free live models secret…living on the ‘down low’ apparently residing a ‘straight’ lifestyle by having a spouse and family, but secretly sleeping with guys” (oprah.com, 2008). Through the length of 60 minutes, unique visitor King, a self-declared “HIV avoidance activist, educator, and author” (along with a “new man”) bore witness to his or her own 25-year connection with current on the “Down Low” as a “secretly” bi-sexual black colored man: “The desire overrode every thing we knew,” King recalled. “It created this entire life that is secret made me compensate stories and attempt to cover-up my songs. It had been a life that destroyed my household” (oprah.com, 2008).

King ended up being scarcely the first ever to “blow the lid off” the existence of this evidently extensive bisexuality among Ebony guys. On August 3, 2003, the brand new York circumstances Magazine preceded Oprah by having a considerable report about that which was called “an organized, underground subculture mainly composed of Black males whom otherwise live straight lives” (Denizet-Lewis, 2003). Even almost a decade earlier in the day, writer E. Lynn Harris had written bestselling novels, including “Invisible Life,” “Just when I Am,” and “Abide with Me,” explaining the sensation of Ebony male bisexuality (Frieden, 2002).

Few may have expected, but, the effect a solitary bout of oprah may have on intimate tradition in america and past.

Much like Ebony guys, because the advent of HIV/AIDS, the analysis of Latino male bisexuality in the usa was highly for this emergence associated with epidemic. Some scientists attemptedto transpose brand brand new labels onto Latino bisexual males in the usa with small theoretical foundation. For instance, Fox (1996) proposed a separate and distinct typology of “Latin bisexuality,” thought as “male people who use the role that is insertive anal or oral intercourse with another guy, and consider themselves heterosexual” (p. 36). This typology reflects a representation that is stereotypical of intimate habits and will not take into account any of the complexities of Latino male bisexuality and prospective relationships between ethnicity and sex. Nevertheless, research on homosexually- and bisexually-active Latino males has suggested that familiar Anglo-American types of intimate orientation are culturally certain and that their imposition on Latinos is problematic

It really is of these reasons that individuals have actually tried to critically re-examine Ebony and Latino male bisexuality in this unique area of Archives of Sexual Behavior. We’ve wanted to play a role in a brand new knowledge base, not merely concentrating on the “new Down minimal event,” but on bisexuality among cultural minority males as a whole. While bisexuality it self happens to be offered scant attention within the systematic literary works, Ebony and Latino male bisexuality deserves unique attention. The Down that is recent Low has elicited numerous concerns. Knowledge on cultural minority male bisexuality is mainly anecdotal. While urban myths are distributing, possibly with greater speed and voracity than HIV along with other sexually transmitted infections, a clinical knowledge of cultural minority male bisexuality has lagged. In this section that is special we now have offered unique attention from general general public health insurance and theoretical views.

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