Gay on the dl

The Down Low itself is far from welcome in the black community, because most blacks see their men in specific ways that are incompatible with this lifestyle. Blacks constitute about thirteen percent of the U. I spoke with a number of black men on the DL to understand their mindset.

It is crazy how far a narcissit will go and how well they lie and can get everyone to believe your crazy or your the one responsible for THIER actions… I believe everyone deserves to know when a man is not only gay but a pedo…Phile….

With the exception of Oprah—who has been willing to present two strong black men in a committed relationship—most depictions are of effeminate, often cross-dressing, black men who live up to the stereotype. Down-low, sometimes shortened to DL, is an African-American slang term [1] generally used within the African-American community that typically refers to a sexual subculture of black men who usually identify as heterosexual but actively seek sexual encounters and relations with other men, practice gay cruising, and frequently don a specific hip-hop attire during these activities.

Above all, black men on the DL do not think of themselves, much less present themselves to others, as gay. But their skepticism also comes from living in a culture in which the message about HIV and safer sex has been largely directed to gay white men.

The media, which have helped build and maintain stereotypes about black men and gays, could help destroy these depictions as well. I am delighted to see more coverage of the DL in the mainstream media and hope this will save lives. Dre, or streetwise like the countless young men in way-too-baggy jeans and oversized basketball jerseys.

Instead of promoting awareness and tolerance for gays in black communities, this and similar pieces have sought to spread fear and suspicion toward people with different sexual patterns. For some people, being on the DL is the only way to get by.

They refuse to believe that men who look like rapper DMX or who play professional basketball or who live next door could be homosexual or even bisexual. This is clearly a factor in the high rate of new HIV cases in the African-American community, especially among black women.

Black Men quot on

I was like oh damn…. When told the grim statistics about HIV infection rates, more than one accused me of making this up. What's the difference between being DL and being trade? Please be careful with this one… once you figure him out it can get bad.

[2][3] They. Trade falls into two main categories: straight men who are willing to "dabble" in gay sex and "gay men who purposely or consequently present. You can be black, or you can move out. Your Name required. King draws from his personal experience to bring this hidden world to light.

King wrote the book because he wants the black community to better understand what its own anti-gay stereotypes are doing to many of its fathers, brothers, and sons. And, given the whole nature of the DL, men involved in these activities are not about to disclose them to their female partners.

A growing number of public health officials believe that men on the DL who have unprotected sex with other men pose a health risk to their girlfriends and wives. To use a condom would be to acknowledge in some way what one is actually doing.

If a man on the Down Low could settle into a community that was accepting of his lifestyle, that would be a start toward ending the secrecy of the DL. But the prevailing norms of black urban culture have made it incredibly difficult for a black man to come out of the closet and build a relationship with another man, and entrenched attitudes in the community make it hard to imagine this situation improving any time soon.

Here’s everything you need to know about DL’s meaning in slang.