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Visibility and representation of black and minority ethnic men (BME) within the gay community is a key issue in a new report from Public Health England.
By Patrick Cash
Challenging the invisibility of minorities within minorities and developing specific services addressing particular needs is critical. As quoted within the report: when you lay blue upon yellow, you create a completely unique colour of green.
‘The ways in which we learn about and understand ourselves are significantly shaped by the world we see around us, and as such cultural representations are incredibly important,’ says Jon Ward, currently researching visual representations of the black male body at the University of East Anglia.
‘Looking at the ways in which BME MSM (men who have sex with men) are depicted in Western culture, these lives either go unseen or are reduced to rigid stereotypes; nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the realm of pornography. Various academic studies have shown that specific BME identities are repeatedly and overwhelmingly shown in certain ways; for example, men of East Asian origin are normally represented as young, subservient bottoms, whereas black men are overtly aggressive, hyper-macho tops.’
Ward goes on to state how this reduction of the BME MSM to invisibility or a problematic stereotype can have serious implications for accessing specific health services. According to the PHE report, black MSM are 15 times more likely to be HIV positive compared to the general population and the group has significantly higher rates of suicide, self-harm and mental ill health.
One of the key issues emerging from the report was that ‘the personal testimonies of BME gay and bisexual men remain untold and would greatly assist in demystifying homosexuality within the BME community’. Using this point as a foundation block for this feature, we’ve invited four men to give their experience of both being gay and belonging to an ethnic minority in the UK.
Marc Thompson, 45, Peer Mentor Project Coordinator at Positively UK
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I was born in Brixton, so right in the heart it. I grew up in the 70s and came out in 1985. I never really had any conflict between my sexuality and my race, but I thought I was the only black, gay person because there were no images of me anywhere.
I think there was as much homophobia in the BME community as there was in white society, as there is now, and that’s what gets distorted. When I told my Dad I was gay at 21, he was angry and he was upset but his love for me overrode that. My Dad grew up not knowing any gay men in Jamaica, and came here in the 60s when homosexuality in this country was illegal. But I never grew up hearing homophobic language, it wasn’t vitriolic in my home.
We don’t all go to church. But yes, on the African continent, in parts of the Caribbean, in parts of the communities in the UK, religion does play a huge part, and sometimes it’s something for us as a BME community to hide behind. ‘It’s religion that makes us like this this’, rather than addressing the deeper issues of hyper-masculinity, sexism and misogyny.
I wanted to pick up on RuPaul’s statement about the oppressed becoming the oppressor; for a really long time I always applied that to white gay men, and issues of race and black people or black gay men. As gay men we get shat upon from a very great height and so we take that out on others. We can be sexist and racist and really offensive, because we kick back at those that are lowest or weaker than us.
There’s more crossover on the gay scene now and that’s a beautiful thing. But there are still spaces that are uniquely this or uniquely that. At Pride we call it the ‘Urban’ tent but we know what it is: black, or BME. And that’s cool, where it becomes problematic is I still know men of colour who go to gay clubs or bars and either get refused entry because they don’t look the type, or get asked at the door: ‘you know this is a gay club, yeah?’
It happens all the time, because we might dress in a baseball cap, Timbaland boots. And the question from the clubbers is: ‘Have you got drugs?’ I’d be like ‘Yeah, sure’ and take them straight to the bouncers and get them thrown out.
Visual representation has got a lot better, but some of the things we’re missing are positive representations of people of colour. Very often when the gay community talks about people of colour, it’s either the homophobic rapper or homophobia in Africa or Jamaica. The BME community are never in the conversation about gay marriage, we’re never in the conversation about equality, we’re never in the real conversation about HIV unless it’s quite negative, so that really needs to change because it says to me and to younger gay BME men: ‘you’re not really worth anything’.
‘There was a young black gay man who went on a hookup in the States, and got killed in his car by the hookup. Nobody arrested, nothing… We’ve had six black trans women killed in the past month, where’s the outrage?’
The second thing that we’re missing is positive representations of black couples and BME love. Nine times out of ten you’ll see a couple and it’s an interracial couple – I have no trouble with that, but there’s no representation. It stops us creating and forming bonds with other people and creating and solidifying a community and that’s the power. There was a book in the 80s named In The Life, which had this great quote: ‘black men loving black men is the revolutionary act’, because from day dot we’re told not to love each other.
There was a young black gay man who went on a hookup in the States, and got killed in his car by the hookup. Nobody arrested, nothing. But the young trans woman (Leelah Alcorn) who tragically committed suicide, people are writing songs and sonnets and Stephen Fry’s donating money and people are Tweeting, and that’s why we get ‘black lives matter’. We’ve had six black trans women killed in the past month, where’s the outrage?
Stonewall in 1969 was started by black and brown trans people. As a gay community we can set an example and start to learn. Check the spaces that we have, do the imagery, write these pieces, make sure that there are BME guys on websites, challenge the racial preferencing that’s happening online, have conversations about race.
Read a more in-depth ‘In Conversation With’ piece about Marc’s experiences here.
Vernal Scott, 53, Author & Activist
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I was born in London to Jamaican parents, the youngest of five children. My mother was an evangelist. She’d use her megaphone on the high street, calling passing shoppers to Christ. I was suicidal by the time I made it to 16. The only black gay role model I was aware of was a disco singer called Sylvester. Life was tough but I made it through and suicide is never the answer!
There are fewer support networks for black gay men but the support is there. The Naz Project is one such service. Not only do you have to deal with coming to terms with your sexuality, but you also have to deal with racism in both straight society and gay culture, too. You’re often seen as a human sex toy instead of a holistic person. That said, I am an out and proud gay dad, and my self-esteem is high and mighty.
Self-esteem is a huge issue for us, but for our white brothers, too. The rising HIV rates reflect this. I’m currently running a series of courses at Naz called Selfie, where the aim is to promote the self-esteem of the participants. Risky sex is more of an issue for us than chemsex, but we must pay attention to both.
‘You’re often seen as a human sex toy instead of a holistic person. That said, I am an out and proud gay dad, and my self-esteem is high and mighty.’
The UK gay scene is essentially white, in my experience. Thankfully, there are promoters like Patrick Lilley, who cater for a more diverse audience. I would like to see much more diversity in our clubs and in mags. If promoters get it right then black guys will come out.
We have a come a long way since my parents arrived in this country to messages pinned to doors saying ‘No blacks, Irish or dogs’. But the underlying issues haven’t gone away. Discrimination is alive and well, despite new equality laws.
An extract from Vernal’s book ‘God’s Other Children’:
‘I have been witness to prejudice and derogatory language such as ‘nigger’ on more than one occasion in London gay venues. This is unacceptable, or should be! One pathetically sad incident saw a black man, in spite of his vehement protest of innocence, be forcibly ejected after he was falsely accused by a white man of stealing his pack of cigarettes. The red-faced accuser later found the unopened packet on his own person. In another London bar, the staff were happily handing out jelly babies, when an over-excited Caucasian patron seized the container and loudly proclaimed ‘I want a nigger one!’ On yet another occasion, an Asian friend and I made our way into a popular bar on London’s Old Compton street and heard a Caucasian man sitting at the bar announce our arrival with ‘Oh, here come the niggers’. No action was taken by staff against any of the above vile offenders.’
Nyasha Paragon Langley, 30, writer
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I’m 30 years old and growing up gay was easy physically and, on the surface, emotionally. However, there doesn’t seem to be a visible identity for black gay males/females on the scene and in the media or in church. I grew up without any real idea of identity, coupled with the fact I already had a skewed identity having grown up in predominately white areas in London and at the boarding school I attended.
I didn’t really have anybody to talk to so I learnt to adapt to situations rather than actually deal with them. Rather than knowing who I am at 30, I seem to be questioning my sexuality and what being gay means as it doesn’t seem to mean the same to people around me as it does to me. Sometimes, I think that half the problem is people telling you who you should be rather than finding out who you are.
I think the church has a lot to answer for. This is the same religion that condoned slavery, that has pushed this agenda of hatred against MSM. I feel in the BME community it is those with a lack of understanding of what faith actually is as opposed to just blindly following the rules of regulation of religion, out of context.
‘Things like Black Pride seem odd to me. I don’t want a separate event, I want to be included in the original Gay Pride.’
Anything that doesn’t fit the bubblegum image of ‘gay’ is no longer represented on the scene. If you are not six foot, with blue eyes and cut abs you don’t exist. Date back eight or nine years and you had a wonderful mix of clubs and venues and people. Things like Black Pride seem odd to me. I don’t want a separate event, I want to be included in the original Gay Pride; having a separate one seems like it means I should also be separate.
Someone with low self-esteem will either go on to substance abuse, or use aggression as compensation. I think someone pointed out in the report that if you put yellow on blue you create green. If you have no one to relate to, what other opinions do you have? The gay community is very good at having fun but not so much recognizing it’s time to stop and take stock of the situation. There need to be more BME MSM that are speaking up in places of power, and BME MSM in the church doing the same.
Professor Kevin Fenton, National Director, Health & Wellbeing at Public Health England
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I grew up in the Caribbean. I had a great childhood in a supportive and loving family who valued education, faith and community service. These were heavy influences as a child and young adult, and remain just as important to me today.
Coming back home to the UK in my mid-twenties meant that I had to learn to deal with a lot of new identities: my race, ethnicity, educational background, social class, sexual orientation and faith. These all had to be adapted to my new environment.
It was an anxious time. But it was also a time of exciting opportunity for me to define who I was, who I wanted to be, and how I wanted to engage with this new world.
Faith can provide individuals with tools to be more resilient against isolation. The reality is that faith and BME communities are diverse. Just as we’ve seen attitudes towards LGBT people changing in Western European societies, we will continue to see changes towards BME and faith communities, too. Indeed, there are many faith communities which are inclusive and welcoming and have been great allies to BME and other MSM. A focus on faith won’t work for everyone, but for some this recognition is important.
I live and work in London so I’m fortunate to have access to a dynamic, thriving and ever-changing scene. But we know in other parts of the country and world the situation is very different and choice non-existent. Social and digital media now present new ways for BME MSM to socialise and it will be interesting to see how this will influence our sense of community in the future.
For too long, we’ve been guilty of speaking at people and communities, rather than listening, and actively enaging with and empowering them. Language matters. Having authentic conversations with people, meeting them where they are at, and using approaches that are respectful and inclusive are critical if we are to make any progress.
‘PHE’s role in this is to help create a society that allows all BME MSM to experience healthy, safe and fulfilling sexual and social relationships.’
I have found it deeply troubling to witness recent world events (Ferguson, #ICANTBREATHE) as they bring to life the ongoing challenges of race relations in our societies. But they have also reinforced the need to continue the fight for justice, equality and respect for all. I’m passionate about the renewed community activism that’s been generated and I hope it drives lasting change.
These events may well impact BME MSM, as minorities within minorities, dealing with stigma and discrimination, both within and outside of their own communities. Despite vast improvements in the social acceptance of LGBT people over the last fifty years there is still work to be done. We have seen a collection of organisations working hard to improve the health and wellbeing needs of BME MSM. However, many have since waned and learning has been lost and not passed on to younger generations.
The journey towards greater social integration and harmony must continue and this will be challenging. PHE’s role in this is to help create a society that allows all BME MSM to experience healthy, safe and fulfilling sexual and social relationships. We are moving forward and I am encouraged at how much things have changed in the past three decades: anti-discrimination legislation, marriage equality, social activism, and greater societal acceptance all give us hope.
Links:
The report this feature was based upon was named ‘The health and wellbeing of black and minority ethnic gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men’ and is available on the Public Health England website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england
Naz Project London: www.naz.org.uk/
Positively UK: www.positivelyuk.org
‘God’s Other Children’ by Vernal Scott is available on www.amazon.co.uk
