“Still Looking For My Jonathan” Black Gay Men’s Management Of Religious and Sexual Identity Conflicts “Your love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women.” II Samuel 1:26

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Threat To The Black Family Threat To Black Masculinity Homosexuality As “Foreign” To Black America “Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve” Sacred Canopy And Rhetorical Gay-Bashing “Homophobia” vs. “Homo-tolerance” “Where My Girls At?” Black Homophobia Religious Homophobia Sources Of Stigma

Real & Salient Identities While Both Of Them Can Be “Hidden” These Are Public Identities For These Black Men Black- Christian Black- Christian Black- Homosexual

Managing Status Inconsistency REJECTION OF THE Black-Christian IDENTITY “Compulsory” Church Attendance Unacceptable White & Liberal Churches “Compulsory” Church Attendance Unacceptable White & Liberal Churches Black- Christian Black- Christian Black- Homosexual

Black- Christian Black- Christian Black- Homosexual Managing Status Inconsistency REJECTION OF THE Black-Gay IDENTITY “Prayer Didn’t Work” Too Late For Christian Conversion Therapy “Prayer Didn’t Work” Too Late For Christian Conversion Therapy

COMPARTMENTALIZATION OF THE TWO IDENTITIES Black- Christian Black- Christian Black- Homosexual Managing Status Inconsistency Difficulty maintaining Baumeister’s “rigid separation of the two spheres so one avoids conflicting prescriptions for behavior” (1985).

Black- Homosexual Black- Christian Black- Christian Black Christian Homosexual Black Christian Homosexual Managing Status Inconsistency INTEGRATION OF THE TWO IDENTITIES How Is This Sustained In Light Of Constant Reminders Of Incompatibility Of The Two Identities From The Pulpit?

Reduce Authority Reduce Authority “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about in the area of theology of sexuality.” Accuse (morals) “People in glass houses should not throw stones.” Accuse (judging) “What the Bible boils down to is love, so don’t judge me.” Accuse (motivation) “He’s just saying that to keep the money rolling in.” Have “Revival” “I agree at first and then when [my friends and I] talk about it after church, I let it go.” Responses To Status Disconfirming Statements