the life many live.....

STEREOTYPE
A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.One that is regarded as embodying or conforming to a set image or type.

That of the black man. powerful. angry. criminal. sexual predator. juxtaposed to that of the gay man. distrustful. obscene. sexually promiscuous. now enter the down low. Both black and gay, both misunderstood and feared. but how much is fact are how much is fiction?

I was on the internet looking up interesting things to read, hear, and watch. i stumbled upon a website that lets volonteers write essay about their views on certain aspects of being gay....
beyondmasculinity.com

I went down the list and what caught my eye was the essay entitled...."in the life of the down low: where is a black gay man to go?" by Keith M. Harris. while reading the essay it became more and more of a reality to me. i too have met men in the chat rooms talking their slang that was impossible for me to remember to this date. and in some cases i saw more of me in the authors writings. im not on the "down-low" but i think at one point in my life i was. i also think many and if not all men in the first stages of coming to terms with their sexuality are and were. i didnt WANT to hide my sexuality, i just didnt want EVERYBODY to know, who i wasnt ready to know. i refuse to try and pretend i was someone i wasnt by going out and sleeping with the opposite sex. in a way covering up cracks. i simply didnt date. i continued to live my life as a GAY teenager, not like most tho....

"Do not ask them how i look, as if they can truly see. im more than what my surface portrays, im multilayer complexity. do not ask them how i am, how could they really know. i have not allowed one close enough to see the true me ever show"....
-mike ant

to read the essay click here