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'Down low' book tells of HIV, AIDS risk
For more than two decades, J.L. King led a double life as a ''straight'' man who said he preferred women but regularly had sex with men.
When he realized his secret relationships --with their risk of HIV and AIDS --could have a deadly impact on the women in his life, King said he decided to take action.
He launched a public awareness campaign on the disease and wrote a book called
On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of ''Straight'' Black Men Who Sleep with
Men.''
King brought his campaign to Nashville yesterday, when he served as keynote speaker at a conference on HIV and AIDS at Meharry Medical College. The event was organized by the Urban
League Young Professionals of Middle Tennessee.
The ''down low''
phenomenon --in which men with wives or girlfriends also have sex with men but don't see themselves as gay or bisexual --is one of the reasons black women are being infected at a rising rate, he said yesterday.
About 75% of black women who have the disease contracted it through heterosexual sex, and black women accounted for half of all new HIV infections through heterosexual sex from 1999 to 2002, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
King said it's impossible to know how many black men are living life on the down low because the group lives in secrecy.
Of the 2,500 men he interviewed for his book, he said the average number of male partners they had during a s
ix-month period was 50.
Many, he said, had a cavalier attitude about getting HIV and AIDS.
''They felt that because they were having sex with another married man or thei
r mi
nist
er, they couldn't get infected with the disease,'' he said.
Ezell Lundy, an Urban League me
mber, said he believed King was providing an important service by encouraging people to talk about the ''down low'' phenomenon.
''I think the fear of being labeled gay leads to this silence,'' Lundy said. ''And I think the church is complicit in this by training us to see sex as dirty and ungodly.''
Mary Owens, HIV education coordinator at Nashville CARES, said she's been trying to educate women about the down low lifestyle for five years.
''Women have got to be willing to protect themselves, whether their man tells them everything or not,'' she said. ''We've got to change our behavior and be respons
ible.''
During his speech, King said he was frustrated with the apathy among many black people about the rising number of new HIV and AIDS cases among blacks.
<
b>The AI
DS rate
among African-Americans is almost 11 times the rate among whites, according to the CDC. African-American women had a rate 23 times greater than white women, and African- American men had almo
st a nine times greater rate of AIDS than white men.[/b]
''Today I'm going to get kind of upset about my people,'' he said. ''Sad as it is, we're losing this battle because the majority of us don't want to hear about this.''
For example, despite the rising number of college students contracting the disease, King said, many black fraternities refuse to get involved in safe-sex programs. And while some churches are joining the fight against HIV and AIDS and conducting free testing, others are not, he said.
Some African-Americans blame the disease on a government con
spiracy, he said, while others say it affects primarily men who have served jail time.
''We are confused,'' he said. ''And we don't like
to talk abo
ut sex, sex
uality or sexual orientation.''
Women need to take responsibility for protecting themselves, and men need to be honest with themselves about their own behavior, he said.
''No matter what your sexual orientation is, if you're having unprotec
ted sex, then you're part of the problem,'' he said. ''If you leave here and don't do anything differently and don't talk to your brothers and sisters, then you're part of the problem.''
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Actually, n-ggers are the problem, have always been a problem and will continue to be a problem. Get rid of n-ggers and you get rid of the problem. No n-ggers, no problem, it's that easy.
T.N.B.
