Personal Narrative-Homosexuality

---I can love the sinner, but hate the sin.

---Homosexuality is an abomination.

---To be gay goes against nature.

---If we were supposed to be homosexual, God would have created Adam and Steve, not Adam and Eve.

---I don’t mind gay people, but why do they have to be so vocal and pushy about their rights?

---Homosexuality is a White thing.

---Africa did not have homosexuals before Europeans went there.

---Homosexuality is detrimental to the Black family.

~Kelly Brown Douglas

As a Black male born in the early 80s, raised in the church, and being now an adult in the twenty-first century, I have had firsthand experiences of many of the plights worthy of exploration for this project. Having been introduced to God in the Black Baptist tradition,

These socializations have caused many to stigmatize people before they are even given a chance to determine who they want to be. Normally at a birth, when it is announced that the child will be a boy, he is associate with the color blue, or if it is a girl she is associate with the color pink. These social constructions of what it means to be a man or woman are determined by others before we are even born, or at least when the gender is announced. Anything that goes beyond these prescribed notions of what it means to be a man or woman, challenges our understanding of God, what we believe in the bible, and even

Black lesbians add another layer of difference from the cultural standard by virtue of their gender.” The problem for Boykin is that the gay community fears they will be misunderstood as being a double minority: both black and gay. What Boykin is arguing is that gay identity is problematic. Until the Black church understands sexuality, they will never grapple with or address challenges around