Finally someone has done some real research on this topic. For years African American men were portrayed as some kind of sexual deviants who infected African American women. While it is a real fact that some gay African American men feel the need to be in relationships with women in order to overcome the stigma attached to being a gay black man, the LEAP that everyone took from the media to public health professionals that they were causing the high rates of HIV infection in African American women is pure racist thought.
I like this quote from the article:
The view of black sexuality as deviant and diseased has deep roots, Ford noted, pointing to the way the public and the medical community viewed syphilis in the early 20th century as a disease of the black community.
Down low” myth distorts HIV research, prevention
By Anne Harding – Feb 28, 2007
Mistaken assumptions about black sexuality are finding their way into scientific research on the spread of HIV, and this could do more to fuel risky behavior than prevent it, authors of a new commentary warn.
Reports on African-American men who identify themselves as straight but secretly have sex with men — dubbed the “down low” lifestyle — first appeared when men who said they were part of this subculture wrote books about it and the media picked up the story, Dr. Chandra L. Ford of Columbia University in New York City, the commentary’s lead author, told Reuters Health.
“Part of what has happened as a result of that initial burst of stories reporting the ‘down low’ is that those stories often tied the down low to high rates of HIV infection among African-American women, which was not supported by epidemiological data,” Ford added. “There were a lot of assumptions, there were a lot of leaps of faith that led to that.”
Despite the non-scientific source, epidemiologists began doing research based on the idea that black men living the down low lifestyle were driving the spread of HIV, she and her colleagues note in their article in the Annals of Epidemiology.
This assumption was mistaken in many ways, they explain. First of all, the practice of straight men secretly having sex with men is seen across all ethnic groups.
Also, Ford notes, while black men and women have higher rates of HIV infection than other ethnic groups, they also report fewer risk behaviors, suggesting researchers should look elsewhere to understand the disparity.
For example, she adds, having a bacterial sexually transmitted infection can increase the risk of both transmitting and contracting HIV, and it is possible such infections may be more common among blacks than whites due to poorer access to health care.
Research has refuted the claim that black men living the down low lifestyle are driving the spread of HIV, Ford said, but the perception that this is the case remains, even in the epidemiology community. She points to a dean at a colleague’s school who urged researchers to study “the down low” after seeing a TV segment on it.
The view of black sexuality as deviant and diseased has deep roots, Ford noted, pointing to the way the public and the medical community viewed syphilis in the early 20th century as a disease of the black community.
Not only could perceptions of the down low drive the men actually pursuing such a lifestyle further underground, making them less likely to get care, said Ford, it also draws attention away from interventions that could be truly effective, such as routine HIV testing of all adults.
“HIV-AIDS is a social disease, so that means that there are social phenomena that influence the spread of the disease,” Ford said. “We have to be as rigorous about understanding the social phenomena as we would be if we were studying how a microbe influences disease progression.”
SOURCE: Annals of Epidemiology, March 2006.
Filed under: Africian American, Gay, Georgia, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS Stigma, Rural, Rural HIV/AIDS, The South and HIV, Uncategorized
November 28, 2006
Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding
Director
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, Georgia 30333
Re: “Down Low”(DL)- “Men on the Down Low”
Dear Dr. Gerberding:
I write this letter to inform you that I have been very concerned over the use of the term “down low” (DL) especially since it appears on the CDC’s website. As an openly gay black man who has worked in the HIV/AIDS arena over the past 25 years I must tell you that it appears that the CDC is engaging in pitting black gay men and black women against on another (Read your down low references). In consultation with my black straight woman friend in the city of Chicago who is an epidemiologist, it is important that we lift our collective voices and speak cogently on this issue. The term “down low” should have never been embraced by the CDC period.
Disposition of Two Community AIDS Activist
The “Down Low” is not a behavioral scientific terminology or nomenclature. The term will not enhance the capacity to implement an effective intervention at the state and local levels, to reduce the spread of HIV and STDs, and to promote healthy behaviors. The term does not have core competencies that a community will be able to use in any form to find the men that CDC is using the term to describe. How do you find someone that does not want to be found? The ongoing complexities and the never-ending classification have not helped to solve this continuum of the pandemic.
There are no epidemiological modes of transmission that fully capture the phenomenon of the term “Down Low”. The question is why is it being embraced by the CDC and used on its website as if is a mode of transmission or a structural intervention. It is clearly a slang term and has no place in science. African American gay males should be deeply concerned when the term on a CDC website states the following:
“The term has most often been associated with African American men. The term is often used to describe the behavior of men who have sex with other men as well as women and who do not identify as gay or bisexual. These men may refer to themselves as being “on the down low,” “on the DL,” or “on the low down.” What is the behavior that the term is being used to describe?
You go on to say. “Although the term originated in the African American community, the behaviors associated with the term are not new and not specific to black men who have sex with men.” Again, please describe the behaviors associated with the term?
Stigma and discrimination are frequently a point of discussion in the HIV community. Terms like the “Down Low” only gives credence to the already marginalized populations which means we are falling into the same “trick bag” that we have been fighting to avoid for so many years.
Based on CDC’s website you can get HIV:
• By having unprotected sex- sex without a condom- with someone who has HIV. The virus can be in an infected person’s blood, semen, or vaginal secretions and can enter your body through tiny cuts or sores in your skin, or in the lining of your vagina, penis, rectum, or mouth.
• By sharing a needle and syringe to inject drugs or sharing drug equipment used to prepare drugs for injection with someone who has HIV.
• From a blood transfusion or blood clotting factor that you got before 1985. (But today it is unlikely you could get infected that way because all blood in the United States has been tested for HIV since 1985.)
• Babies born to women with HIV also can become infected during pregnancy, birth, or breast-feeding.
There is no mentioned of the “Down Low” as a way to contract HIV? The term is offensive, not science based and should be removed from your website immediately with all of its references. CDC has now grown to become the nation’s lead public health agency, whose mission is to “promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability”. This slang term is not conducive in reference to the CDC’s mission. CDC’s research and prevention-based efforts should be about demographics, risk behaviors and healthy promotion for stopping the spread of HIV. Therefore, cease and desist the use and the reference of the phraseology “Down Low”- – “Men on the Down Low”!
Thanking you in advance for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your sincere understanding and cooperation.
Sincerely,
L. Lorenzo Williams
CEO/ President
CC: Members of the Congressional Black Caucus
Thanks for the interesting post. I have linked to it on my HIV website at http://aids.about.com
Thanks for making us all think for ourselves.
Wow Thanks for posting that….I’ve read alot about this as well and it always seemed depressing. However your eloquent letter has made me rethink this whole issue and to maybe doubt what we are all being spoon fed. Perhaps the “down low” phenomena is less about statistics and more about social perceptions of race, sex and gender.
Maybe about 40%, but no more! This is happening in every community! However, its the old addage; ” WHEN AMERICA HAS A COLD, BLACK AMERICA HAS PNEUMONIA!”
thanks for an informative letter. We need more people of Mr Williams stature to speak out and set the record straight. I am South African and it would be interesting to get the views of other Africans on this matter.
keep up the good work and keep on educating the world.
A public health official told me that th bisexual, down low activity is linked to the high rate of HIV/AIDS in the Black community. I think it is time we stop protecting these men with denial of he facts and start protecting these women and their children. It is not racism to stare the truth in the eye and address it.
This addresses the comment by “aspaia”.
You are welcome to you opinion, but realize your claim (and the one by the public health official) is not able to be proven. If you read the whole article you will find this quote:
“Research has refuted the claim that black men living the down low lifestyle are driving the spread of HIV, Ford said, but the perception that this is the case remains, even in the epidemiology community.”
Even public health epidemiologists who are suppose to rely on facts and data before making claims like this have been guilty of falling into the old stereotypes of black and gay men.
This is the point of my post.
I have and do work in public health. I have seen the way this “myth” of the African-America down low bi-sexual man as being responsible for increased rates of HIV and AIDS in African-American women develop from the Oprah type talk shows and turn into official CDC policy and prevention strategies. With NO proof or data showing this was happening.
So, my point is that even our “professional public health” people fall into this trap. The trap is set with racist and homophobic “bait” of our society.
It is troubling that we still swallow this stuff hook, line and sinker with no critical thought.