As I argued in chapter 2, the concerns and interests of black queer men are syndicated into a general concern for protecting black communities from the effects of white supremacy. However, I am concerned that the limited attention to the ways in which black queer men speak of and for themselves distorts our understandings of, and limits the possibilities for, an appreciation of sexual difference in black life. To be sure, theologians such as Kelly Brown Douglas, and cultural critics such as Michael Eric Dyson, and bell hooks have spoken extensively against homophobia.
What I find missing in black religious and cultural critics’ accounts of black queer life and experience are the voices of black queer men.
I argued that black queer identity enters into black religious criticism as a “problem people.” The experiences of black queer men are often described only in terms of homophobia and plague. I addressed the question of when, where, and how black homosexuals enter into black religious criticism. In chapters 1 and 2 I explored representative texts in black religious criticism.
