“I have never met a Black gay person before. They exist?” This was a damning, but realistic comment made by a college classmate of mine during my freshman year at a majority white institution in Tennessee. I absolutely could not believe what I had just heard. Over the years, I have never forgotten that comment and as I’ve grown older, I have tried to answer that question in addition to answering one of my own.  My question is this: Why is it that people think that Black gays do not exist especially in the 21st century? I have came up with three hypotheses all of which I will discuss in the coming months; one being the Black Church. The Black Church has played an important role in making sure that gay stays White. The attitudes of the Black Church on homosexuality have excluded Black men from being able to come out in their communities and most importantly it has aided in the invisibility of proud and open African-American Same Gender Loving men.

The unique African American historical experience of oppression has resulted in an even more unique African-American religious experience. Religion for African Americans has taken an imperatively apex role which has permeated all cultural facets of the community manifesting into fervent values and social morals unique to the Black Community. The Black Church has always been an institution born out of oppression and thus an institution providing solidarity and cohesion for Blacks. The organization of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) was formed with this notion in mind. The Black Church was formed in opposition to the White supremacist ideology; it was a place where Blacks could not only praise God, but also a place where they could self-identify, coalesce, and form their own organizations in which they could have hope for freedom. The Black Church throughout socio-political history has always been a “home-base” not only for spiritual salvation but has also served as a medium to plan rebellions against a racist majority and most importantly to offer empowerment.

Ironically, while the Black Church started in an effort to solidify Black people as an identifiable group against hate and oppression, today the Black Church has morphed, in some respects, into the complete opposite. Today, it is an institution that often preaches hate against its own people; no longer providing empowerment and solidarity, but instead separatist elitism and disempowerment. Moreover, it has grown into an institution that is conspicuously stagnant and not responding to the issues that affect its people; not only economically, but socially and sexually as well.