Dr. Jeffrey McCune

And we know there's a range of masculinities even amongst heterosexual men, right?

I go to churches all the time.

There's a range, baby, especially in the South, right?

True, true.

But somehow the DL codes for a certain kind of truculent masculinity, a kind of like, dare I say, thug masculinity, or lay it down masculinity, that people are, as much as they are repelling this, they are attracted to it.

And so the reason why it stays popular is because I also want to, like I said, I can't leave this conversation without talking about the DL as a sexy metaphor.

Yeah.

Oh, that's right.

The imaginings of the DL is all about this kind of image of this really tall, dark and handsome brother in the shadows.

Right.

And there's a reason.

There's a reason.

Because that is also sexual.

But what happens, though, inadvertently, is because there's such a small population of men who have sex with men and women, right?

Inadvertently, what actually happens is a resurgence of homophobia against Black gay men, right?

Because who are these men supposedly having sex with?

The husbands are having sex with so-called Black gay men, right?

And so again, the Black gay man becomes the enemy of the heterosexual relationship, right?

And so for me, what I'm really concerned with is that we're once again

giving license to a certain kind of homophobia within our community and advancing this kind of antagonism towards Black gay men as being these kind of mysterious lures, right?