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The African-American Gay Experience |
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Feeling
the Spirit in the Dark: Expanding Notions of the Sacred in the African-American
Gay Community by E. Patrick Johnson (1998).
"In this essay I shall focus on how African-American gays have attempted
to reconcile the spirit and the flesh by moving from 'place to space.'
Drawing heavily upon Michel de Certeau's formulation of place and space,
Vivian M. Patraka argues that 'place refers to a prescripted performance
of interpretation, while space produces sites for multiple performances
of interpretation, which situate/produce the spectator as historical subject'
(100)" (p. 399).
"As
we saw in Aretha Franklin's song, these black bodies in motion conjure
and inspire not only a "holy" spirit, but a sensuous and sexual one as
well. When congregants "feel the spirit," their bodies are flung into motion
in ways that transform the sacred body into a very secular body, a body
that weds the spiritual with the sexual. Within the context of the sacred
"place" of the church, however, the sexual/sensual body is both invisible
and foregrounded, shunned and gazed upon, denigrated and enjoyed... Nowhere
is this false dichotomy foregrounded more than within the traditional African-American
worship service itself. The entire church service may be likened to a sexual
encounter: there is flirting, petting, foreplay, orgasm, and post-coital
bliss." (p. 401).
"Removed
from the homophobic, guilt-ridden, and self-hating rhetoric of many black
churches, the gay night club has become an alternative space in which African-American
gay men can express their spirituality as well as their sexuality. By incorporating
sacred traditions found in African-American culture and infusing them in
the secular space of the gay night club, African-American gay men have
created a self-validating environment in which they possess sexual agency
on the one hand, and are possessed by the spirit on the other." (p.
406).
"The
DJ's preaching, along with the repetitive beat of the music, works us into
a frenzy... In the event described above, body and soul coalesced--flesh
and spirit were wed. In other words, feeling the spirit in the dark became
a process through which the spirit was made manifest through the flesh
or through an enactment of what Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa
call a 'theory in the flesh'" (p.
408-9).
"...because
the church cannot and will not provide an affirming environment for African-American
gay men to express their sexuality as well as their spirituality, the night
club becomes an alternative 'sanctuary.' In Hartford, Connecticut, for
instance, 'Sanctuary' is the name of a gay night club, publicly transgressing
what that place traditionally signifies" (p. 411).
Spirituality?
- "Moreover, the homophobic, guilt-ridden, and oppressive rhetoric
of the black church leads to self-hatred, low self-esteem, and in some
cases, suicide, for those gay members who cannot come to terms with their
sexuality within the confining place of the church. In those instances
where one's homosexuality is known, the church embraces that member only
if he is willing to "exorcise" his gayness. This kind of backhanded acceptance
maintains the hegemony of heterosexuality as Christ-like, as well as reinforces
the notion of homosexuality as an abomination"
(p. 413).
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