Film screening addresses homophobia within black community

Despite Penn’s first place ranking on Newsweek’s list of gay-friendly colleges, homophobia remains an issue on campus, especially in the black community.

Students gathered Wednesday night to discuss this phenomenon and to spread awareness of “men on the down-low,” or men who engage in hetero- and homosexual relations but remain unsure about their own sexual identity.

According to event planners, these men are different from men in the closet in that they have yet to recognize their sexual orientation.

“Men on the down-low,” especially, are “highly homophobic,” according to College freshman Ernest Owens.

The event, entitled “Breaking the Taboo Silence: A Discussion on Homophobia in the Black Community,” included a screening of the film Cover and a discussion. “We want to have an open and candid conversation,” said College sophomore Lyndsi Allsop, who brought the idea to the DuBois College House Council and the Consciousness in Black Film and Theater residential program.

College sophomore Rebecca Duncan said students are very aware of homophobia but “unwilling to address the issue.”

“People try and act like it doesn’t exist,” College junior Robyn Jordan added.

While attendees view homophobia as a “colorblind” phenomenon, students thought the issue was especially prevalent in minority circles. “I think that people of color tend to feel it more,” said College senior and former Queer People of Color chairman Clarence Moore.

Jordan and College sophomores Rebecca Duncan and Cameron Browne said they witnessed homophobia within their own families.

At Penn, Brown believed that homophobia is still a concern for black students because “there are fewer black men who are out, as compared with other races.”

Moore spoke of a “dual rejection” experienced by gay minorities, who feel doubly isolated. For gay minority students, “you’re a minority within a minority,” Allsop said.

College senior and former QPOC board member Enmanuel Martinez thought homophobia was prevalent “within some factions of the Penn black community,” citing the Greek community and international students in particular. Martinez blamed social pressures within Greek life and “different and divergent cultures and norms” in the international community for these homophobic undertones.

In many cases, homophobia on campus is not overt but present in “subtle passive-aggressiveness,” Jordan said. Jordan went on to cite instances in which homophobic straight men think gay males are automatically attracted to them.

“I just want people to know what’s going on,” Owens said. “It’s time that people do realize that [homophobia is] not something we brush under the mat.”

“Homosexuality is not something we really address in the black community,” Allsop added.

However, not everyone at Penn is affected by homophobia.

“There are black men who are queer and black and perfectly fine with that,” Moore said.

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