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A HISTORICAL EXAMINATION OF EBONY MAGAZINE ARTICLES AND LETTERS ON HOMOSEXUALITY, 1971-1979

Paul Beasley AFAM 359: Blacks in American History Since 1877 April 19, 2013

1 Ebony magazine, started by black publisher John H. Johnson in November of 1945, became the most prominent cultural chronicle of the lives of African Americans in the entire United States. A magazine whose lens on the happenings of the times was similar to that of Life magazine and Look, Ebony brought to African American readers what no other magazine had endeavored or cared to do: it displayed African American achievements, employed some of the most influential and notable photographers and journalists, celebrated historic civil rights events, and offered the longest running traveling fashion show in history.1 Just as the history of African Americans fighting for civil rights and their own expressions of culture was fraught with controversy, so did Ebony diligently work to make the successes, failures, and progress of those controversies seen and felt in its photographs, articles, and interviews.2 And no greater of period of controversy was displayed in the pages of Ebony than the Sexual Revolution that swept the nation in the 1970s. An era marked by the increased politicization of sexuality, the coming to prominence of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders who had previously been invisible, and the mass-marketing of sexuality as a product, the Sexual Revolution forced individuals to have candid conversations about long-held normative assumptions and conventions surrounding sexuality.3 In selected issues between the years of 1971 and 1977, Ebony magazines editorial content reflected an interest in the Sexual Revolution as well as blacks participation within it. Articles by black sociologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists of the time focused on the sexual liberation of African Americans and the expression of black sexuality as healthy and in line with
1

Sharon Shahid, 65 Years Ago in News History: The Birth of Ebony Magazine, Newseum, October 29, 2010, http://www.newseum.org/news/2010/10/65-years-ago-in-news-history-the-birth-of-ebony-magazine.html. 2 Ibid. 3 Susanne Martain, The Sexual Revolution of the 60s, Sexuality and Modernity, http://www.isis.aust.com/stephan/writings/sexuality/revo.htm.

2 traditional African values. It presented blacks as a group of people who were naturally in tune with the joys of sexual expression, in contrast with whites whose anxieties and vilification of sex contributed to their sexual frustration. It also criticized sexual stereotypes of blacks, dismissing them as products of whites fantasy projections onto blacks. However, although Ebony magazines articles on black sexuality in issues between 1971 to 1977 encouraged healthy and active participation in the Sexual Revolution, criticism by black gay men for its characterization of homosexuality as pathological became one of the greatest source of criticism to Ebony articles on sexuality. However, the continuity between 1971 to 1979 suggests that Ebony moved from recognizing homosexuality first as an alternative sexual condition, to attempting to prove homosexuality a result of deviant behavior, and finally to an reflecting increased acceptance of homosexuality as a biological variation. Psychiatry professor Alvin F. Poussaints articles in the October 1971 and August 1972 issue of Ebony implicitly oriented homosexuality among black men in the 1970s as a contrast to normative sexual expression. In Blacks and the Sexual Revolution, as well as Sex and the Black Male, Poussaint did not overtly state homosexuality as pathological however he did refer to homosexuality in both articles as a condition.4 Poussaint also created a portrait of black homosexual men as lacking in masculinity when he wrote, Testifying to the fact that not all black men are super-studs are data showing the significance of homosexuality, impotence, and premature ejaculation among black men.5 It is this use of language that automatically posits gay black men outside of Poussaints endorsement of normative black sexual expression.

Alvin F. Poussaint, Blacks and the Sexual Revolution, Ebony, October 1971, 116., Alvin F. Poussaint, Sex and the Black Male, Ebony, August 1972, 118. 5 Alvin F. Poussaint, Sex and the Black Male, Ebony, August 1972, 117-118.

3 It is however important to note that Poussaints background in psychiatry in the 1970s more than likely contributed to his view of homosexuality as a condition rather than a sexual orientation as homosexuality is referred to in contemporary literature. Homosexuality was not removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until 1974, and its subsequent diagnostic replacement, Ego dystonic homosexuality, would not disappear from the DSM-III until 1986.6 With this historical fact in mind, Poussaints articles were released during a time where black gay men already were beginning to challenge pathological constructions of their sexuality. The responses to the article Sex and the Black Male were published in Ebonys November 1972 issue and the commentary criticized Alan Poussaints treatment of homosexuality the most heavily of all subjects in the article. The responses were placed on the page under the emboldened title Gay Power.7 The first respondent, Jon L. Clayborne, the thenChairperson of the Rutgers Student Homophile League criticized Poussaints article as using gays as his scapegoat.8 Clayborne then asserts that Poussaints point of view is a byproduct of an industry that has consistently promoted homosexuality as a disorder and has consistently encouraged gays to adopt a negative view of their sexuality. Ending his letter, Clayborne calls for Poussaint to produce a work that is written by a black gay man himself rather than on behalf of him. Another reader, William Brewster of New York, took offense to Poussaints identification of black stud with heterosexuality. Brewster also condemned Poussaints belief

Gregory Herek, Facts About Homosexuality and Mental Health, University of California-Davis Psychology, 2012, http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_mental_health.html. 7 Jon Clayborne, Letters, Ebony, November 1972, 18-19. 8 Ibid. 18

4 that if white women were not available for black men to date instead of black women they would become homosexuals and stated it was an insult to black men, straight or gay. And just as Clayborne did, Brewster also called for Ebony to publish an article that accurately addresses and clears up stereotypes surrounding black gay men.9 The response of black gay men to Alan Poussaints Blacks and the Sexual Revolution and Sex and the Black Male were indicative of a strong force of resistance to the notion of homosexuality as a disorder in the early 1970s. Keeping in step with dominant black militant philosophies of the 1970s, black gay men involved in the larger Gay Liberation movement of the time were focusing their efforts on derailing the heteronormative standard that had dominated the American sexual order and inserting a sexuality that was celebrated for its outr and subversive nature.10 Ebonys inclusion of Clayborne and Brewsters letters also indicated an acknowledgement by the magazine itself of an opposing viewpoint to a widely held belief about homosexuality, capturing a microcosmic moment of a greater historical dialogue about masculinity and sexuality. Ebonys inclusion of Dr. Robert Staples article Has the Sexual Revolution Bypassed Blacks? in its April 1974 issue and Winston Moores How to End Sex Problems in Our Prisons in November of 1976 upset black gay readers of Ebony by attempting to pinpoint incarceration rates and recidivism as factors contributing to homosexuality among black men. In Staples article, he spoke of homosexuality as one area of the changing sexual values that has significant black participation.11 He went on to estimate that the population of white gay men

Ibid. 19 David Horowitz, How Political Correctness and Radicalism Have Led to AIDS -Related Deaths, Discover The Networks, 1998, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=276. 11 Dr. Robert Staples, Has the Sexual Revolution Bypassed Blacks?, Ebony, April 1974, 112.
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5 outnumbered that of blacks. Among the number of gay blacks, Staples asserted that the prison system was one of the main breeding grounds for homosexuals, giving reasons for their desires including a desire to escape family responsibilities to acquiring money through prostitution. He also fixed black gay men and lesbians as deeply involved in the white homosexual community.12 Winston Moores article went especially in depth with the subject of the penal system as a potential means of turning black men to homosexuality. Moore saw that there was a disproportionately high incidence of homosexualityboth latent and activeamong the nations prisons staffs.13 He also described prisons as facilities that could be used as playgrounds for individuals with sadistic and otherwise perverted inclinations.14 In his summation, Moore places the blame of an elevation of the number of homosexuals in prisons on the Gay Liberation movement of the times. Moore lobbied in the article for increased conjugal visits among male inmate because it would provide beneficial to the protecting of their marriages. He also wrote that conjugal visits would prove useful by encouraging inmates to be more productive in their manual labor. In his final assessment of his plan of action, Moore mentioned that its efficiency would not be able to be certain unless strict interviewing measures were taken to prevent sex problem-ridden workers from entering prisons.15 The ensuing criticism of Moores article, which appeared in the February 1977 issue of Ebony was lengthy. Three responses had been written which attacked Moores assessment of causes of homosexuality and the logic used to construct his solutions. Almasi Sidu Jitu from

12 13

Ibid. Winston Moore, How to End Sex Problems in Our Prisons, Ebony, November 1976, 86. 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid. 92

6 Valhalla, New York praised Moore for his accurate appraisal of sexual problems in prisons and agreed with Moores suggestions on conjugal visits. However, he criticized Moore for failing to take into account the role that alienation plays in engendering sexual frustration among men in prison. Harry suggested that prison programs must be geared toward prisoners returning to their communities and not the other way around.16 Though Jitus response did not directly address Moores treatment of homosexuality, it did however prompt Moore to figure in isolation from family as a contributor to sexual frustration rather than the perversions of the prison staff. Stan Carters response disagreed with homosexuality as a product of the prison system but stated that homosexual activity in prison was simply a result of a preexisting homosexual inclination. Carter wrote, I did not see a single instance of homosexual behavior among soldiers who had been overseas for months and years, even though they had been isolated from female companionship.17 Carter completely disagreed with Moores assumption that homosexuality was a product of the prison environment and that the absence of women indicated a motivator for homosexual behavior. Carter stated that most criminals will proposition or attack anything that moves.18 The third comment, from Collin Schwover in Bloomington, Indiana dismissed Moores article as lacking in credible research and indicative of a stereotyping ignorance. On the idea that gays are intrinsically promiscuous, Schwover commented, Where does Moore get such ideas?19 Schwover criticized Moores lack of intelligent scholarship on the subject of human sexuality and even asserted that over a third of men have had a same-sex experience. He further

16 17

Almasi Sidu Jitu, Letters, Ebony, February 1977, 20. Stan Carter, Ibid. 18 Ibid. 19 Collin Schwover, Ibid.

7 went on to characterize Moores article as an example of another group of individuals oppressing another, contrary to the goal of black liberation. Implicit in Ebonys inclusion of Staples and Moores article and the responses between 1974 and 1977 was a focus on the steering away from the view of homosexuality as a consequence of ones environment. The responses in readership prompted not only the article authors or the magazine to rethink homosexuality not just as simply lacking in the element that made heterosexuality but as a separate and equally complex sexuality. Moore and Staples agreement with the idea of prison as the cause of homosexuality fit in with many gays beliefs that sexual mores did not exist because they were biological absolutes but because of their use as oppressive mechanisms to keep power within a dominant group.20 The disgruntlement with this ideology by black gay men prompted them to respond to articles that erroneously attempted to explain their sexual orientation. Black gay men also particularly saw articles on homosexuals as deviant hypocritical to the message of black liberation which was to aid in giving oppressed blacks their due rights. Black Nationalist revolutionary and Black Panther Huey P. Newton warned against this kind of hypocrisy in his speech on gay and womens rights in 1970, four years before Staples article and six before Moores. He commented, This kind of psychology is in operation when we view oppressed people and we are angry with them because of their particular kind of behavior, or their particular kind of deviation from the established norm.21 Newtons speech represented the first time that a heterosexual Black Nationalist had publicly stood up for the inclusion of gay men and lesbians in the fight for black liberation. Since the speech, reflected in Ebonys pages between 1974 to 1977, the conversation of black male
20

David Horowitz, How Political Correctness and Radicalism Have Led to AIDS -Related Deaths, Discover The Networks, 1998, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=276. 21 Huey P. Newton, Huey P. Newton on gay, womens liberation, Workers World, 2012. http://www.workers.org/2012/us/huey_p_newton_0524/

8 homosexuality began to change toward more diagnosing homosexuality by writers as a pervasive problem, more than in its issues from 1971 to 1973, but it also marked an increased response to the criminalizing of homosexuality through black gay mens letters to Ebony. In August 1977, Ebony published an article by Louie Robinson titled, An Illustrated Guide for the New Generation. Within the article, Robinson gives parents suggestions on How to Cope With A Gay In The Family.22 In the article, Robinson stated that parents of sons who have been athletes who suddenly begin to exhibit feminine characteristics such as walking in one day wearing lipstick, a dress and a rose in his hair should have no cause for alarm in their sons drastic personality change.23 However, unlike previous writers on the subject of homosexuality, Robinson did not attempt to describe homosexuality as a disorder as Poussaints articles did, nor did he attempt to pinpoint a specific reason a child might become homosexual. In the article, he wrote, We are all more intelligentat least we should beabout homosexuality these days, and gay people are no longer required to live traumatic lives filled with the fear of discovery.24 Such a statement indicated a shift within the decade toward the acceptance of homosexuality compared to previous articles and Robinson went so far as to write that although parents may not have been completely accepting of their childs apparent homosexuality, it certainly need not be regarded as a crime against nature.25 He encouraged parents to support their children and to understand their sexuality as a biological fact, something no other Ebony writer had ever asserted before 1979. This shift in attitudes can be attributed to many of the social changes created as a result of the Gay Liberation movement activities between 1974 and 1979. Between these years, organizations were created in support of
22 23

Louie Robinson, An Illustrated Guide to the New Generation, Ebony, August 1978, 46. Ibid. 24 Ibid. 25 Louie Robinson, An Illustrated Guide to the New Generation, Ebony, August 1978, 46.

9 homosexuals and also to educate the larger population on gay behavior, history, and culture. The Homosexual Information Center moved to Hollywood Boulevard in 1975, also in 1975, Jim Kepner, a journalist, amassed a collection of articles on gay culture and homosexuality he and others wrote, calling it the Western Gay Archives. The Southern California Women for Understanding, a lesbian support group was started in 1976, and in 1979 riots explode in San Francisco calling for increased justice for the man responsible for killing Senator Harvey Milk, a gay man.26 These events preceding the writing of An Illustrated Guide to the New Generation most likely influenced Ebonys new attitude towards covering homosexuality in its pages as normal and not something to shame or pathologize. However, despite all of its concessions, the article still drew criticism, this time not for any diagnostic criteria of homosexuality, but for its myopic view of how homosexuals looked and acted. Irma Brown, a respondent in Ebonys January 1979 issue, took offense to Robinsons characterization of gay men as cross-dressers. She pointed out that for all of the knowledge that Robinson purported to hold about homosexuals, the fact that he still related transvestites, whom Brown differentiated from homosexuals, to homosexuals as one in the same, indicated a lack of real depth on how homosexuals act. She also castigated Robinson for his description of a childs homosexuality as a risk we all run, calling it an example of pigheadedness at its most vile.27 Though Robinsons article on ways to help parents adapt to the new permissive social norms of the 1970s wasnt meant to specifically diagnose or critique the causes of homosexuality, it was essentially this element that drew pushback from the readers. In an era
26

C. Todd White, Signficant Events in the history of the Los Angeles-based movement for homosexual rights, Tangent, 2008. http://www.tangentgroup.org/history/Timeline/Timeline1961.html 27 Irma Brown, Letters, Ebony, January 1989, 17.

10 where gay where gay men, white and black were amalgamating as well as differentiating among themselves, Browns comment reflected the desire for black gay men in the 1970s to distinguish themselves from the stereotypes of cross-dressers, effete, and gender-bending men. It is also important to place both Robinsons article and Browns comment within the events surrounding homosexuality that would develop later in the year 1979. Vivian Casss model of the stages that individuals go through before reaching a homosexual identity impacted the way that sociologists and psychologists thought when theorizing about the causes and behaviors of homosexuality. Casss theory that homosexuality was a part of an individuals identity that could be successfully integrated challenged previously held notions of homosexuality as a disorder and only capable of producing stress in afflicted individuals.28 It is this third historical point in Ebony magazines coverage of homosexuality between 1971 and 1979 that demonstrated a move toward the production of editorial content that affirmed homosexuality as normal and biologically based. This is in contrast to the description of homosexuality as a condition or hindrance to normative sexuality seen in articles from 1971 to 1974 and the positing of homosexuality as the activity of perverts and prison degenerates from 1974 to 1977. What was consistent among these three periods was the call from readers of Ebony for writers to take an approach to viewing homosexuality that was derived directly from black gays experiences and diversity their expressions of sexuality rather than attempting to evaluate homosexuality within a limiting heterosexist socio-psychological framework. This desire for
28

Vivian Cass, Homosexual Identity Formation: A Theoretical Model. Journal of Homosexuality 4, (1979): 219-

235. http://multicultural.usf.edu/pdf/safezone/support_identity.pdf

11 normalization of homosexuality was a critical feature of the Gay Liberation movement of the 1970s and with Ebony as the nations most widely circulated black magazine, blacks gays found their place in this movement in the reader letters Ebony published during the 1970s. In conclusion, Ebony magazines attempt to garner explanations from sociologists and psychologists was an indication of the magazines desire to be as authoritative as possible and lend gravitas to the larger discussion of black sexuality with the American Sexual Revolution. The articles between 1971 and 1970 did not indicate an outright vilification of homosexuality but rather they were attempts by the magazine to continue a tradition of being one of the only magazines willing to give conversation to issues and changes in society that were directly reshaping black culture. Also, just as white psychologists and other psychological associations had only just begun to question the positioning of homosexuality as a mental disorder in the 1970s, it suffices to say that black gay readers of Ebony picked up on this professional bias in their criticisms of articles speaking about homosexuality. Social scientists were still classifying and even attempting to treat homosexuality as a condition until the middle of the decade. 29 With its treatment as a psychological affliction, sociologists then hypothesized on what sort of environments might lead to the development of such afflictions. Moores article in Ebony and a growing number of black men in prison in the 1970s began to encourage writers to examine how the prison system could possibly have been a vector for spreading the psychological ill of homosexuality. This continued view of homosexuality as an element external of identity or biology in the mid-1970s kept gay black readers of Ebony critical, revealing a
29

Christopher H. Rosik, Conversion Therapy Revisited: Parameters and Rationale for Ethical Care, NARTH, 2001. http://narth.com/docs/conversiontherapy.html

12 mass of readers who asserted that homosexuality had more to do with an individuals innate orientation rather than the influence of prison staff, inmates, or the absence of female sexual partners. The period of 1977 to 1979 revealed a move from questioning how homosexuality develops as a mental problem to how homosexuality develops as a part of identity. This stage resolved the categorization problems in article pertaining to homosexuality in Ebony from 1971 to 1974 and also dismissed anxieties of homosexuality as deviant behavior from 1974 to 1977. As literature affirming homosexuality began appearing among social scientists, black gays among Ebony readers also called for the magazine to recognize those identities as diverse and not homogeneous. It seemed that as articles supporting the acceptance of homosexuality appeared in Ebony, the more important it was to black gay readers to tell writers to resist the urge to classify all homosexuals under a single set of behaviors. What makes this historical trend so significant is that Ebony, the most prominent barometer and record of black American life, was actively engaged in discussing how the Sexual Revolution of the 1970s was directly impacting black life. Though literature on African Americans and their participation in the Sexual Revolution has been published, studies of how larger shifts in black sexual attitudes, specifically towards homosexuality, were captured in the journalistic media of the times still lacks the closer attention that might elucidate valuable information on the intersectionality between race, sexuality, and media. For the purposes of this paper, a small section of Ebonys editorial history has been examined but further research into the macro-historical trends of the magazines lifetime will produce more accurate and extensive conclusions.

13

Bibliography Brown, Irma. Letters. Ebony, January 1979. Carter, Stan. Letters. Ebony, February 1977. Cass, V.C. Homosexual Identity Formation: A Theoretical Model. Journal of Homosexuality 4, (1979): 219-235. http://multicultural.usf.edu/pdf/safezone/support_identity.pdf Clayborne, Jon. Letters. Ebony, November 1972. Herek, Gregory. Facts About Homosexuality and Mental Health. University of CaliforniaDavis Psychology. 2012. http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_mental_health.html. Horowitz, David. How Political Correctness and Radicalism Have Led to AIDS-Related Deaths. Discover The Networks. 1998. http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=276. Martain, Susanne. The Sexual Revolution of the 60s. Sexuality and Modernity. http://www.isis.aust.com/stephan/writings/sexuality/revo.htm. Moore, Winston. How to Solve Sex Problems in Prisons. Ebony, November 1976. Newton, Huey P. Huey P. Newton on gay, womens liberation. Workers World. 2012. http://www.workers.org/2012/us/huey_p_newton_0524/. Poussaint, Alvin. Blacks and the Sexual Revolution. Ebony, October 1971.

14 Poussaint, Alvin. Sex and the Black Male. Ebony, August 1972. Robinson, Louis. An Illustrated Guide to the New Generation. Ebony, August 1978. Rosik, Christopher H. Conversion Therapy Revisited: Parameters and Rationale for Ethical Care. NARTH. 2001. http://narth.com/docs/conversiontherapy.html Schwover, Collin. Letters. Ebony, February 1977. Shahid, Sharon. 65 Years Ago in News History: The Birth of Ebony Magazine. Newseum, October 29, 2010. http://www.newseum.org/news/2010/10/65-years-ago-in-news-historythe-birth-of-ebony-magazine.html. Sidu Jitu, Almasi. Letters. Ebony, February 1977. Staples, Robert. Has the Sexual Revolution Bypassed Blacks? Ebony, April 1974. White, C. Todd. Significant Events in the history of the Los Angeles-based movement for homosexual rights. Tangent. 2008. http://www.tangentgroup.org/history/Timeline/Timeline1961.html.

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