On the Down-Low

Homosexuality and its place in society has been very heavily debated over the past few years. Many people from outside the gay community like to pass judgment and claim that there are many fundamental errors in the life styles of anyone who is involved in a homosexual relationship. It seems that this has been the response has been given by the people of religious institutions more than from any other group. Why is doe this seem to be such a problem to them? Michel Foucault poses the question in his History of Sexuality that

All this garrulous attention which has us in a stew over sexuality, is it not motivated by one basic concern: to ensure population, to reproduce labor capacity, to perpetuate the form of social relations: in short, to constitute a sexuality that is economically useful and politically conservative? (892)

It seems to me that this is very much the problem that many religious groups have with homosexuality. They stigmatize it as an “abomination” and make constant references to the Old Testament’s book of Leviticus which supposedly states that men who lie with other men should be put to death. That argument can be debated, as the books of the Bible have been translated from Greek and then to just about every other language in the world and it is not far-fetched to think that some of the messages might have been lost, or mistook, in translation and could be taken up at a later time. However, what Foucault seems to imply is that the main reason for the repression of atypical sexuality is that it does not produce children, nor does it produce workers to tend the family farms.

The main argument that many people make against that sort of mentality is that these are not the times of family farms anymore. Nor do most western societies need to reproduce as many children as possible any more in order to keep the population going. But this does not seem to filter through to many religious conservatives. In a video interview by the Christian Broadcasting Network, Pastor Michael Stevens says that men who live on the “Down Low” are a terrible problem within the African American community. He goes on to say that they are contracting their wives and girlfriends with HIV and AIDS and that they need to come out and proclaim their homosexuality; and maybe he’s right about people being able to be themselves instead of sneaking around. However, it might be easier for them to come out of the closet and accept their sexual orientation if Pastor Stevens didn’t also intermittently add his judgment of homosexuals as sinners who are influenced by demons.

Works Cited

Foucault, Michel. "The History of Sexuality." Ed. Julie Rivkin. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Second ed. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2004. 893-99. Print.