African Americans make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, yet they account for 57 percent of new AIDS infections. When I first heard about Black Entertainment Television's (BET) recent documentary, “The Down Low Exposed,” a wound was reopened for me as a Black gay man. Having felt incriminated in the fight against HIV among Black people since the phrase was coined, I knew that I could live out the rest of my days without hearing the phrase “Down Low” again. Despite the Center for Disease Control's detachment from the DL as a prevention paradigm, Black women are still being led to believe they should be more concerned about a man's sexual orientation, rather than his sexual health.

Being HIV+ myself, and having contracted it in a relationship where I presumed monogamy and had my trust betrayed, I have also felt that the presentation of the DL phenomenon excluded the fact that everyone with HIV has been betrayed by not only the irresponsibility of politicians and the health care industry, but also ignorance on almost all levels of society. I am also concerned that it places blame for HIV in the Black community in the hands of gay Black men, and perpetuates victim hood for Black women. After all, safe sex is safe sex regardless of gender.

The DL has been presented by much of the media (both white and black) in a way that portrays HIV-positive Black men as criminals. While some HIV-positive men may be reckless, the charge doesn't deal adequately with the epidemic. This presentation only divides the community. This dialogue about HIV is special because it blames people (i.e., Black men), rather than the disease itself. No one really talks about hypertension, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, or any of the other diseases that affect Black people the same way--although, we could because we can relate the prevalence of these diseases to oppression.

BET's documentary did assert the problem as everyone's problem. Why then is there this emphasis on the Down Low, named for R. Kelly's 1993 hit about an illicit affair, as only a Black gay phenomenon? Is it because JL King, author of On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of "Straight" Black Men Who Sleep with Men “incriminated” Black men by framing hidden sexuality within an ethnic context? Oprah's presentation of the book and him as an author certainly did. And was this documentary to be JL's chance to redeem himself on the topic? As the Executive Producer, I actually think that he did to a significant degree.

At first as I watched the special, I had a hard time putting bisexuality and infidelity in terms of a “Black thing.” Of course, neither sexual orientation nor infidelities are ethnic issues per se. However, after watching the documentary, I had to accept they could be for Blacks. Such norms are, after all, cultural. The contrast between the hyper-masculinity prevalent in our male culture, and the femininity associated with homosexuality, makes this a media favorite. As we affirm the image of Black men as King Kong-like reckless dangerous hyper-sexed aggressors, the "gay" element allows us (as Black folk) to continue our lethal disassociation with HIV into the domain of the "sexually perverse" and even the wrath of God.

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