26 Aug 05

Emory University researcher David Malebranche and colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention recently published an analysis of data showing black bisexual men do not necessarily fit the media depiction of men on the down low engaging in risky sexual behavior.

Being closeted doesn’t equate to risky sex, researchers say:
 
Closeted black bisexual men — popularly dubbed “men on the down low” and tagged with fueling rising HIV rates among heterosexual black females — are not as careless with practicing safer sex as was often portrayed in media reports, according to research published in the July issue of the Journal of the National Medical Association.

“The role of bisexually active black men in HIV transmission is a more complex issue than depictions of black men on the down-low as sexual predators and black women as uninformed victims,” wrote the team of researchers from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and Emory University.

With no research data yet complete on the down low, and scarce data about black bisexuality in general, researchers culled through 24 years of studies on black sexuality, homosexuality and HIV/AIDS dating back to 1980, said David Malebranche, assistant professor of medicine at the Emory School of Medicine.

Malebranche and the other researchers hoped to discern answers to fundamental questions overlooked by the media and other studies: the actual size of the black male bisexual population; the difference between sexual identity and sexual behavior; rates of disclosure among black gay and bisexual men; and whether men who didn’t disclose their sexual orientation were more likely to engage in high risk sex.

Researchers found that only an estimated 2 percent of all black men are bisexual, contradicting the popular notion of men on the down low serving as a bridge for HIV to cross over from gay men to black heterosexual women, who make up 68 percent of all new female HIV cases.

“If it’s only 2 or 3 percent of the black male population, how can they possibly be accounting for all of these HIV infections?” Malebranche said.

Public health experts have assumed that closeted black bisexual men endure internalized homophobia that leads them to participate in risky sexual behavior, he said.

“But one of the major findings [in recent years] — and this was across all races and ethnicities — is the [gay and bisexual men] who were the disclosers, or out of the closet, these were the guys more likely to be HIV-positive, and more likely to engage in unprotected sex,” Malebranche said.

The tendency to wear a condom during sex with men was especially high among men who didn’t disclose their bisexuality to their female partners, according to the research.

“All of the literature shows steady partners are the ones people are less likely to wear condoms with, and casual partners are the one they’re less likely to have unprotected sex with,” Malebranche said.


Unsafe sex
Malebranche and his colleagues also said studies show both black men and heterosexual women engage in high rates of unprotected sex, which likely contributes to HIV transmission rates.

The down low went mainstream last year after an extensive piece in the New York Times Magazine and Oprah Winfrey’s profile of author J.L. King, who wrote a tell-all piece about masculine black men with wives and girlfriends who secretly have sex with men. The phenomenon was then often cited as an explanation for rising increases in HIV among black women.

The Journal of the National Medical Association targets minority physicians, a group that Malebranche said is vital to stemming the misinformation about the down low.

The CDC is sponsoring five studies exploring the down low. Data presented at the 2005 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta in June showed “the early media portrayals failed to adequately describe the diversity of men who identify themselves as being on the down low,” Richard Wolitski, a CDC researcher, has said.

King said he helped spawn a discussion about issues of black sexuality.

“I was at the CDC conference [in June] and almost cried when I first heard them say the word ‘down low’,” King said during a recent book signing in Atlanta. “Whatever they’re saying about it, they’re still recognizing the impact of my work.”