Americans for Truth about Homosexuality

Truth in labeling from one comic book vender at IML 2006.

WARNING: *** NOT FOR CHILDREN ***
Graphic photos below with offensive depictions of real-life homosexual depravities

By Peter LaBarbera

TAKE ACTION:

1) MOST IMPORTANT: Contact Hilton Hotels Corporation World Headquarters in Beverly Hills, California, and Hilton CEO Stephen Bollenback (stephen_bollenbach@hilton.com; 310-278-4321) and politely express your dismay that Hilton would allow its good name to be associated with the sadistic sexual perversion-fest known as “International Mr. Leather.” If you feel so led, tell them that you will certainly never stay at the Palmer House Hilton — who would knowing that disgusting homosexual orgies have gone on in their rooms? — and you also will not be staying at other Hilton hotels while this deviant association continues.

I also spoke with a nice Hilton HQ executive, Trina Owens (trina_owens@hilton.com; 901-374-5041), to whom you can also express your concerns over Hilton promoting perversion. Here’s the full contact information: Hilton World Headquarters, CEO: Stephen Bollenbach: Fax: 310-205-7655; phone 310-278-4321), Brand Performance & Franchise Development, 9336 Civic Center Drive, Beverly Hills , CA 90210; Development Hotline: 800-286-0645; or call 1-800-HILTONS.

Sign reads: “Due to the entire hotel being reserved for a private convention [International Mr. Leather], all hotel facilities are closed to the general public until Tuesday, May 29th. Thank you for your cooperation. The Palmer House Hilton.”

2) Write or call Palmer House Hilton General Manager Peter Lynn (peter_lynn@hilton.com); phone 312-726-7500 (ask for Peter Lynn’s office); ask him how they sterilize their rooms after the perverse IML orgies, and express your outrage that they would profit off this sadism spectacle through 2009. Fax: 312-917-1707; 17 East Monroe Street, Chicago , Illinois , United States 60603.

3) From now on, book your hotel through www.cleanhotels.com (hotels that are porn-free), so you can rest easy knowing that you are not rewarding the pornography industry through your stay.

The following are photos — there are others that we could not publish — from the “vendor fair” at International Mr. Leather 2006 and 2007, held on Memorial Day weekend (both years) at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago. The photos were taken by this writer, walking through the IML vendor fair, which was open to the public:

Man gets tied up in IML 2006.

This man at IML 2006 was bound and gagged and bounced around with bunny ears on from one Palmer House room to another, to satisfy some twisted fetish.

Diaper fetish. The “orientation” of this grown man in a diaper and sucking on a baby pacifier is “infantilism.” He was photographed in the lobby of the Palmer House Hilton at IML 2006.

Read the rest of this article »

 

TAKE ACTION: read our adjoining pictorial story about the Palmer House Hilton’s hosting of ”International Mr. Leather” and contact Hilton Hotels Corporation World Headquarters in Beverly Hills California. Call or write  Hilton CEO Stephen Bollenback (stephen_bollenbach@hilton.com; 310-278-4321) and politely express your dismay that Hilton would allow its good name to be associated with the sadistic sexual perversion-fest known as “International Mr. Leather.” If you feel so led, tell them that you will certainly never stay at the Palmer House Hilton — who would knowing that disgusting homosexual orgies have gone on in their rooms? — and you also will not be staying at other Hilton hotels while this deviant association continues. [ALSO SEE PHOTO-STORY BELOW FOR MORE ACTION ITEMS.]

By Peter LaBarbera 

The photo at top, taken from the Chicago ABC affiliate’s online video of the city’s Memorial Day parade Saturday, speaks volumes about the Windy City’s moral meltdown. Note the message on the marquee of the legendary Chicago Theater: “Welcome, International Mr. Leather 29,” due to the Theater’s participation in this sadistic, pornographic celebration, now in its 29th year.

Rather than honoring the spirit of the parade by paying tribute to our troops, veterans and past generations of American fighting men, the Chicago Theater’s management opted instead to welcome one of the most purely evil perversion-fests ever invented by mankind. International Mr. Leather (IML) serves as an annual excuse for “leathermen” — mostly homosexual men but some “straight” SM couples — to engage in vile orgies that would make Sodom blush. For our pictorial story about the sadistic “Mr. Leather” gatherings this year and last year at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel, click HERE (WARNING: disturbing images).

Chicago: Sadism Mecca

Pro-homosexuality activism is largely a big-city phenomenon. The City of Chicago has the “queer” distinction of being a favorite city of sadomasochists, people who would have once been known, in saner times, as what they are: perverts. Proceeds from International Mr. Leather’s vendor registration went to a place called the Leather Archives Museum — a “museum” for sexual sadists, again, located in Chicago. I visited this “museum” last year and was stunned by its audacious chronicling of the most repulsive perversions (see pictorial story on IML), e.g., “fisting.” The sheer horror and weirdness of the place makes it difficult to describe to a normal audience.

How sad that this great city and so many of its leaders have given themselves over to celebrating sexual depravity. How bad is it?

• Several years back, Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley, despite professing Catholicism, endorsed “same-sex marriage” at a press conference held on Ash Wednesday. There was the mayor (who is also pro-abortion-”rights”), with the ashen cross on his forehead (signifying repentance before God), advocating the radical redefinition of marriage — a position strongly condemned by his own Church.
• Three homosexual bathhouses operate with impunity in the city — putting at risk not just promiscuous “gay” men but women whose straying husbands or boyfriends engage in anonymous sexual encounters (often condomless) with other men. Illinois’ top “gay” activist, Rick Garcia — telling a lie that is bold even by “gay” activist standards — claimed in an interview not to know what goes on in one of the disease-spreading bathhouses, Steamworks, from which Garcia’s group, Equality Illinois, has received donations.
• Openly homosexual judges march annually in the city’s massive “gay pride” parade — to which Chicago’s Christian community has yet to offer an effective response or Gospel outreach;
• The city was the first in the United States (and perhaps the world) to officially designate a homosexual community (zone), “Boystown,” demarcated by rainbow-colored kiosks;
• The city proudly played host to the 2006 “Gay Games” (Daley celebrated this event and served as “honorary chair“) — and ended up being taken to court for violating the free speech rights of Christian counter-protesters.
• The pro-homosexuality bias of Chicagoland’s news media is so overwhelming that the local TV networks and some other media cast objectivity aside every year and march in the annual “gay pride” parade. (ABC covers it and airs it in June.) Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Richard Roeper thinks audiences just have to “get over” our objections to seeing two men kiss in the movies. (I think Roeper and other media elites have to get over their obnoxious obsession with promoting homosexuality.) A female writer for the Chicago Tribune wrote a puff piece about how the movie Brokeback Mountain is a turn-on for women, who supposedly like to see men engaged in sexual situations with other men. Hmmm.

And so it goes. Will Christians emerge from their “closet” to do something to stem the tide of evil and sexual perversion in Chicago? Click HERE for our pictorial story on IML at the Palmer House Hilton in 2006 and 2007 (the hotel will be hosting ”International Mr. Leather” through 2009). WARNING: disturbing images.

By Peter LaBarbera

Born “gay”? Oscar host and very “out” lesbian Ellen DeGeneres
revealed that she was molested by her stepdad as a teenager.

It’s OK to be “anti-gay,” as long as you don’t hate people. That is, as long as you understand that “gay” is not an innocuous, inborn trait but an adjective describing wrong and destructive behavior.

Sexual revolutionaries stole the real meaning of “gay” (merry, exuberant, according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary) decades ago, and it’s long gone now. So let’s try to redeem it by making some sense of what “gay” is and what it is not:

“Gay” is not an unchangeable trait like skin color and it has a moral component – unlike being left-handed or having blue eyes (to name two spurious analogies used by homosexual activists).

Nor is “being gay” “who you are,” as homosexual activists claim, but rather “what you do.” Even the word homosexual –– a Greek-Latin hybrid that dates back only to 1869 –– should be used only as an adjective, not a noun, as my friend and AFA-Michigan leader Gary Glenn reminds us (this is very hard to do, by the way).

The great news is that nobody has to be “gay.” Homosexuality need not be permanent in a person’s life, as proved by the thousands of former homosexuals living contented lives today. There are no ex-Blacks or ex-Latinos, while there are lots of ex-“gays” –– a fact that by itself should negate “gayness” as a civil rights category. (Strangely, many of the same liberals who lecture us about respecting “gays” either ignore or ridicule ex-“gays.”)

Nobody “happens to be gay,” either (another “gay” shibboleth). Environment plays a big role. Many “gay” men and lesbian women testify to dysfunctional or abusive childhoods and broken relationships with one or both parents. Ellen DeGeneres, a very public lesbian and host of the upcoming Academy Awards, has revealed that her stepfather molested her as a teenager. She is just one of countless homosexuals who testify to abuse in their past. Yet the media robotically parrot the “born gay” line as if it were just days away from becoming a scientific fact.

The semantic struggle that conservatives and Christians face is that there is no neat, positive equivalent to “pro-life” in the debate over homosexuality. Pro-normal? Pro-hetero? Nothing seems to work, hence we are left with the rather vague pro-family to avoid the negative-sounding, condemnatory anti-gay.

The evil genius of ‘gay’
Words have tremendous power. The evil genius of America’s homosexual activist movement is that it took a taboo behavior that was universally regarded as an unspeakable sin until a few short decades ago –– and redefined it as “gay.” In doing so, it created America’s “queerest” minority, at least until the homosexuals’ cross-dressing, “transgendered” allies came onto the scene using copycat tactics.

“Gay” activists succeeded in personalizing a destructive impulse to make it sound like a harmless identity, or trait.

Read the rest of this article »

There are hundreds of homosexual bathhouses across the United States. Men who frequent bathhouses contract deadly diseases which tragically cut short their own lives, the lives of their male sex partners, and the lives of girlfriends and wives. We hope this victory in San Diego will inspire many more citizens to complain and prompt prosecutors to enforce our laws.

TAKE ACTION — Write a note of thanks to James Hartline and to Deputy City Attorney Brian Ziegler (address below) to thank them for their courage in ending this public health threat.

Office of the City Attorney
1200 Third Ave., Suite 1200
San Diego, CA 92101

Reported by James Hartline on Jan 4, 2007:

The James Hartline Report is pleased to announce that a four year war to shut down a San Diego gay bathhouse has been won by San Diego Christians.

According to the Gay & Lesbian Times the bathhouse has agreed to cease operations on April 30, 2007.

2200 Club in San Diego, formerly the Mustang Spa

Christian activist James Hartline and many other Christians have prayed, fasted and fought in the name of their God for over four years to shut down this demonic enterprise.

In January on an international broadcast of the 700 Club, James Hartline took reporters on a tour right up to the front doors of this evil place, in the hopes that more citizens would be involved in shutting its front doors. You can watch that episode by clicking HERE.

James Hartline refused to give up and God has reward him and his fellow Christian warriors.

——————————

Excerpted from Local Bathhouse Agrees to Close in April, by Anthony Baldman, published Jan 4, 2007, by Gay & Lesbian Times:

The 2200 Club has negotiated with the city of San Diego and agreed to voluntarily cease operation on April 30, according to the bathhouse’s general manager, Charlie Sharples.

The sauna and steam club for men has been operating at its location at 2200 University Ave. in North Park for more than two years. Bob Smith and John Tennis Smith purchased the business in 2004.

Sharples, 2200 Club’s general manager for the last year and a half, said the decision to close in April was “strictly a business decision” and that the city has been targeting their business for quite some time.

“They were going to continue to harass us in different ways,” he said. “They were going to send undercover agents in and so forth and then bring criminal charges if they found anyone having sex.”

According to Sharples, about a third of all 2200 Club patrons “lead heterosexual lives.”

“They’re married and have wives and children,” he said. “Those people get scared when they read in the paper something involving the police.”

Read the rest of this article »

Contact:
Peter LaBarbera (630) 717-7631
Linda Harvey (614) 442-7998

CHICAGO, Ill. —Today, World AIDS Day, a coalition of pro-family and Christian leaders is asking “Purpose-Driven Life” author Rick Warren to address head-on the issue of homosexuality and “gay” promiscuity as prime contributors to the spread of HIV in the United States, as Warren leads a “Global AIDS Summit” at his Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.

The “AIDS Truth Coalition” is asking Warren and other leaders in the AIDS-fighting community — including the new U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, Mark Dybul (who identifies as “gay”) — to call for the closure of all commercial homosexual bathhouses and sex clubs to help slow down the disease’s spread in the United States.

“While Christians and churches mobilize to fight the HIV pandemic on far away continents, let us not neglect the major catalyst for AIDS here in the United States of America: homosexual promiscuity, tolerated and encouraged by pro-‘gay,’ ‘safer-sex’ advocates,” said Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans For Truth and member of the AIDS Truth Coalition. “It’s time to acknowledge the pink elephant in the room: fighting AIDS without talking against homosexuality is like fighting lung cancer without talking against smoking.”

Noting that the response of “politically correct AIDS organizations” is to distribute condoms, even at homosexual bathhouses, LaBarbera said, “Passing out condoms at sex clubs designed specifically to facilitate men having reckless, anonymous sex with other men is preposterous. Wouldn’t it make more sense to mobilize all government agencies — federal, state and local — to close down these disease-spreading centers to save men’s lives?”

Even homosexual leaders are “reclaiming” the link between homosexuality and HIV/AIDS. Lorri Jean, CEO of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, which recently launched an ad campaign built around the message, “HIV is a Gay Disease. Own it. End it,” said:

“In Los Angeles County, gay and bisexual men make up less than 7% of the population but account for more than 75% of the people living with HIV/AIDS … The men in our community continue to get infected at an alarming rate, continue to get sick, and continue to die. Most alarmingly, a new generation of young gay men has grown up accepting the epidemic as a community norm. That must change.”

Linda Harvey, president of Mission America, said: “We call on Rick Warren to get real about HIV and AIDS in this country. Males having sex with other males is the single largest cause of HIV in the U.S. Will Warren get to the heart of what’s really at stake here? Will he say, flat out, that people who are practicing homosexuality need to get out of that lifestyle? Will he tell his millions of followers that being an open and unrepentant homosexual is incompatible with the Gospel?”

Harvey said even more critical is the need to strongly direct youth away from homosexuality, and encouraged him to work for the closure of homosexual school clubs that lead students to embrace unhealthy “gay” and “transgender” identities.

“The Saddleback Church web site says they believe that ‘the Bible is God’s perfect guidebook for living;’” said Harvey. “Scripture calls homosexuality an ‘abomination,’ and the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 1 describes how homosexual sex is an affront to God’s beautiful creation. The outcome of unnatural sex is the death of thousands of people in this country. We ask Pastor Warren to step out courageously and call for an end to the misguided endorsement of homosexuality and ‘gay marriage’ (and its twin, ‘civil unions’) by those in positions of influence.

San Diego Christian activist and former homosexual James Hartline issued the following statement:

While Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church is doing a noble service for the people of Africa by holding a global summit on AIDS, I must ponder in my mind where pastors like Rick Warren were those many years when I was struggling to get out of homosexuality. For thirty years, I struggled with homosexuality and it was not until I was finally infected with AIDS at a homosexual bathhouse in San Diego, California that the physical consequences of that sin finally began to lead me away from that destructive lifestyle.

Like me, hundreds of thousands of young men have been infected in the death chambers of the gay bathhouses in California and across America. Sadly, most of them are now dead from the HIV that they caught in these establishments. … It is noble that Rick Warren cares so much for the Africans living 10,000 miles away from his church who are infected with AIDS. It is tragic, though, that he and others like him have not spoken out forcefully against the holocaust of homosexuality and the dozens of bathhouses in California where so many men are getting sick and dying. Not to mention the millions of families that are forced to pay for the financial costs of caring for all of those sick and dying from homosexuality and the gay bathhouses where they were infected with AIDS.

Stephen Bennett, a man who once engaged in the homosexual lifestyle for over 11 years and is now happily married to his wife of 13 years and father of the couple’s two children, said:

“The spread of HIV and AIDS worldwide CAN come to an end ONLY when the promotion, acceptance and tolerance of homosexuality worldwide comes to an end. Pastor Rick Warren knows that truth—yet does he have the courage to proclaim that? Warren chose the noble battle to end HIV and AIDS. Well, homosexuality is a big part of that package. Rick Warren should make it his ‘purpose’ in his ‘driven life’ to drive home the truth about the destructive and deadly alliance between homosexuality, HIV and AIDS. To do anything less is hopeless, ‘purposeless’ and simply a waste of time.”

All members of the AIDS Truth Coalition said the Bush administration sent the wrong signal about fighting AIDS when Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice officially “blessed” the homosexual relationship of Mark Dybul, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, at his swearing-in ceremony Oct. 10. With the First Lady present, Ms. Rice publicly recognized Dybul’s male partner, Jason Claire, and referred to Claire’s mother as Dybul’s “mother-in-law,” thus radically redefining the family and helping to mainstream homosexual behavior.

The following pro-family leaders and organizations are part of the HIV Truth Coalition:

Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth

Linda Harvey, Mission America

James Hartline, James Hartline Report

Phil Burress, Citizens for Community Values

Brian Camenker, Mass Resistance

Sandy Rios, Culture Campaign

Michael Heath, Christian Civic League of Maine

David Smith, Illinois Family Institute

Stephen J. Bennett, Stephen Bennett Ministries Worldwide

Dr. Vic Eliason, VCY America Radio Network

Randy Thomasson, Campaign for Children & Families

Diane Gramley, American Family Association of Pennsylvania

Joe Glover, Family Policy Network

Cathie Adams, Texas Eagle Forum

Anthony Verdugo, Christian Family Coalition

Christopher Long, Ohio Christian Alliance

There are six homosexual bathhouses in Ohio, at least according to one online directory:

• Club Wolf (owned by Ray Wolf), operates in Cleveland and Columbus
• Flex (owned by Charles Fleck)
• Akron Steam & Sauna
• Diplomat Baths in Toledo

The following is excerpted from Cleveland Health Officials Scrutinize Opening of New Bathhouse, published Jul 16, 2006, by Associated Press:

City health officials want the owner of a new, upscale gay bathhouse [Flex] to provide condoms, offer customers regular HIV testing and appoint employees to answer questions about preventing sexually transmitted diseases…

“I think it’s going to be a big mess in the not-too-distant future,” said William Tiedemann, AIDS director for the Cleveland Department of Public Health.

Last year, an 11-year-high 118 new HIV diagnoses were reported among Cleveland residents, according statistics gathered by the city health department. As of Dec. 31, 2,458 Cleveland residents had been reported as living with HIV or AIDS, a rate of about 514 per 100,000 residents, and about four times the state rate.

Two of every three Ohio cases of HIV/AIDS occur in men, and homosexual sex is believed to be the source of many infections.

Charles Fleck, founder and owner of the Flex club, said he’s concerned about health and safety at the club. He said he wants to work with the health department to ensure that customers are protected.

“Look, I’m a gay man,” he said. “I went through the entire AIDS saga, and I am still going through it.”

…City Councilman Joe Cimperman, who learned about the project 18 months ago when an architect contacted the city zoning board, said he has few concerns. Cimperman said he asked about public health measures and was told that condoms and prevention messages would circulate throughout the club.Public health officials and AIDS activists in Cleveland said they aren’t opposed to bathhouses. Research has shown they are a valuable and convenient venue for promoting safer sex practices, and AIDS organizations acknowledge that the clubs are safer for gay men than cruising other areas, such as parks.

Flex will compete with a smaller gay bathhouse, Club Cleveland, located in the same area. Club Cleveland has always provided HIV testing and free condoms, said owner Ray Wolf.

When Flex opens, it will become the fifth bathhouse in Ohio. The Flex and Club chains both have branches in Columbus. A bathhouse in Toledo is independently operated.

Flex’s other location are in New Orleans and Phoenix.

Continue reading at Free Republic…

The following is excerpted from Bath Time: An Old Bus Depot Gives Way to Homo Heaven, by Joe P. Tone, published May 3, 2006, in Cleveland Scene (owned by The New York Times):

Charles Fleck’s money-colored eyes dart around the dusty old bus depot, searching for something new to show off. Here’s where he’ll put the Russian sauna. There, a eucalyptus-vapor room. Over there, the 18-man Jacuzzi…

He’s just giddy about his creation. Building the country’s coolest bathhouse apparently has that effect.

Fleck is a millionaire real-estate investor from South Florida… But upscale bathhouses are his passion. The West Side native built his first bathhouse near Detroit Avenue on West 32nd Street in the 1960s. He now owns the Flex bath chain, with clubs in Atlanta, Phoenix, New Orleans, Columbus, and Los Angeles.

But he saved his most ambitious project for his hometown.

The former Greyhound depot near East 26th and St. Clair will be 48,000 square feet of unfettered opulence — a blue-tiled funhouse of private cabanas, steamy saunas, food, entertainment, and men. Lots and lots of men…

Some view bathhouses as little more than legalized brothels. Many were shut down in the ’80s, with the explosion of AIDS. And they remain the targets of conservatives, health officials, and others who blame them for spreading sexually transmitted diseases.

In Atlanta, after he was denied his spa and liquor licenses, Fleck battled the city all the way to the Georgia Supreme Court. New Orleans also tried to deny his spa license, unsuccessfully arguing that he was running a sex club. He’s still in court in Phoenix, where he was accused of running an illegal entertainment venue…

And there’s another advantage to Cleveland: He doesn’t expect much opposition. When he opened his Columbus Flex near a library, he endured protests from conservatives, who gasped at what would go on in the private “cabanas.”…

Customers will come in through the original depot entrance and immediately be greeted by (no doubt strapping) receptionists. From there, they’ll head into a spacious locker room — Greyhound’s original driver/mechanic locker room, Fleck says.

Beyond that will lie every imaginable way to relax. Fleck turned the depot’s mechanic pits — formerly used to service buses — into an 18-man jacuzzi and a sizable indoor pool. Near that, shrouded by tropical plants, will be the shower area, its automatic shower heads spouting perfect-temperature water.

The club also will boast a cedar-lined Russian sauna, a eucalyptus vapor room, and a cavernous steam room. A full-service kitchen will provide food. And Fleck envisions a sprawling lounge and stage, which he hopes to use for live music or even Sunday church.

Twenty small “resting rooms” will be available for rent…

Your local Y, this ain’t…

Fleck expects 40 percent of his business to come from outside the metro area. And with the amenities he offers, he hopes to draw from beyond the standard horny gay-guy clientele.

“With the mix we get,” he says, “I hardly know who’s doing what to who.”

Continue reading in Cleveland Scene…

Once again we renew our call for the closure of all sex clubs and bathhouses, which as, this article shows, are helping to victimize straight spouses who are unaware of their partner’s secret perversions.– Peter LaBarbera

The following is excerpted from Double Lives on the Down Low, by Benoit Denizet-Lewis, published Aug 3, 2003, by The New York Times Magazine:

…In its upper stories, the Flex bathhouse in Cleveland feels like a squash club for backslapping businessmen. There’s a large gym with free weights and exercise machines on the third floor. In the common area, on the main floor, men in towels lounge on couches and watch CNN on big-screen TV’s.In the basement, the mood is different: the TV’s are tuned to porn, and the dimly lighted hallways buzz with sexual energy. A naked black man reclines on a sling in a room called ”the dungeon play area.” Along a hallway lined with lockers, black men eye each other as they walk by in towels. In small rooms nearby, some men are having sex. Others are napping.

There are two bathhouses in Cleveland. On the city’s predominantly white West Side, Club Cleveland — which opened in 1965 and recently settled into a modern 15,000-square-foot space — attracts many white and openly gay men. Flex is on the East Side, and it serves a mostly black and Hispanic clientele, many of whom don’t consider themselves gay…

Today, while there are black men who are openly gay, it seems that the majority of those having sex with men still lead secret lives, products of a black culture that deems masculinity and fatherhood as a black man’s primary responsibility — and homosexuality as a white man’s perversion. And while Flex now offers baskets of condoms and lubricant, Wallace says that many of the club’s patrons still don’t use them.

Wallace ticks off the grim statistics: blacks make up only 12 percent of the population in America, but they account for half of all new reported H.I.V. infections. While intravenous drug use is a large part of the problem, experts say that the leading cause of H.I.V. in black men is homosexual sex (some of which takes place in prison, where blacks disproportionately outnumber whites). According to the Centers for Disease Control, one-third of young urban black men who have sex with men in this country are H.I.V.-positive, and 90 percent of those are unaware of their infection…

Many of the men at Flex tonight — and many of the black men I met these past months in Cleveland, Atlanta, Florida, New York and Boston — are on the Down Low, or on the DL, as they more often call it. Most date or marry women and engage sexually with men they meet only in anonymous settings like bathhouses and parks or through the Internet. Many of these men are young and from the inner city, where they live in a hypermasculine ”thug” culture. Other DL men form romantic relationships with men and may even be peripheral participants in mainstream gay culture, all unknown to their colleagues and families. Most DL men identify themselves not as gay or bisexual but first and foremost as black. To them, as to many blacks, that equates to being inherently masculine.

DL culture has grown, in recent years, out of the shadows and developed its own contemporary institutions, for those who know where to look: Web sites, Internet chat rooms, private parties and special nights at clubs. Over the same period, Down Low culture has come to the attention of alarmed public health officials, some of whom regard men on the DL as an infectious bridge spreading H.I.V. to unsuspecting wives and girlfriends. In 2001, almost two-thirds of women in the United States who found out they had AIDS were black.

With no wives or girlfriends around, Flex is a safe place for men on the DL to let down their guards. There aren’t many white men here either (I’m one of them), and that’s often the norm for DL parties and clubs.

Continue reading at The Balm in Gilead…